Your inbox: the death spiral of reactivity
- Thu, August 07 2008
- Filed under: Fun stuff
When I got back from vacation on Monday, I had more than 1,000 emails.
After two days, I finished answering all of them. It was a hollow sense of accomplishment - sort of like eating the whole box of Thin Mints.
This have been the worst two days EVER in terms of my mood and creativity.
Then I read what Seth Godin said on this topic. Read his whole post - in fact, read his blog every day - but here are my favorite lines:
Do you spend your day responding and reacting to incoming all day… until the list is empty? ... and then you’re done.
...Years ago, I got my mail (the old fashioned kind) once a day. It took twenty minutes to process and I was forced to spend the rest of the day initiating, reaching out, inventing and designing. Today, it’s easy to spend the whole day hitting ‘reply’.
Carving out time to initiate is more important than ever.
Then I read what Beth said:
According to a new study from AOL, 59% of people check their email in the bathroom. The study of 4,000 users also showed people check their email from the following locations:
• In bed in their pajamas: 67%
• From the bathroom: 59%
• While driving: 50%
• In a bar or club: 39%
• In a business meeting: 38%
• During happy hour: 34%
• While on a date: 25%
• From church: 15% (up from 12% last year)
This is warped. What’s worse - I think I have done most of these.
No wonder I’m in a bad mood - I’m in reactive hell. Read email - send email - react - react - and, as Seth says, forget how to initiate.
What’s the solution? Beth has some suggestions. They’re good.
Here’s what I’m going to do: Get out of the email weeds and look at the rest of the world. Tomorrow, I’m hanging over my desk the top 10 things I need to get done to advance Network for Good’s mission. I’m going to spend more time checking that list than my inbox. I’ll let you know what happens.
I’d hang it up now but I need to check the 10 emails I received while writing this post.
Comments
Great post, and I like how you’ve tied these provocative entries together from Seth & Beth (hey, that could be a TV show name… The Seth & Beth Show… anyway…).
It reminds me of how when I was working for one organization we had an ongoing discussion of email as contact vs. communication - meaning, is email the best way of communicating, or is it just a way to make contact and send important documents, keep a record of decisions made, that kind of thing.
What we came to was that email is not a good communication tool for a number of reasons - you can’t read emotion from it (even with emoticons) while it’s very easy to read emotion into it (almost never a good thing), and since people don’t read their email but rather scan it, important details are often lost, misunderstood, etc.
The phone or face-to-face is still the best medium for communicating - and I think if people realized this more, we’d be able to get out from under the crush of email and communicate more effectively.
I also think every office should use some version of IM with a logging function, which would lessen the burden of email, and get rid of those annoying “MUST RESPOND NOW TO MY SMALL QUESTION!!!” emails that often slip through the cracks.
This is such a great topic and I also read those notes from Beth. We’re living in a time where technology has literally taken control of our lives, we’re slaves to email and the next shiny web app. That’s why there are so many productivity blogs and “programs” out there - to which we STILL spend more time on than actually being productive.
We have to live. Breathe. Smile. Laugh. Be a person! Definitely helped me out this afternoon, thanks Katya.
Thanks Erin and Andre. Your comments are inspiring. I will breathe, smile, and pick up the phone a lot more often!
Great post. I know how you feel. It sparks my internal debate - unplug or don’t unplug. Does dealing with the deluge of email upon return from vacation ruin the benefits of a vacation more than if you checked and sorted your email for a half hour each during your vacation?
Ugh .. did I really just write that question ..
I’m taking a vacation shortly - and thinking about a vacation responder that might help reduce the email responding upon return.
Do you unsubscribe from lists or set them to web response or let them accumulate? I shut off a lot of lists - and just say I’m not keeping up with that during vacation.
Did you have a vacation responder on? If so, what did you say in it?
Some more tips here:
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/06/information-cop.html
Beth, so today I unplugged…which meant it took me twelve hours to approve your great comment. When I don’t moderate comments, I’m slammed by spam; when I do, I feel tethered to the computer. This is the one aspect of blogging that I find unhealthy - you really do have to be tethered to the Internet to do it well. Paradoxically, I’m a better blogger in terms of content the more time I spend in the real world.
For my vacation responder, I said I wasn’t checking email (even though I did) and referred people to colleagues for any work matters. This helped hugely. I just deleted all lists when I returned from vacation - didn’t even bother reading them. Love your tips, thanks.
Yes, I know what you mean about being tethered to the computer. One year, I just gave up and live blogged my vacation.
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2007/06/typing-for-b-ro.html
And, in April, I qiked my vacation in Florida - our airboat ride down the St. John’s River staring down an alligator ..
http://qik.com/video/49162
The question is - do we just give up and integrate this in our lives— or unplug.
PS tell Erin I think it should be the “Beth and Seth” show ...
That’s the thing with the net. Work just piles up, OR you can’t escape it. Which is worse? I’m on vacation now, but have my computer, so I’m keeping on top of stuff…
Wow do I feel guilty because I sent one of those 1,000 emails waiting for you when you returned from vacation. I was deeply touched though, that you took the time to reply to my email. And your response was very much appreciated. As a nonprofit professional, what I’ve learned from this is—- sometimes it’s overwhelming and sometimes easier to NOT respond (customer, donor, colleague, etc); but overall there is a connection that might not otherwise be made. BUT face to face/phone to phone is always the best way to connect.
Thank you again for responding to my email and helping me and my organization.
Hiya Katya!
Great Post… Iam going to a conference in Atlanta today on Health Marketing and Communication and my inbox has been one of the big things “to-do” prior to getting on the plane! This is one of the reasons that i have hesitated about starting a blog or getting our organization really heavy into social media arenas. No one here in our office has the time to spend responding to all of the communications that come our way in a regular day, not to mention if we were initiating (I almost typed “instigating”) conversations. Its something we have to seriously consider flipping on itd head, because as you said we are not having a conversation about our issues, just sitting on the reply button and ping-ponging issues right back to the person who sends things our way.
When I think back on all the innovative moments that I have had recently, they have always hinged on the fact that i have been the person asking the question or proposing the action. It reminds me of the old milutary mantra I had during my time in the Air Force: “Lead, Follow or Get out of the way!”
Thanks again!
Charlie Brown
Oh my gosh…...........1,000 emails!!! I should not be alive. By the way I’m so happy to see your reactivity. Hopefully you still are doing well. Thanks!