You’ve Got Mail. No. I don’t need it
Everyday without fail, I would pride myself on the fact that my inbox was clean and there wasn’t anything pending to be responded (mostly). Without consciously observing, I was playing fastest finger first and would be responding to emails within minutes, sometimes seconds. And then delete the emails that got actioned. My inner voice kept whispering ‘keep the inbox clean’, ‘keep it squeaky clean.’ And it mostly worked. It allowed me to be on the top of the things I was supposed to accomplish. It helped me move things faster, get stuff done, get moving. So, no complains there.
But then there were things that needed my undivided attention. So, I would block some time on a weekly basis, switch off outlook, and just focus on what mattered most. And honestly, world didn’t came tumbling down while I wasn’t looking at my emails. This approach mostly worked. There were few missed deadlines, some exhaustion, some re-prioritization but nothing that would ring an alarm. And it held me in good stead for large part of my career. But I had this constant nagging thought, all I am doing is tending to emails.
Recently, I came across ‘A World Without Email’ by Cal Newport. And for a large part of it, it did look like my work-biography. In words of Drew Houston, Dropbox CEO — ‘A World Without Email’ crystallises what so many of us feel intuitively but haven’t been able to explain: the way we’re working isn’t working.
I read through the book in a single reading. I would admit that it is a bit academic and I didn’t find part 2 much useful in my context. But most importantly, it forced me to re-evalaute my working style. Do I really need to be managing my emails all the time during my work-hours. Perhaps not. Perhaps, I can focus on the things matter most and look at my inbox every 1–2 hours. That way I could get 90 minutes of undivided attention followed by 30 minutes of Super Mario where I attend to all emails. Drumroll please.
Been some time since I am trying to adopt this. Have miserably failed so far. But I am hoping I get better at this. As as an end result, I want to make a conscious choice to do a specific task at a specific point of time and not let the tsunami of emails push me from one email to other in the quest of squeaky clean inbox.
If you have any tips for me, do email it to me. I am looking at my emails all the time. For now.
