Dear Mr. Email,
Our relationship has been going on for almost 15 years now and I feel like you have done an amazing job of slowly becoming an integral part of my life for both my business and personal affairs. We spend so much time together that some would consider it cheating. What I’ve come to realize is that we are too close and I need a break. This closeness has come at the expense of other things (productivity to name one, my attention to name two). You and I need some rules to help continue our relationship. So here’s how this relationship is going to go moving forward. These are the rules:
1) We will ‘talk’ twice daily. – I’ve spent many years thinking I need to talk every fifteen minutes to you but we both know that’s just not true. I’m limiting our chats to twice daily, I’ll review any and all emails that come in during those times and handle them accordingly.
2) No notifications – I’m switching all my email notifications (desktop & mobile) to ‘manual mode’ and will only check them if it aligns with rule one.
3) Deal or no deal - When I do review my emails I will handle it in two ways. If I can answer in two minutes, I’ll handle it now. If not, highlight it for later, delegate it, or follow-up by other means (phone, IM, video).
There is no negotiation here, Mr. Email. I know you don’t like this but I think this will be best for both us. Let’s start with thirty days and see how it goes from there.
Regards,
Brad
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Tim McAlpine
December 4th, 2008
Boy, I sure like the sound of that. I am such a slave to Mr. E-mail. I have tried In-box Zero and other ways to slow the fire hose, but I still feel overwhelmed. I will be looking forward to your 30-day update.
Credit Union Warrior
December 4th, 2008
E-mail, It’s not you…it’s me.
James Robert Lay
December 4th, 2008
Looks like you may have been reading the “4 Hour Work Week”. I must sadly admin that I to have been a slave to Mr. Email.
Check out what Seth Godin wrote today… it’s like the two of you planned this out: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/the-high-cost-o.html
“More than ever, there’s a clear relationship between how new something is and how much it costs to discover that news.
You can check your email twice a day pretty easily. Once every fifteen minutes has a disruption cost. Pinging it with your pocketphone every sixty seconds is an extremely expensive lifestyle/productivity choice.”
Tim M
December 4th, 2008
I am jealous. I get alerts (system down, system unavailable, …) from email that I have to follow up on. I am chained to email and it is mean to me…
Brad
December 4th, 2008
UPDATE: Just had my 1st email check of the day. Had about 40 emails for both accounts, 25% of it was trash, was able to go through and answer all of them and I’m caught up. Wow, that’s refreshing.
Side note: I’m been thinking/desiring to check my email all day long.
@JRL – Never read it, but I did get my inspiration from awayfind.com.
@Tim – Join me and break your uncomfortable relationship with emails!
Robbie Wright
December 8th, 2008
Ever read the 4 hour work week?
Brad
December 14th, 2008
@Robbie – I haven’t read it but I keep up with Tim Ferriss’ stuff. I know he’s big into delegating. Thanks for the comment brother! BTW, you need to pick up Gear of War 2.
Poppy Keant
June 23rd, 2009
Really great concept. Where did you get this content? Do you write everything yourself?