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This can be done without eliminating email altogether. Disable notifications in your email program, and have it poll only manually. This lets you respond to e

by jewel 12y ago

This can be done without eliminating email altogether. Disable notifications in your email program, and have it poll only manually. This lets you respond to email at your own pace. For me, working through my email once in the morning and once after lunch seems to be a good pace. My coworkers quickly adapted, and will use an instant message or phone call if something really needs immediate attention. This might not be as easy for non-programmers, but for me it helps me get more done since I can focus easier, which is ultimately what will keep my boss happy. In more tricky environments, you may be able to configure filters so that important emails do send notifications. Hopefully in the future we can all have a digital assistant that watches our email for us and detects the level of urgency automatically.

AndrewKemendo 12y ago
This is what Tim Ferris famously advocated in the four hour workweek back in 2007 [1] [1]http://fourhourworkweek.com/2007/03/22/how-to-check-e-mail-twice-a-day-or-once-every-10-days/ http://fourhourworkweek.com/2007/03/22/how-to-check-e-mail-t...
- thirdtruck 12y ago
  I took my inspiration to take similar measures from that same source, and I can say it makes a huge difference in my concentration and productivity.
msutherl 12y ago
Yes, but you still then live with the idea that there could be an email you should read at any moment. I admire the self-discipline of those who can resist the urge to check, but I have never been able to. For me, simply using Trello and Slack has obliterated all need for email with collaborators.
- duck 12y ago
  So do you only check Slack a couple times a day then? If not, what is the difference with email?
  - pearknob 12y ago
    Excellent point. One thing that I'm noticing is that other tools are becoming just as busy as Email for me. At times I feel like there isn't a difference. The volume of email is what bothers me. But now if that volume is being transferred to Slack (sorry to point them out) I'm still stuck with the same problem. It's the people behind the tools which cause the problem IMHO :)
- tdicola 12y ago
  If something is truly important people will find a way to contact you through the phone, IM, etc. Constantly checking and responding to email is a vicious cycle that will lead people to expect you can be interrupted any time.
daigoba66 12y ago
I did this recently. I also turned off all notifications on my phone that make sound/vibrate, except phone calls and SMS (and I rarely get a call or text). Now I don't get interrupted as often and life is much less stressful
- thejdude 12y ago
  And you never know about critical issues coming in. I like to be notified, but if I'm reeeeally busy I don't go look at the emails. When I do, it's mostly notifications of something (delete immediately), simple requests (answer in 30 secs - 2 minutes) or stuff to get back to later (flag and/or put on my TODO list to schedule for later). It doesn't really interrupt my work, as my actual work is still what and when I schedule it. Since most tasks have cleary communicated priorities anyway, this works nicely.
  - daigoba66 12y ago
    Everyone's situation is different, but I decided that no email is critical enough to interrupt me.
calinet6 12y ago
It's still a crutch that's supremely ineffective as a structure for doing what needs to be done. People keep telling me, "communication problems are impossible to solve, you can just never get people to communicate perfectly. You need to accept that communication problems will always exist." I don't buy it. When a system is ineffective at solving a structural problem, it's because the system is not fit for the problem at hand. A giant bucket where all of our notifications, important communications, unimportant communications, and entirely irrelevant communications are dumped is simply an ineffective structure over which to build an effective process. I wholeheartedly agree with skipping the e-mail. Use a better system, get a better process, and don't allow people to fall back on the ancient and wildly unproductive crutch.
- ObviousScience 12y ago
  Could you name a feature you think that email is lacking that you believe another system provides? Ed: Perhaps I was being glib, but my point is that the person made a nonsense comment. I doubt anyone downvoting me can name something that email doesn't have a relatively straightforward way to implement (with perhaps the exception of IM, and only because of delay times). It's simply silly to think that /any/ system is going to let you deal with a large volume of messages a day without having to filter and configure preferences, but I've legitimately not found a replacement for email in terms of relying moderate sized chunks of information to individuals or groups.
  - inovica 12y ago
    The biggest thing for me is when I send an email to someone with a 'task' I find it's out of my head and passed over. The problem is follow-up. I sometimes remember the task that I'd set and find that its not been done as the other party has forgotten it. Its this that's the biggest thing for me
  - calinet6 12y ago
    Focus.
- ams6110 12y ago
jasonpeacock 12y ago
Wait, so you're trading asynchronous, non-interrupt driven communication (email) for synchronous, interruptive communication (IM, phone)??? I do the exact opposite - I got rid of my phone, and rarely log into IM, and have trained all my coworkers to email me so that I can respond when I'm ready, without breaking my focus. How has email gained higher interrupt priority than phone/IM?!
- ScottBurson 12y ago
  I suspect the point is that the IMs and phone calls are much less numerous than the emails. Your point about interrupt priority is a good one, though. I think simply turning off email notifications may be more than half the solution. ... There, I just did it, and I feel better already :-)
ScottBurson 12y ago
I would go so far as to suggest a company policy (or at least, a publicly announced engineering-department policy) that email may be ignored for as much as a week, and that anything that can't wait that long should use IM or phone. I'm not thinking that most people would ignore email for that long most of the time; in practice I think most would check it once or twice a day. But sometimes people need several days uninterrupted, and they should be able to have it.

