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Why Email Has Become Dangerous
mikkl666 writes "The Sydney Morning Herald runs an interesting story dealing with a study about email user behavior, explaining how and why email can be a terrible distraction: 'It takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. So people who check their email every five minutes waste 8 1/2 hours a week figuring out what they were doing moments before.' Email is also compared to slot machines in the way it works psychologically: 'So with email, usually when I check it there is nothing interesting, but every so often there's something wonderful — an invite out or maybe some juicy gossip — and I get a reward.' There are also some hints offered on how to keep control of the inbox, for those of us already addicted."
The study that talks about the 64 second recovery time was published in *2002*. How is this news today??!
Oh, and it included an astounding 16 subjects that worked at one company.
Yeah, that's good data to base generalized conclusions on about all email usage and behavior.
Dude, it should be in your email.
;-)
Not if you're married. Or at least, not if you want to stay married...
Reading the bit you quoted, I'd say that Mr Reynolds has only recently discovered that Outlook isn't a Web browser. The next step is the realization that you don't have to open the message as soon as it arrives.
I especially liked:
which tracks people's travel, to find out if they are away before he contacts them, and status alerts from instant messenger or Twitter to help him decide if now is a good time to interrupt them
My IM client is almost always set to busy. However, if you need to contact me, please send me an e-mail and I will respond as soon as I am able.
Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
Fortunately, I don't care about reviews any more.
I use email because:
#1. It is self-documenting. If you ask me the same question next week, I'll forward you the email I sent you last week.
#2. It is self-documenting. If you want to claim that you didn't agree with something next week, I'll forward you the email where you did agree with it last week.
#3. It requires a LOT more thought than talking. That means that people have to THINK about what they want to say rather than calling me and uh, well, I was, uh, that thing, it, uh, was, uh ....... Why waste MY time for YOU to get YOUR thoughts in order?
#4. It allows me to send you lists like this. I can identify each point and if you have points to add, you can add them. You can reply to my points, by number.
#5. All of the above WHEN IT IS CONVENIENT FOR ME. (and when you consider it convenient for you). You have a RECORD that YOU involved me. Now the ball is in my court. I will get to it as soon as I deal with the issues that are more important. And I expect the same from you.
FUCK "immediate human contact". The people I've encountered are (generally) not pre-disposed to clear communication. They are easily distracted and LOVE personal anecdotes and trivia. That's fine when I'm at lunch or grabbing coffee or whatever. NOT when I'm trying to fix a problem before it impacts the entire company.
When I'm working, I am WORKING. I expect the same from you.
Put it in email. That way we'll have documentation for who was involved in the decision, what the decision was, why we decided that way, what criteria we considered and what options we discarded.
If we have a "face to face" meeting, then SOMEONE is going to have to take notes about that and THEN write up those notes and get everyone's sign-off on them so they can be used as documentation.
My current CIO hates the way I use email. I believe it is because he hates having a papertrail of his decisions.