I have just finished reading a the latest Coding Horror Blog Is Email = Efail?, and it reminded me of the lesson I have learnt about Email over the last year.
Email is nothing short of a brilliant communication tool. It has the potential to address the classic issue described in the seminal book Peopleware about phones interrupting not only you, but also all those around you. Email sits politely just waiting for when you are ready to deal with it.
It is also great for those who find face to face communication somewhat harder.
However, like all good things there is always the other side that comes back and bites you. This is the part that I am talking about. It is quite insidious because it is guised in such good intention.
Its just too easy.
Like most of you I am sure, you have found your strategy for dealing with large volumes of mail, this is mine here on Stackoverflow. However, and this is the rub, the better you get at this, the more mail you receive.
How so ?
Well, because email allows you to hold multiple conversations at effectively one time, we do! You run through your inbox in your preferred strategy and respond to, and effectively, either start a new conversation or continue one. Again, because you can.
The fallacy lies in the fact, that we are not really able to hold down that many conversations, at least not in any meaningful way. Especially in a work environment, when a conversation is really just the tip of piece of real work to follow.
Email give us the ability to start more things that we can really give our attention to.
What to do ?
The lesson that I have learnt is that you need to just use your email less. If you need to hold a conversation with someone, then just do it. Walk there in person, or pick up the phone or IM, and get it done! Don’t do anything else, until that conversation is finished. The illusion of multitasking will be alluring, but in truth, the one task you are now addressing will be completed sooner, and you are now in a position to be far more productive in the few things you chose to focus on.
The others will have to wait, they were going to anyway! The only thing they lose is the progress bar of email they would have gotten as you would have trickled the answers to them.
Just because Email tries to make you believe you are Superman, you are not, well at least I am not!
1 comments:
I agree - it's really hard to *effectively* manage multiple conversations, especially if they require actual thought. Mindless responses are easier to juggle, but you shouldn't be spending much time on those and many of them just go away if you get up and TALK as you say. I think I tended towards Superman when I was younger (could concentrate fully on one thing for many, many hours :-)
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