There’s nothing wrong with email.
There, we said it.
Email is a digital form of communication that gets an awful lot of stick - understandably - from those whose lives it all but dominates.
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to minimise this particular office distraction and own email - rather than it being the other way around.
So, how big is the problem? Well, studies suggest that the average email user checks their inbox 5.6 hours during every weekday. And, if you work eight hour days, that’s an unbelievable chunk of your time wasted.
It’s important to remember that email isn’t a method by which people can get hold of you urgently. It’s there for longer forms of communication that are neither urgent, nor mission critical.
With this in mind, you should be able to survive without it for at least a week, right? As with so many things productivity related, why not try and do this yourself? It’ll help you establish once and for all whether email is actually making you more productive or simply making you ‘busy’ (there’s a big difference).
Here are six brilliant strategies for providing yourself with an email-free work environment, without any detriment to your performance, productivity or ability to satisfy your colleagues and customers.
Good news: there’s loads of alternatives already out there.
For short, quick communication there are platforms like WhatsApp and Slack.
Many businesses have successfully moved their project-based email communication into project management platforms like Trello, and have reduced the amount of needless internal communication as a result.
When you start using these systems, email will naturally become your last resort.
Whatever happened to a good, old-fashioned phone call?
More importantly, how many times have you got lost in the depths of a long-winded email conversation only to rue your decision not to pick up the phone in the first place?
You’ll know, deep down, when a phone call makes more sense than an email. So, when you’re about to reach for the ‘compose email’ button, take a moment to consider if a phone call would be more appropriate and deliver a quicker answer. Nine times out of ten, it really will, and the likelihood is that the person on the other end of the phone will thank you for it too.
Do you really need help finding a solution to this challenge? Or have you actually had this conversation with someone before?
We often reach for email as a quick-fix when we can’t be bothered to find out the answer for ourselves. This is human nature - particularly when we’re busy.
When moments like this arise, try your best to find a solution yourself. That way, you’ll increase your own skill set and avoid wasting your - and others’ - time by sending an email.
The best thing about this strategy is that you’ll normally find the solution quicker off your own back than you would via email chasing anyway!
Have you ever cursed your inability to do anything other than continually check your email throughout your morning and late at night?
You’re not alone - many of us do this. But that doesn’t make it the right thing to do. Quite the opposite, in fact.
If email is the first and last thing you reach for each day, train your brain to look for something else to do during those times instead. Fine-tuning your to-do list, for example, is a great alternative, as is checking in with the latest industry news.
You’re only checking your email during those times because it’s become a habit, so try forcing yourself to develop an entirely different habit each time, instead.
Telephone, (there’s that word again), your project management system, WhatsApp, Slack - there are so many ways you can be contacted these days, so make sure people are aware of them.
It’s important to be careful here, of course - you don’t want messages flying at you from all angles. But, if someone has recently told you that they were expecting a reply to their urgent email, politely explain that it isn’t the best way to get in touch with you if something needs to be prioritised.
The more you do this, the more you’ll find that people will gradually reduce their email communication with you. Instead, you’ll only hear from them when something needs your urgent attention, leaving the stuff they do email you about only worthy of your time when you have the time to devote to it.
One of the most effective ways to rid yourself of email for a week is to devote that entire week to yourself.
Granted, not everyone has the luxury of doing this, but if you’re a business owner, freelancer or operate independently in some other way, use that power to spend time on yourself, with no distractions.
You could work on that marketing plan, your website or finally develop the product idea you’ve had for ages. Whatever it is, spend a whole week devoted entirely to that and set an out of office on your email to let everyone know that you’ll get back to them on your return.
The title of this blog post says it all: a week is probably as long as you’ll be able to survive completely devoid of email.
You'll need email going forward, certainly. It’s a fact of life, but it shouldn’t cause so much anxiety and stress as it seems to do for many people.
And if we can leave you with one piece of advice today, it’s this: always take on board computational kindness when working with email. The concept comes from a great book called Algorithms to Live By, and works on the basis that there’s actually a great deal of computer science in the way humans make decisions.
When it comes to email, this is pleasingly simple. For instance, before you click ‘send’, check that you’re only including the people who need to see your message. It’s all too easy to send emails to masses of people when only a few need to see it.
This creates more issues than you think. It might only take you a few seconds to include those extra people, but it generates lots of lost time for that person and the likelihood of more replies to your email that you’ll need to deal with.
You can apply computational kindness to all elements of email management. So, after you’ve had your break from email for a week, be kind to yourself and others when you reach for that inbox once more.
