When I was researching this blog post, I came across a memorable description of the email inbox: it is “the to-do list that anyone in the world can add an item to”.
Ping! Here comes another one. And another.
And every message takes time to read, understand and reply to. Where will people find the time to get through it all? The answer, some are concluding, is that they can’t. So they need to take radical steps to halt the growth of email, and ideally cut it right back.
Atos Origin has issued a press release to say that it aspires to be email-free within three years. The company’s CEO and Chairman Thierry Breton said: “We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives. At Atos Origin we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution.”
Strong words. But the solution, Breton believes, is to move to collaboration tools and social community platforms. That’s still people looking at a screen, and some will say it doesn’t go far enough.
Intel, for example, is trialling email-free Fridays for its engineers. It’s not a hard and fast rule: Intel recognises that some things are still better done by email, and you can’t freeze out all your customers and suppliers one day a week. But the company is encouraging its people to talk to each other more, and use email less for internal communications. In creative environments such as engineering, the constant interruption of email can be particularly damaging because it doesn’t give people the space to think in-depth and really achieve flow in the work they do.
To help people to tackle the email problem, Chris Anderson, the curator of the TED Conferences, has published an Email Charter. The idea is that we all call a truce and agree to sign up to the same rules on using email. There are ten guidelines in the charter, including culling open-ended questions, encouraging brevity, and cutting the length and number of responses.
There are some good ideas in there, although the charter can seem a bit grumpy about what can sometimes be a useful way to communicate. The charter basically says don’t use email for discussing ideas in depth, which is fine as long as you can gather people around a table at the same time, but not terribly helpful if you can’t. I’m not sure why it’s worth bothering to cut emails from the bottom of an email thread either: that’s increasing the time the sender spends writing an email, for no real benefit to the recipient, who is highly unlikely to read the whole thread anyway. The charter also doesn’t respect the difference between what people say and what they mean. When someone replies simply ‘Thank you’ or ‘Great!’ on an email, it’s often as a way to confirm receipt of the email, which can be both useful and important.
My favourite tip from the charter is to put short messages in the subject line with EOM (end of message) at the end, so people don’t need to bother opening the message. I also like the idea of writing NNTR (no need to reply) at the end of a message, although it might take a while for those initials to catch on.
The problem with the charter is that the rules mostly apply to people sending email. If they don’t follow the rules, you can’t benefit. You can make huge strides, though, by turning off the pop-up alerts when email arrives, changing the frequency with which you download and check email, and setting up automatic filters to siphon less urgent emails into a ‘read later’ folder.
What techniques have you used to get email under control?
Some good thoughts Sean. I am still looking for a good tactic as clearing the inbox is becoming more challenging. Most days I delete around 200 emails!
Immagine how much storage capacity is required for this on corporate servers worldwide!
Hi Sean,
I’ve never had this problem and I think that’s because I don’t work in IT or in a company where discussions take place and decisions are made primarily via the medium of email.
I don’t join email discussion lists – I read them on the web. My spam filter deals with spam. I still get a lot of email, but it’s a joy not a bind. After 22 years of emailing, I *still* get a buzz when I see I’ve got new mail (and yes, I am addicted to my BlackBerry).
One of the reasons why I have high tolerance might be because my degree was in information studies. I love communication. I must, I’ve been running an online community for the past 16 years and have 6 Twitter acccounts to my name. Names.
And I can touchtype, a skill I value extremely highly. It doesn’t make me mistake-free, but it makes me quick.
I think the charter would work well for organisations where email is almost the only way people within the organisation communicate. But for those of us who love the stuff and can handle it (man), and particularly those of us who work for ourselves, there’s no pain at all.
Is there? Am I alone in feeling this way?
I switched off the pop-up ‘new message alert’ some weeks ago and have noticed improved productivity ever since. Even better if you can reduce the send/receive frequency or set it for just a few times a day.
I also make a rule that if I am asking someone to do a favour for me and I am asking them at short notice, I call them. That way you can explain why you are having to call on them for this favour, and apologise if necessary, and also get an answer immediately without the person you are asking having to waste any more time reading and answering your email. I myself am much more likely to agree to help out if I am asked in this way.
Thank you for your comments, Peggy, Julie and Helena.
Peggy – It is amazing to think that we’re the first generation that communicates so much (and perhaps mostly) in the written word.
Julie – It’s good to hear there’s someone who still loves email! I remember how fantastic email was when I first got it and I often get emails now that delight me. However, I don’t have time to promptly respond to all the personal email I receive, which creates a situation where I’m not able to communicate with everyone as fluently as I’d like to. Spam is still a problem at home too. My spam filter sometimes blocks real emails, and lets spam emails through. I’m pleased to say that email works much better for me at work: no spam, and it’s all actionable stuff that I can process and then file or delete.
Helena – I definitely agree that switching off the new message alert is a good idea. Before I did that, I was being distracted every few minutes. Now I can focus on writing, and then switch my focus to email at the appropriate time. I keep the little envelope in the corner so I still know when there’s something waiting for my attention. Good tip on phoning too: often people use email for things that they should ask in person. I sometimes wonder if they do that because they dare not phone and face the risk of rejection!