A better question is why do I constantly hear people tell me how many emails they get in a day, as it somehow relates to how productive they are? Also, how can people have thousands of unread messages in their inbox?
About 10 years ago I read a book called the Hamster Revolution. It’s a very easy and great read that changed my relationship with the email and digital organization forever. It’s all about prioritization. Unless I just got back from vacation I rarely have more than a couple of dozen emails in my inbox, because they are all actionable, or things I need to address in some way. The rest of my emails get filtered away either automatically or after review.
This dovetails into my next section why is instant messaging or texting now preferred over email? You cannot categorize instant messages, you cannot put them into folders, you cannot set up automatic filtering rules or any type of digital optimization with instant messaging. So why is this preferred? Is it simply because it has the word "instant" in it? Do we think we get it faster than we do emails? What is this new perception around instant messaging being a more effective means of communication over email? Don’t get me wrong, IM does have its place and value in the world. Quick one to one conversations with simple questions and replies, and things like that.
I’m all for change and disruption to force adaptation to new opportunities around digital communication. However, I feel we are in a confusing state we are sampling several things and not happy with any of them. It’s like we are going back to the adolescence of digital communication. We have emails, instant messaging, text, blog posts and wiki pages. Each with their own distinct communication purpose and scope.
Personally, I think we should do away with instant messaging in the business place. I consider it an interruption to my day. Someone else believes they can contact me instantly and expect an instant reply when I am engaged in other priorities. It causes an interruption and makes my efforts take longer. We need to structure our days better. We all have to deal with change and a high tension work environment with high expectations. Streamlining or compartmentalizing daily activities optimizes work effort and outcomes.
Another recommendation is better management of your calendar. You do not need to accept every invite and deny any open time in your day. The same people that count their emails and share it with others are the same people that populate their calendar every day so there’s no free time. Just like digital communication we need to optimize our calendars to allow for ad hoc events. It is also important to prioritize your meetings to those that you need to attend and provide value to. How many meetings do you attend that should not have even occurred, should’ve only been five or 10 minutes or just wasted an hour of your day? Don’t be afraid to decline a meeting that of which you will not get any value from or provide any value to.
Who am I to ask these questions and make these recommendations? Nobody really, except for I am a very optimized individual that has harnessed digital communication and organization over the years to make my day more productive. What was my motivation? To be able to get as much done in the day as possible, add as much value to my role in my organization as possible, and to spend as much time with my family as possible.
I hope you all take a moment to answer the questions I have asked above. Also, read The Hamster Revolution. And remember my favorite quote of all time - "The choices we make dictate the lives we lead."
An essay by TREVOR DALE.More writing →