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

This is just GTD

[ellem]

Empty Inbox
Anything under 2 minutes do it

Yadda yadda

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.

Re:This is just GTD

[arivanov]

And this is the exact reason for the existence of the crackberry and its analogues. Some people consider it essential that any of their messages get through to you now and immediately and you read them regardless of what you are doing at the moment. This is generally the same type of people who forget that freedom of speech actually includes the freedom of not to listen. These are also the same kind of people who cannot comprehend the importance of being able to work without interruption. Hence, here is my simple program for beating email addiction (it will not work for all workflows though):

• Change your workflow to read your email only at fixed intervals at fixed times during the day devoting the rest to doing work. Ensure that you are managing your time, and not email.
• Turn off instant notifications, toolbar email status, cretinberries and analogues.
• Once you have seen what gets missed when doing so create suitable notifications for the really important stuff that cannot and should not be missed. Make sure that important means only events that actually alter your schedule and not every email coming in.
• Rinse, repeat until you get yourself up to 80%+ doing scheduled work instead of interrupt driven one.

Once you have succeeded in this you have beaten your addiction. Been there, done that.

Re:This is just GTD

[jlf278]

the article is not talking about emails that require response WITHIN two minutes, but rather ones that would consume less than two minutes of your time.

Re:This is just GTD

[Imsdal]

Huh? I think you miss the point on what the 2 minute rule in GTD is.

The 2 minute rule says that when you process your inbox (any inbox, e.g. e-mail, physical, voicemail), and the result is that you should do something (as oppsed to delegate, file for reference or just plain delete), you should do it immediately. If, on the other hand, the action will take longer than 2 minutes, you should file it in your trusted system and continue emptying your inbox.

The 2 minute rule most definitely does *not* say that you should ever be expected to answer any e-mail within 2 minutes, for exactly the reasons you list.

I thought every computer geek worth his salt knew about all about GTD by now, but from your post and the moderation of it, I see that that's not the case.

Re:This is just GTD

[Americano]

Great points. And as someone who recently read GTD, and decided to give cleaning out my 4000+ email inbox a shot, it's honestly one of the first times that i've felt seriously on top of everything I need to do in a long time. Turning off the notifications and putting my blackberry on "silent" mode for incoming messages was crucial to this.

What I've found is that responding immediately to constant interrupts only serves to reinforce the notion among my co-workers that I'm constantly interruptible (This may sound like a "No shit, sherlock" moment, but it really is something you lose sight of when you're constantly being interrupted). Only checking my inbox once every hour or two and turning off all the beeps & notifications has worked wonders on my ability to focus & get things done, and it's also helped to break my co-workers of the notion that they can interrupt me at any moment they feel it's necessary.

Re:This is just GTD

[kbielefe]

An easy way I found to use automatic rules to sort my email:

• Anything sent only to me is much more likely to be something I have been waiting for, or something I would want to respond to quickly, so I usually read these right away, even if I don't end up responding right away. Of course, I'm not one of those people who gets email from potential clients, readers, fans, etc.
• If my name is in the "To" box, but I'm not the only one, I set aside a few different times during the day to read those.
• Anything sent to a mailing list or where I'm only CCed, I only read once a day, and frequently just delete after reading the subject line.
• I ignore the "important" flag, except for people I know don't abuse it, like the system administrator who only uses it for stuff like emergency reboots.
• I don't check personal email accounts at work.

I've found this allows me to be interrupted when I want to be interrupted, but to make the interruptions minimal. Sometimes, I make specific rules for specific situations, but most of the time, these generic rules work great.

Re:Email is for instant-messaging.

[aallmighty]

I've been described as the guy who "turns email into an instant-messaging system." I just wish Slashdot comment reply notification emails were sent out as they happened, instead of in batches every five minutes.

That's funny, I'm known as the guy who turns an instant-messaging system into snail mail because I forget to put up an away message and it confuses people. I actually do both of those things... never realized how ridiculous I am until just now...

I tried GTD...

[192939495969798999]

It takes me 3 minutes to figure out if something will take me less than 2 minutes to do, so I get a deadlock. The only real solution is writing post-its on a whiteboard.

Re:I tried GTD...

