E-Mail Addiction 12-Steps Stumbles

netbuzz writes "Talk about offering an alcoholic a drink? No. 2 of 12-step program for e-mail addiction: "Commit to keeping your inbox empty." ... Reuters is reporting today on this program from an executive coach. Here are 11 other reasons why it won't work." I know what the bottom of my inbox looks like, I just only get to see it for a few minutes a year.

Comments

What about spam?

[Valdez]

It's interesting that the 12 steps don't mention anything about mitigating or reducing SPAM... seems like it should be step 0 to me.

A large portion of the time spent on many people's email is deleting & weeding through SPAM, and if you didn't get a single piece of spam, you'd spend a lot less time in your inbox...and what time you did spend would be productive.

Re:This is just GTD

[mwvdlee]

Or just start to realize that you recieve roughly ZERO mails a year that need a 2-minute response.

Honestly; if people want 2-minute responses, why would they use a medium that most people don't checks every 2 minutes. Use the phone!

Are you really willing to say that the maximum time between sitting at your desk, walking to the toilet, taking a dump then returning to your desk is 2 minutes? Are all your company meetings 2 minutes? Do you take 2-minute lunchbreaks? Do you ever sleep, have weekends, vacations for less than 2 minutes? Do you make love within 2 minutes? Actually, don't answer that last one; this is slashdot afterall.

If you're addicted to e-mail, you're probably thinking people cannot do without your response. You're wrong.