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Kicking the email habit

Written by: John Niland

Article Overview: Even the high-tech giants such as Google and Intel are recognising that constant bombardment with electronic communications can lead to stress, and are seeking ways to protect workers, starting with their own staff. In this article, John Niland describes an experiment carried out at Success 121 during May 2008, which had a dramatic effect on the productivity of the team. He describes the “email diet” as a pragmatic way to sustain attentiveness and prevent overload, and also deals with some of the practical issues this creates.

Kicking the email habit

Kicking the email habit


When Pam and I were reviewing things at the end of April 2008, we both admitted we were swamped (yet again) by emails. To make matters worse, it appeared that many of these emails were being generated internally rather than externally.



We looked at various solutions, and discarded several as unworkable. For example, having fewer emails with multiple messages in each, more addresses, using other ways of communicating etc. When all is taken into account, email is a vital means of communication - particularly so in a virtual team.



The problem was twofold:

email represented a never-ending avalanche of things to do
the messages disrupted our existing plans for the day
Throughout a period of one month, we experimented with a new approach: i.e. not looking at the inbox until noon.



The difficulties


You would not believe how difficult we found this at first. We had all become so accustomed to starting the day with email, or at least dipping into the inbox out of curiosity. Giving up sugar is probably easier (but let's not go there!).



If you are thinking of doing the same, here are some of the practical issues you are likely to have to deal with, and some relevant questions to ask.

"I'm afraid that a vital and urgent email will be missed". What is this fear costing you? How many emails never get delivered anyway? If it's a real emergency, they will probably call. If you had been on a morning training-course, you would not have been at your desk. How real is this?

"Access to email is vital for completion of a task in hand". OK, go into the inbox, shield everything but the name of the person you are looking for, move the relevant email out to another folder ... and get out of the inbox asap!

"Seeing the inbox filling up makes it very hard not to deal with it". True. So don't look at it. Set Outlook default to "Outlook Today" or similar.

"Quick turnaround is vital to our customers". So is quality. Which is more important? Furthermore, our experience is that the more we discipline our attention, the quicker we get things done anyway.

"I want to be connected all of the time". Why? Is this a psychological need, and if so how is this serving your clients? What are you not doing when dipping into the inbox for a look?

"I might lose a customer". To be honest, the biggest risk we all run is losing the A-customers we already have by not giving them enough attention. Much of this attention is sabotaged by the C's and D's ... who are often the source of the last-minute emails, marked Urgent!
The benefits


In the end, we somehow persisted, even though we certainly under-estimated some of the issues involved. For example, there are occasions when we needed to go into the inbox, and just exercise some real discipline when in there.



What difference did it make? A month later, the results had been positively stunning:

a massive (and immediate) reduction in stress and overwhelm. If we had produced a drug to achieve the same effect, we would all be rich!
a sense of control over our days; by getting something substantial done every morning, we feel we are again in charge of our workload
far from getting less done, we became more productive. Some of this was related to a sense of vitality and energy coming from the previous effects above
our development projects have really benefited: things that have been "good ideas" for months are actually getting done
we have become so-convinced of the benefits of this - despite the few hiccups that it has caused - that we are going to start a campaign to wean the world from the morning drug of email.
The importance of all this was brought home (during the very same month) by the news that a neighbour back in Ireland had committed suicide. Being swamped by the pressure of work, she drove her car down to the sea, left a long note about overwhelm on the windscreen, and just walked into the water.



Communicating to others


A few months ago, I would have suggested getting buy-in from some key people who might be affected: clients, colleagues etc. Now I say "forget the buy-in; your sanity is more valuable". Just do it ... you can tell them later.



An important exception is perhaps to encourage your colleagues to do the same. (Feel free to forward this article, if that helps.) The reason we say this is that both Pam and I recognise we would never have kept this up if we had not made the commitment to each other. A public commitment will always override a private intention (the Fifth Law of Attention).



It's easier to get forgiveness than permission. And maybe healthier, sometimes. If you had been keeping a hospital appointment all morning, that email would have waited until noon.



© John Niland 2008. If you wish to discuss any aspects of team or personal productivity, you may email the author at john@success121.com. He will get the email in the afternoon!

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Article Tags: account email, avalanche, curiosity, desk, fear, habit, inbox, means of communication, new approach, outlook today, pam, relevant questions, turnaround, virtual team



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