[Trails]

Post it's kill trees. To be more environmentally friendly, maybe you should send yourself an email about it.

Re:I tried GTD...

[TrentC]

It takes me 3 minutes to figure out if something will take me less than 2 minutes to do, so I get a deadlock. The only real solution is writing post-its on a whiteboard.

As with most things, people like to nitpick the fine details as a way of criticizing the whole.

As a fairly new GTD user, I've discovered that much of GTD is meant to be used as guidelines or strategies, not divine commands from on high. The important principles of GTD are:

1) Collect all of the unfinished tasks and projects in your life ("open loops" in GTD parlance).
2) Go through that collection and decide what needs to be done with each open loop:
      * Can it be done right now, in 2 minutes or less? If so, do it.
      * If not, can you delegate it to someone else? If so, do so.
      * If not, what's the "Next Action" (more GTD jargon) that needs to be done, either to finish it or to move it to the next step?
3) Keep track of your Next Actions in a trusted system -- notebook, PDA, text files, whatever -- so you know what needs to be done when you have time to do it.
4) Once you know what all needs to be done, you are capable of making informed decisions as to what you should be doing at any given moment. (To me, this is the most significant point of GTD.)

If you can make those principles work, the details are negotiable. If it takes you more than two minutes to figure out what needs to be done and your incoming traffic and workload permits it, set the threshold to 5 minutes. The GTD book itself usually describes seveal methods of approaching a step.

This is what drives websites like Lifehacker and 43 Folders; people are sharing things that work for them or pointing out new things that can be used to implement GTD or otherwise improve personal productivity.

(Yes, I know that parent was probably just trying to be funny. But I still wanted to throw my two cents out for people who haven't tried GTD, or tried and haven't been able to make it work.)

Jay (=

They're good suggestions actually.

[JaredOfEuropa]

Perhaps the article is mr. McNamara's poor attempt at humour, but most of those 12 points are actually very good suggestions to help manage your email... If you're stressed because you get too many items in your inbox (or more probably, if you think you're getting too many mails), they'll help a lot. Perhaps they're not so good for overcoming an actual addiction though. For that, step 1 and some discipline is enough.

Most of these tips come from Getting things done, which I can highly recommend if you're stressed out because you feel you have more work than you can manage. It worked wonders for me!

Wow.

[MeanderingMind]

The 12 steps really seem more along the lines of, "12 steps to managing your e-mail more efficiently" rather than breaking any habits. At the same time, they don't increase e-mail checking efficiency. In fact, half of them don't even seem to be steps.

However, there's a deep question here. Who the heck includes multiple subjects in one e-mail? Even with spambots I've never seen "Re: The backyard/fiscal policy".

So weird.

and remember...

[physicsboy500]

There really isn't a king in Nigeria that left his fortune to you, so just don't bother.

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:What about spam?

[JaredOfEuropa]

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.

How much time do you really spend on deleting spam?

Spam is highly annoying if you pull up your inbox every time your computer goes 'ping' and the little envelope appears in the tool tray. However if you follow the tips in the article and sit down every hour, 2 hours, day (whatever works for you) to process everything in your inbox in one go, spam takes just seconds to deal with. 99% can be identified from the subject line and/or sender, just highlight the lot and hit del. It's still annoying, but you won't waste much time dealing with it.

Don't Organize

[rodney dill]

Don't organize, just file everything in one folder. Use 'Search' to find everything/anything. a massive nest of folder's just gives you more places to have to search.

Re:Don't Organize

[schiefaw]

Absolutely! I went through the "Getting Things Done" class, and I am trying to use parts of it. When it comes to emptying the inbox I cheat like crazy. Company policy dictates that anything in the inbox gets automatically deleted after 30 day. So, I have a folder called "reference" when I just drop everything in my inbox after I have read them. I then use Google Desktop to search for the correct messages when needed. I have saved a TON of time.

Re:Speaking of email, is there a Tbird extension..

[Magada]

Set a 5-second delay on "read" marker, use the five seconds to trash the junk and/or mark the spam, have your mail client auto-move the rest of your read messages to a "read" folder, filter on subject/list/whatever from there. No extensions needed.

