Why is Email Still Such a Time Suck?
Is email really the problem or just a convenient scapegoat?
There have been many attempts to fix email, based on the common assertion that email is an intractable problem that ultimately wastes a a lot of time. Managing email has been described colorfully as “deadening,” “a never ending game of Tetris” (that one player ultimately lost) or “like pushing hot pokers into my eyes.” Given the charged language people use to describe their email burdens, one might presume that email is among the worst chores possible, right up there with tending the fires of hell or shoveling coal on the Titanic.
Frustrations aside, email remains an essential business tool and the most fundamental unit of communication in the workplace. Even as people are increasingly managing their personal communications via other platforms, like Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat, work life remains tethered to email, and will be for the foreseeable future. As the chart below shows, the volume of business email is forecasted to grow by more than 20 percent over the next five years.
Email Drains Energy
Although managing email tends to suck up valuable work time and can trigger the aforementioned “deadening” feeling, that may have more to do with how people treat their inboxes as enemies than with email itself. Due to the symbiotic nature of work and email, any negative feelings associated with email can spill over into how people perceive their jobs and their workplace as well. The Energy Project recently surveyed 12,000 mostly white-collar workers and found that 66 percent lacked the ability to focus on one thing at a time while at work. A staggering 70 percent of respondents said they did not have time for strategic or creative thinking at work, and only 36 percent felt “overall positive energy” in their workplace. A lack of time to focus on things that actually matter in the workplace cannot be chalked up just to bad work culture, but may stem largely from the strain on time and mental energy created by an overflowing inbox. Smartphones, supposedly tools for productivity, only exacerbate the feeling of being overwhelmed, especially because people have a tendency to check and respond to work email after office hours.
Old Habits Die Hard
Blaming email isn’t the solution. The fundamental issue is not with email itself but with the undisciplined way most people manage their inboxes. One common method of dealing with email overload involves setting strict time parameters for handling email. But because the amount and nature of messages people receive are highly varied, there is no one size fits all approach. That elevates the importance of self-discipline: you have to really police yourself in order for this method to work. You might succeed at limiting yourself to an hour of email a day for a week or so. Ingrained habits die hard, though, and it’s likely that after a short experiment you will fall back into your old ways, and your inbox will resume its post as your cruel and relentless taskmaster — but only because you let it.
Triage Isn’t Enough
Another common technique for coping with an overabundance of email is a clumsily executed form of triage, in which people put first priority on the most urgent, needs-response-now messages, then move on down the list to accommodate or dismiss less pressing missives. While triage can be an effective means of managing email volume, it’s at best a temporary crutch, because the ultimate goal is still to respond to your emails, not just categorize them.
Triage itself can be stressful, as well as somewhat arbitrary, which renders it less efficient than it could be, especially if you are one of those (un)lucky individuals whose inbox is always jammed. Unless your triage process is bulletproof, important emails may go unanswered. If you need to go outside the email app to check your calendar, scan over a relevant document or report, or just type out a long response at your desk, triage doesn’t help.
The very word “triage” belies a very specific sense that email is something over which to panic, pull your hair, or grit your teeth. But email shouldn’t resemble an extreme sport or a life-saving procedure, no matter how important or urgent the matter at hand. Whether you triage every couple of hours, check email obsessively every 10 minutes, or employ a medley of browser plugins, folders and third-party services, spending three hours a day managing email means you are not approaching the communication method with the right mindset. You’re letting your email manage you — and that’s not the way it should work.
In a follow up post, we’ll bring you some concrete tips for bettering managing your inbox. Your inbox is an important communication medium and while new work can get triggered by incoming email, your choice of when and how to respond needs to fit into a greater strategy that aligns with making the greatest impact in the workplace. We’ll share some ways to help you do so.
