How to Conquer Your Email Inbox
Start by ignoring it.
4 December, 2017 // in The Coffeehouse Cleric // by Alex Rowe.
As human persons, we will be both more content and more productive if we loose our bondage from the tyrannies of our technological age. Does that sound far fetched? Too extreme?
We are distracted, often by technology, roughly every eleven minutes. Yet it takes the average person’s mind twenty-five minutes to fully recover from a distraction and re-gain focus. Thus, it is likely that the majority of us are never really concentrated, and most of us rarely operate at our maximum capacity.
Not only is this unproductive, but it is also unsatisfying. It is tiresome for us to continually switch tasks and to keep diverting our attention and, at the end of the day, it is frustrating — frustrating because we never find true rest or peace amidst our work.
A few weeks ago, I wrote 7 Ways to Ditch Your Phone and Focus on What Matters, where I offered practical advice for how to combat phone-addiction. This post is about managing e-mail, and it is written in a similar vain. The technology boom of our day is a glorious thing. Of course, it ought to be welcomed. Nevertheless, we must not be uncritical.
For the sake of our flourishing, we must forge a right relationship with technology. I believe that we can most flourish, in contentment and productivity, when we use technology reflectively. We must learn to use technology for our gain and benefit, before it starts to use us, spend us, exhaust us.
So, without further ado, below are a five practical ways to do e-mail well.
(1) Don’t check e-mail.
Even those of us who don’t send and receive many emails can find ourselves constantly checking for new mail. We actually crave the small dopamine-hit. We feel like we’re winning. But in truth, if we’re constantly checking for new emails, we’re probably distracted. We’re probably just procrastinating.
(2) Check only at set times.
I only access emails on my laptop, and even then, I only check twice-a-day, at 11AM and 4PM. Batching tasks, like checking email, is incredibly effective. It is highly unlikely that any email requires such urgent activity that we cannot check email only once, twice, or three times a day. The world will not come to an end if we receive an email twelve hours after it was sent. Heck, we might even get some work done instead.
(3) Reply wisely.
Does the e-mail need a reply? If not, don’t bother. Does the reply need to be an e-mail? If not, try something else. Perhaps a quick phone call, text message, or face-to-face. If you do need to reply, does it need to be paragraphs long? Probably not. Keep things clear and concise. I try to limit any e-mail I send to a maximum of five sentences.
(4) Take the initiative.
Person A: “Hey, are you free to meet this week?”
Person B: “Yes, I am. What day works for you?”
Person A: “I’m free most days this week, what suits you?”
Person B: “Either Tuesday or Thursday is best for me.”
Person A: “Great. Any particular times on those days?”
Making plans with someone over e-mail? Does this sound familiar? Instead of the mind-numbing back and forth, take the initiative when making plans. This conversation could have been made much simpler had person B replied with something like this: “Yes, I am. How about Tuesday, 1PM or Thursday, 4PM, at [Insert Place]? If one of those works, great! If not, do send over some alternative times/days.” Straight away, we have saved both ourselves and our friends/colleagues a great deal of time. Take the initiative.
(5) Make e-mail fun.
Make sure e-mail isn’t just about work. Send random notes to family or friends, letting them know that you’re thinking of them. Write to those people that inspire you and thank them for their work. I once wrote to the author of my favourite book, and it lead to a great conversation. Reach out to people, make connections, and expand your network and your horizons. E-mail doesn’t have to sap the life out of you. It can be fun. Let’s reclaim e-mail as a communication medium that works for good.
Thank you for reading. The Coffeehouse Cleric is a Medium publication dedicated to asking the big questions of life. It features writing on three main areas: minimalism, spirituality, and learning. If you enjoyed this piece, please do share it with friends and family on social media.
