Beating the Addiction & Clutter: Tips for Unravelling Email

We all know that frenzied feeling we get when we turn on the computer only to find a swamp of email messages that will take more than a paddle boat and a few days to get through. We also know that itchy feeling, that little voice in the back of our minds telling us to check our email – as someone could have written us! It’ll only be a few minutes. An hour later we’ve learned that a friend has invited us to a party via Facebook and we’ve read the updates on the blogs we’re subscribed to. The updates called to us!

We know, we know. Mind Warriors knows these situations all too well and it’s likely thatmost people have experienced the nagging urge to check their emails at one point or another. This is because our brains are genetically programmed to be so inclined. When a new stimulus appears, in this case a new email, then we experience a small burst of noradrenaline, a neurochemical similar to adrenaline, which leads to a small arousal and pleasant feeling. Through this process, our brains are attracted to changing stimuli in our environment, which explains the need we feel to constantly check to see if we’ve received a new email. Our genetics also explain why we become overwhelmed when faced with huge amounts of email; when confronted with excess stimuli, our ability to filter distractions and keep on track breaks down (Klein, 2007).

In this computer driven society, email can rule your life, but it doesn’t have to and although our brain might be working against us, you can break the habit of frequent email checking and a muddled inbox. We’re tackling the addiction to and clutter of our internet lives, so hang on tight and hopefully you’ll come out the other side with a bit more organization and self-restraint on your side.

First things first. It’s Monday morning and a mountain of emails awaits you, its peak somewhere high above in the frosty sky. What should you do?

1. If you read an email and it requires less than two minutes to reply to, take a note ovid Allen’s Workflow model, and take care of it straight away. Don’t let it sit around in your inbox after reading it. This will mean you’ll have to reopen it later which will take up more of your time.

2. Set up an organizational system for different emails. A good, basic folder system to use for email consists of:

Read – For emails that are not time sensitive and might take longer to read

To do/Reply – Emails that are asking you to do a task or those that require your attention but will take more than two minutes to reply to

Wait/Archive – For those emails that you’ve replied to and you need a response from or need to save for later reference.

Notifications – Set up a folder for email notifications from websites such as Facebook, Paypal, Trademe, etc.

3. Set up a Spam filter.

4. For those emails you listed as “To Dos” you could instead keep an external list of these tasks to help you tick them off. Keep a notepad by your desk and once you’ve read an email, write down the task needed to be done.That way you can delete the email.

5. If you can’t respond to an email right away but don’t want to offend the other person by not replying for awhile, then email them a quick response saying that you will reply back but just don’t have the time right now. Give them an amount of time it might take to get back to them if you have an estimate.

6. Proofread your emails to make sure they are clear and concise before going out. This will help avoid confusion later.

And now to address those moments of weakness where you feel impulsively compelled to check your email:

1. Limit your time to check emails. Timothy Ferris, author of The Four Hour Work Week, suggests checking your email twice per day, once at noon (or just prior to lunch) and once at 4:00pm.If you do decide to limit your email checking to two or three times a day, you may want to create an auto response letting people know that you are only checking your emails at certain times.

2. Keep one day a week as your “free of emails” day. Ask people to call you. You could look at implementing this at work if you work in an office setting. Check out this article from USA Today which highlights companies that have implemented an email free day: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2007-10-04-no-email_N.htm

3. Turn off any audible alerts that go off when you receive a new email.

4. If you have Gmail, use GmailThis! if you find yourself emailing webpages you come across. With GmailThis! you can email the webpage without opening Gmail to distract yourself.

5. Don’t use email for things you could easily talk to someone about. Face to face contact might be harder for some people but, especially if you are working in a team, this contact will pay off in the end.

6. Have an anchor (an internal or external stimulus that triggers a certain response) on your desk that reminds you that you’re trying to beat your email addiction. This could be anything, a toy, a photo, a puzzle, a drawing…this item will be your reminder. When you’re feeling like you want to check your emails, and you know that right now they’d just be a distraction, take a look at your anchor to remind yourself that you don’t need to open your email right now.

7. Use ‘Keep Me Out’. Go to http://www.keepmeout.com and follow the instructions there. This service allows you to set up limits on how many times you check a website a day. You can use this with your email (if you visit a website to access your email) or with any website (ie. Facebook, MySpace) that you might check more frequently than you’d like.

Everyone is different, so try out these tips and see which work best for you in tackling your email. If you learn to manage your emails and free yourself from addiction to email checking, you’ll have more time to focus on other more important ventures and you won’t feel like a slave to the net.

References:
Ferris, Timothy. (2007). The Four Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

Klein, Stefan. (2007). The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity.

http://thinksimplenow.com/productivity/how-to-delete-email-addiction/

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/01/09/10-steps-to-become-an-email-ninja/

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2007-10-04-no-email_N.htm

Article by Jessica George (Mind Warriors)