Part 2: Dealing with Email

Email is a particular problem. It’s probably the worst of all the offending mediums of communication as far as sheer emotional baggage. For me, it hits with two distinct emotions:

1. The first time you load it after an extended period, there’s the dread of learning just how much is waiting there for you.
2. Throughout the day, it sits and nags at you like a small child, tugging at you so that it’s impossible to stay focused.

Once upon a time it was really cool to get new email. Now, it’s more of an inward groan. “What do they want from me now?”

Email is really something that most of us need to look at differently.

1. It is rarely urgent. When was the last time you got a truly urgent email? It happens, but not nearly as often as it feels like it does. The constant cycle of checking email fosters a sense of false urgency, and the stress can just be overwhelming.
2. It fosters the endless loop We’ve all done it…checking the email every five minutes, waiting for…what? What are we looking for exactly? It’s a bit like channel surfing when you know there is nothing on.
3. It’s a lousy medium for discussion By this, I meant that it is easy to take things out of context, read them wrong, and get upset. We approach email with whatever emotional baggage we have going on, and it’s very easy to skim and email and read into it something that is just not there. Or worse, misread it.
4. It’s a constant distraction I know folks who have their email clients checking every minute for new email. Personally, it would drive me mad. It’s like being pecked to death by ducks. Every time you get rolling on something, there is a PING! and someone else has something to say to you or ask from you.

In my case, I had several email addresses all coming into my Mail.app. I really felt like I needed to simplify, and in accordance with trying to keep my workarea clear until I wanted to deal with outside world, I did the following:

1. Consolidation: I pointed ALL of my email addresses except for my work email to my Gmail account. Now I have one place I need to go to get all my mail. This also helps with email archiving…I have a constant backup of everything I receive. In the case of my work email, it’s already a Gmail account. The nice thing about having them separated is that I don’t have to see the most recent demands from work if I’m off hours or on the weekend, whereas when I was using Mail.app, I had everything rolling in whenever it checked the servers.
2. Stopped using my desktop client: My desktop email client no longer pulls my email from the servers. I don’t have email waiting for me on my desktop anymore. When I want to check my mail, I have to manually go to Gmail. It’s more of an action, and because of that, it’s less like being nagged and more like proactively processing requests. It’s a slightly more positive mindset. I don’t feel like the email is as much of an intrusion because than it coming to me, I go to it at a time of my choosing.
3. Use the phone for urgent matters: If there is a problem with work, they now know to call me, not send me an email. If Evo finds a major issue with Podiobooks.com, he knows to call me. Most of the folks that I have serious dealings with out there have my phone number.

Email is probably the number one intrusion in our lives today, and it’s all because of a misunderstanding. Email does not give you 24/7 access to anyone. Email is a glorified answering machine, nothing more. “I’m not here right now, please leave a message.” Not, “I’m sitting here waiting and watching for your email.” Making the shift from email as anything more than a simple messaging system will allow you to step away and get other things done, or even turn off the computer all together and go outside.

There are a great many excellent articles out there about how to tame your email. My personal favorite is Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero series. I highly recommend either reading the series and/or watching his presentation to the folks a Google this past summer. His tips have really helped me process things faster and keep on an even keel. I get somewhere around one hundred fifty email messages a day, and while that’s not as many as some, I was still finding myself overwhelmed. Merlin’s talk was just what I needed to shift my perspective on email and start getting things done.

Next time: Dealing with The Social

(note: I’m heading to DragonCon this weekend, so I’m not sure when the next piece will be posted. It all depends on when I have time to write it. It will be up by next Wednesday, but I hope to get to it sooner.)

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