Its unrealistic to expect any modern worker to avoid email entirely. But Alex Soojung-Kim Pang has great suggestions for cutting down on unnecessary email checking. He outlines an experiment where, over the course of a few days, you make note of the number of times you check mail, how many times you get a new mail alert, and where you check your mail. You should also tabulate the amount of time you spend reading, answering and writing emails, how many truly important messages you get in a day and your attention level and emotional state before and after you check mail. After youve collected all this data, start with the way your email makes you feel. Are there times of day when it feels most satisfying to check your mail? If theres a pattern, your first step is clear. Try a few days where you check your mail only at those times and no others. Pang also suggests checking your email on one machine only--say, your desktop rather than your iPhone or iPad. That way youll cut down on dashed-off responses. Pang acknowledges that this approach might not work if you have a job that requires immediate responses to lots of emails. But for many of us, there will be no blow back from not looking at our phones while were online at the grocery store, or, more importantly, from not looking at our phones while were with our friends or family.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 14:15:01 +0000
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