People who are serious about getting things done keep their email clients closed, turn off auto-notification, and check their email at set times.
I know what you mean, but with good e-mail filtering it's possible to get things done and still keep in touch. I have Outlook at work set up to only use the auto-notification (semi-transparent pop-up in the lower-right corner) for e-mails from people I actually want to deal with now. Other mail gets filtered into subfolders to deal with later.
It's like tuning out people walking by your cube/office, once you're able to focus on what you're doing it becomes a lot easier to get things done. E-mails, IM, phone calls, and people stopping by are all potential distractions, but just as we can learn to ignore people walking by and not answer the phone (after checking the caller ID), we can also briefly scan an e-mail and then get back to work without getting fully distracted.
The narrator also mentions he's "abandoned email."
What seems strange to me about this is that getting thousands of letters a year is the same as getting e-mails, just in a different form. I agree that there is an expectation with e-mail that it will get answered quickly, but that is assumption can be changed by anyone who takes time to respond with a thoughtful response.
As to filtering out the useful from the junk, I feel like e-mail tools (web or desktop) are getting better every day (or at least every version) at allowing filtering and spam-blocking. I may have a different take on e-mail when I'm in my mid 60's but I just don't understand the reluctance to use a new technology when it allows the exact same type of communication as the old one, as long as you use it the way you want to.
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>>I still get porn spam though.
You're lying!
People who are serious about getting things done keep their email clients closed, turn off auto-notification, and check their email at set times.
I know what you mean, but with good e-mail filtering it's possible to get things done and still keep in touch. I have Outlook at work set up to only use the auto-notification (semi-transparent pop-up in the lower-right corner) for e-mails from people I actually want to deal with now. Other mail gets filtered into subfolders to deal with later.
It's like tuning out people walking by your cube/office, once you're able to focus on what you're doing it becomes a lot easier to get things done. E-mails, IM, phone calls, and people stopping by are all potential distractions, but just as we can learn to ignore people walking by and not answer the phone (after checking the caller ID), we can also briefly scan an e-mail and then get back to work without getting fully distracted.
The narrator also mentions he's "abandoned email."
What seems strange to me about this is that getting thousands of letters a year is the same as getting e-mails, just in a different form. I agree that there is an expectation with e-mail that it will get answered quickly, but that is assumption can be changed by anyone who takes time to respond with a thoughtful response.
As to filtering out the useful from the junk, I feel like e-mail tools (web or desktop) are getting better every day (or at least every version) at allowing filtering and spam-blocking. I may have a different take on e-mail when I'm in my mid 60's but I just don't understand the reluctance to use a new technology when it allows the exact same type of communication as the old one, as long as you use it the way you want to.