My last employer insisted on this

[jimicus]

We had a clear desk policy which was extended to email - not by force, but I was asked to get my inbox down to nothing.

Solution: Set up a folder called "Not Inbox" and a rule to automatically push all incoming email to that.

I was able to honestly say that my inbox was completely empty.

Re:My last employer insisted on this

[rodney dill]

Better yet, label your new INBOX as 'EMPTY'
Then you can always say, my inbox is EMPTY.

(probably depends on what the meaning of is is)

But if I don't check my email constantly

[antifoidulus]

I might miss out on all these job offers I am getting from all over the world. All I have to do is cash checks and I get 10% of the profits, and I only had to give them my contact info, SSN, account numbers and passwords. What suckers!

Re:Email is for instant-messaging.

[richie2000]

I've been described as the guy who "turns email into an instant-messaging system." I coined the phrase "mail-chatting" for that behaviour back in 1996 and been happily addicted since. :-P

Re:Speaking of email, is there a Tbird extension..

[Joe Rumsey]

Yes there is, GmailUI. I'm NOT suggesting GMail. The name of this Thunderbird extension is GMailUI because it adds several GMail features to Thunderbird, including making the y key move the current email to an archive folder.

Wrong addiction

[thc69]

Forget email...what about a 12 step program for my wife's World of Warcrack addiction?

Re:Wrong addiction

[prelelat]

phone your provider and tell them to cut off you internet connection. Don't tell her. When it gets cut off freak out and phone the provider, have a big fight and at the end say "No way don't even bother I'm not dealing with you again" and then hang up. Tell your wife that she will have to go without internet until you are able to find a company that isn't a bunch of assholes. When she leaves to go to the internet cafe down the street call the lock smith, and change the locks. When she gets back make her cancle her WOW subscription and hand over her credit cards. You might have to wait her out on that one but it should work.

Re: Single Subject per Message

[TaoPhoenix]

I guess you haven't met practitioners of the SuperFootnote. The trick is they only have 1 subject in the header, but as last-minute item tacked on below.

P.S. Did you see the Vista article in the Register a couple threads below this?

10 suggestions

[llZENll]

I think reuters is right, most of the suggestions are pretty worthless.

How about these suggestions:

1) If you are getting email that is routine (for archive purposes), setup scripts to auto file them.

2) Remove your email address from any webpages where it isn't absolutely needed.

3) Change your email address! It may sound harsh, but a fresh start will surely curb your email intake, send your new address out to only the people you MUST stay in touch with. The people who HAVE to contact you will make a call or get your new email some way.

4) Only reply if asked to or it is absolutely necessary. A lot of email is simple yes, or haha comments, which are pretty much worthless and are only wasting yours and others time.

5) If you do reply stay on topic and keep it short as possible, if it is long or complicated this is why will still have those things called phones.

6) Automatically delete and never forward any of those chain letters or joke emails, what a waste of time and bandwidth those things are.

7) If you don't think you are going to reply or dont want to reply within the next 24 hours to an email just delete it, otherwise it will pile up and create a psycological burden for you.

8) Have a good SPAM filter.

9) Setup an autoreply for common questions you get asked.

10) It sounds simple but setup a signature, no point in wasting your time typing your name or website address.

5. "... create a file for mails..."

[Browzer]

How the hell do you create a file for mails?

Idiotic "executive coaches" should learn the difference between a file and a folder before advising and devising programs.

If you are in the "executive" category, the only step you need is:

1. Hire human(s)-email filter/secretary. Don't hire consultants.

Ummm...

[14CharUsername]

I have a little icon (Gmail notify) that sits in the system tray that is red when I have no unread messages and blue when there are unread messages. When a message comes in it pops up on the screen the subject who its from and the first few words of the email. I set up filters so that non-urgent stuff gets labelled and archived without bugging me.

Is constantly checking my email a problem when checking email is just glancing an inch to the right of the clock at the top of my screen? Usually when I actually go to my inbox I already know whats there because I saw the popup when it came in.

And if you don't like GMail there's similar solutions available. Its really not hard to get the best of both worlds, keeping on top of your emails without having to spend a lot of time constantly checking it.

I don't have an inbox

[Anonymous Coward]

I just read the packets as they come in on port 25.