I was getting phone calls and follow-up e-mails to the tune of “I sent you an e-mail a couple of days ago – why haven’t you responded yet?” E-mail makes communication so much easier – I can compose and send an e-mail in a matter of minutes. Yet the increase in ease of communication seems to be matched by an increase in intolerance for replies that take longer than 24 hours. What most of these correspondents failed to understand is that:
1. their issue may not have been the most important issue compared with those of others who had contacted me, and
2. whilst it may have taken them a short time to write to me, the time taken to address their issue and respond will usually be much longer.
This is partly a reflection on the nature of people – we assume that our query or issue is the most important. It is also a reflection on technology, and how easily the master can become the slave. Rather than being a communication panacea, e-mail has become the curse of workers everywhere, who constantly struggle to manage the incoming flow of e-mails.
At last count I had introduced a system for prioritising e-mails, crushed the 300 e-mails down to 20, and my primary e-mail account had reached an all-time low. Any suggestions for how I can prevent my inbox from dominating me again?
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Any suggestions for how I can prevent my inbox from dominating me again?
Don’t send out any emails, you will get less replies
Luke 11:24-26:
“When the e-mail has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other e-mails more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”
(This was taken from the clip here, but at the bottom of the link you can see how successful people deal(or are controlled by) the flow of information.)
&, thanks heaps for the re-worked Bible verse (it seems to quite eerily fit the bill!), and also the links to the blog series. I’ve started reading them, and will watch the talks tomorrow. This whole topic of stress and how to best use our very limited time has really got me thinking…
Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done — and I can recommend replying to trivial-looking emails with “I’m really busy, if this is important to you, please let me know and I’ll make time to deal with it.” – 9/10 times people don’t reply back and you’ve cleared something without having to read it or think about it.
It could also help to set aside 2 hours (or whatever) to deal with email and then close your email client until the next day; or setting it to check for new mail only once every 4 hours. This’ll stop it becoming a constant drain on your time – and will let you tell people “No, I haven’t got your email yet, I’ve been busy, I’ll look tomorrow.”
Of course, I also have an auto-responder on my inbox that replies to everyone not in my address book saying “My Inbox is really busy, I’ll try get to your message, but please don’t be offended if it isn’t today, or even this week.”
Basically, I find that if you tell people you’re not going to do whatever it is right away – most of the time they forget about it and move on, find alternate solutions or call/visit you.
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