by jewel 12y ago

AndrewKemendo 12y ago

This is what Tim Ferris famously advocated in the four hour workweek back in 2007 [1] [1]http://fourhourworkweek.com/2007/03/22/how-to-check-e-mail-twice-a-day-or-once-every-10-days/ http://fourhourworkweek.com/2007/03/22/how-to-check-e-mail-t...

thirdtruck 12y ago
I took my inspiration to take similar measures from that same source, and I can say it makes a huge difference in my concentration and productivity.

msutherl 12y ago

Yes, but you still then live with the idea that there could be an email you should read at any moment. I admire the self-discipline of those who can resist the urge to check, but I have never been able to. For me, simply using Trello and Slack has obliterated all need for email with collaborators.

duck 12y ago
So do you only check Slack a couple times a day then? If not, what is the difference with email?
- pearknob 12y ago
  Excellent point. One thing that I'm noticing is that other tools are becoming just as busy as Email for me. At times I feel like there isn't a difference. The volume of email is what bothers me. But now if that volume is being transferred to Slack (sorry to point them out) I'm still stuck with the same problem. It's the people behind the tools which cause the problem IMHO :)
tdicola 12y ago
If something is truly important people will find a way to contact you through the phone, IM, etc. Constantly checking and responding to email is a vicious cycle that will lead people to expect you can be interrupted any time.

daigoba66 12y ago

I did this recently. I also turned off all notifications on my phone that make sound/vibrate, except phone calls and SMS (and I rarely get a call or text). Now I don't get interrupted as often and life is much less stressful

thejdude 12y ago
And you never know about critical issues coming in. I like to be notified, but if I'm reeeeally busy I don't go look at the emails. When I do, it's mostly notifications of something (delete immediately), simple requests (answer in 30 secs - 2 minutes) or stuff to get back to later (flag and/or put on my TODO list to schedule for later). It doesn't really interrupt my work, as my actual work is still what and when I schedule it. Since most tasks have cleary communicated priorities anyway, this works nicely.
- daigoba66 12y ago
  Everyone's situation is different, but I decided that no email is critical enough to interrupt me.

calinet6 12y ago

It's still a crutch that's supremely ineffective as a structure for doing what needs to be done. People keep telling me, "communication problems are impossible to solve, you can just never get people to communicate perfectly. You need to accept that communication problems will always exist." I don't buy it. When a system is ineffective at solving a structural problem, it's because the system is not fit for the problem at hand. A giant bucket where all of our notifications, important communications, unimportant communications, and entirely irrelevant communications are dumped is simply an ineffective structure over which to build an effective process. I wholeheartedly agree with skipping the e-mail. Use a better system, get a better process, and don't allow people to fall back on the ancient and wildly unproductive crutch.

ObviousScience 12y ago
Could you name a feature you think that email is lacking that you believe another system provides? Ed: Perhaps I was being glib, but my point is that the person made a nonsense comment. I doubt anyone downvoting me can name something that email doesn't have a relatively straightforward way to implement (with perhaps the exception of IM, and only because of delay times). It's simply silly to think that /any/ system is going to let you deal with a large volume of messages a day without having to filter and configure preferences, but I've legitimately not found a replacement for email in terms of relying moderate sized chunks of information to individuals or groups.
- inovica 12y ago
  The biggest thing for me is when I send an email to someone with a 'task' I find it's out of my head and passed over. The problem is follow-up. I sometimes remember the task that I'd set and find that its not been done as the other party has forgotten it. Its this that's the biggest thing for me
- calinet6 12y ago
  Focus.
ams6110 12y ago

jasonpeacock 12y ago

Wait, so you're trading asynchronous, non-interrupt driven communication (email) for synchronous, interruptive communication (IM, phone)??? I do the exact opposite - I got rid of my phone, and rarely log into IM, and have trained all my coworkers to email me so that I can respond when I'm ready, without breaking my focus. How has email gained higher interrupt priority than phone/IM?!

ScottBurson 12y ago
I suspect the point is that the IMs and phone calls are much less numerous than the emails. Your point about interrupt priority is a good one, though. I think simply turning off email notifications may be more than half the solution. ... There, I just did it, and I feel better already :-)

ScottBurson 12y ago

I would go so far as to suggest a company policy (or at least, a publicly announced engineering-department policy) that email may be ignored for as much as a week, and that anything that can't wait that long should use IM or phone. I'm not thinking that most people would ignore email for that long most of the time; in practice I think most would check it once or twice a day. But sometimes people need several days uninterrupted, and they should be able to have it.