How to manage mail without allowing it to manage itself?
Denis Duvauchelle, CEO and cofounder of Twoodo, wondered - why are we spending so much time checking email and notifications from social networks, instant messengers and other applications? On his blog, Deni reflects on productive priorities and gives practical advice to those who are not able to cope with the desire to look into the Inbox.
Photo by Michael Coghlan .
Where did this strange craving for constant checking of mail come from?
Psychology Today magazine offers its opinion on why we are constantly distracted by checking email:
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1. Communication
Most of the assigned tasks we have to perform independently. Of course, there are meetings and conflicts, but with a specific task, everyone usually understands personally in his workplace. If the task is difficult and time consuming, then the intervals spent in conditional loneliness can be quite long. Despite the fact that each of us is able to work independently and independently, from time to time we all need communication. Mail can provide us with communication in the office mode, but the problem is that the size of the “portions” of communication in a virtual environment is difficult to control. The temptation to communicate may be too strong, and only the most diligent and purposeful can cope with it.
2. respite
Image of Conor .
Mental labor can be tiring in the same way as physical labor — especially if you have to solve a non-trivial, complex task that requires long-term reflection and a creative approach in general. Just as our body asks for a short rest after the transfer of weights, our psyche resorts to email or social networks to unload. This is our respite after a half-kilometer mental swim.
3. Change the picture
If something does not work, we tend to be distracted by other tasks until inspiration returns. This especially applies to tasks that require creative solutions. Unfortunately, instead of switching between worthy of our time affairs, we spend precious time on pointless checking mail.
A good way out of this situation is to manage two tasks (projects) at the same time in order to switch productively when thoughts come to a dead end. Personally, I found that freelancing to another company, literally several hours a week, allows me to keep a fresh look at how things are in my startup. And your own startup, I will tell you, always needs the fresh, unfathomable look of its founder.
4. Dependence on distractions
Distracting from the main task for various "important" occasions is an excellent reason to feel extremely busy. Psychology Today reports that the habit of checking email and generally being distracted by various trifles is our way to feel satisfaction from solving small tasks, in other words, to maximize your personal data per unit of time. Psychologically, it is more interesting for us to spend an hour on a bunch of “important” cases and mentally praise ourselves than to spend it puzzling over a complex, large-scale problem.
It is not easy to cultivate discipline in oneself, and modern technologies, which send us more and more convenient ways of distracting oneself from business, only complicate this process. Being constantly distracted, we spend less time on really useful things. In addition, we become a little bit more stupid, because we waste energy and time for nothing - instead of concentrating on the task, going deeply into its essence and looking for solutions, we try to remember what we thought at the moment when we decided to distract ourselves to checking mail or pages in the social network.
Mail helps us to spend time and attention on:
- on duty mailing
- notifications
- invitations to "interesting" webinars and conferences
- updates of services to which we are subscribed
- non-priority requests and tasks.
Ask yourself - if your work does not involve life and death issues, is it really necessary to check your mail more than once per hour? Well, well, you can skip a profitable auction on eBay or something like that, but this is rather an exception to the rule. Discipline yourself, get used to the mode of receiving information to maintain mental health and have more time.
Erin Andersen wrote an excellent article about how technology is fighting for our attention. Spending about a tenth of our working time on checking mail or other notifications and finding nothing important there, we subconsciously, imperceptibly to ourselves, get upset and annoyed. At the same time, being in constant contact makes us feel important and necessary, even if a robot writes us or someone just included us in the promotional mailing list.
On the other hand, conscious isolation from distractions can have the opposite psychological effect. Andersen quotes Linda Stone - perhaps it’s time to talk about “attention management” and not about “time management”. It turns out that there is even a whole science of distracting things that studies the effect of regular and freelance events on employee productivity. And guilty in this context should be considered ... notices!
In principle, there is nothing bad in wanting to be in touch, in the know, and sometimes take breaks, bringing diversity to the work on a boring or difficult task. But the more we get involved in the events (most often not too important for us) of the virtual world, the faster real life passes by. Let's ask ourselves - a person who is struggling to fill in photos and videos from the concert of his favorite band - does he really experience the moment with his whole soul, is he enjoying it to the fullest?
Time is the most valuable resource. Use it economically, efficiently and for good, and not to collect information, without which the world - and you - can easily live.
How to become a Time Lord of Email:
1. Divide time into portions
In an article for 99U, Cal Newport describes how he distributes the time of the working day. He divides the work time into half-hour “portions”, which he spends either on complex tasks or on small activities. That is, if you check your mail, you will have to spend the next half hour on tasks of this kind before returning to the main one.
2. Spend a strictly limited time for checking mail / notifications, for example, no more than five minutes per hour
This approach provides more flexibility and freedom than the half hour interval, but be aware that five minutes can easily turn into twenty. Again, you need to remember about discipline - so, if we set aside ten minutes for a test, but actually spent twenty minutes on it, the next test will have to be missed. In principle, the purpose of this approach is to spend no more than ten minutes per hour, that is, in general, from eighty to ninety minutes a day to check mail and important notifications. Although, of course, it is not necessary to spend exactly ten minutes each time - most of us will have five minutes.
3. Check your mail on arrival and once in the middle of the day
Radical approach. We check and respond to all letters strictly at 9 (10, 11 ...) in the morning, and then in the middle of the day, say, at 14:00. No matter how long it takes! Under no circumstances do we check mail between the hours indicated. You can inform the addressees with a signature in the letter - they say, because of the large load, I answer letters in such and such periods of time. Agree with colleagues to call you in cases where time does not tolerate. Of course, if you have contacts that don't have to wait, create separate emergency notifications for them. But only for them!
4. Unsubscribe from email
Say impossible? I do not think! ..
Based on the article "How to manage email and not let it manage you" Denis Duvoshelya for thenextweb.com site.
Photo by Michael Coghlan .
Where did this strange craving for constant checking of mail come from?
Psychology Today magazine offers its opinion on why we are constantly distracted by checking email:
')
1. Communication
Most of the assigned tasks we have to perform independently. Of course, there are meetings and conflicts, but with a specific task, everyone usually understands personally in his workplace. If the task is difficult and time consuming, then the intervals spent in conditional loneliness can be quite long. Despite the fact that each of us is able to work independently and independently, from time to time we all need communication. Mail can provide us with communication in the office mode, but the problem is that the size of the “portions” of communication in a virtual environment is difficult to control. The temptation to communicate may be too strong, and only the most diligent and purposeful can cope with it.
2. respite
Image of Conor .
Mental labor can be tiring in the same way as physical labor — especially if you have to solve a non-trivial, complex task that requires long-term reflection and a creative approach in general. Just as our body asks for a short rest after the transfer of weights, our psyche resorts to email or social networks to unload. This is our respite after a half-kilometer mental swim.
3. Change the picture
If something does not work, we tend to be distracted by other tasks until inspiration returns. This especially applies to tasks that require creative solutions. Unfortunately, instead of switching between worthy of our time affairs, we spend precious time on pointless checking mail.
A good way out of this situation is to manage two tasks (projects) at the same time in order to switch productively when thoughts come to a dead end. Personally, I found that freelancing to another company, literally several hours a week, allows me to keep a fresh look at how things are in my startup. And your own startup, I will tell you, always needs the fresh, unfathomable look of its founder.
4. Dependence on distractions
Distracting from the main task for various "important" occasions is an excellent reason to feel extremely busy. Psychology Today reports that the habit of checking email and generally being distracted by various trifles is our way to feel satisfaction from solving small tasks, in other words, to maximize your personal data per unit of time. Psychologically, it is more interesting for us to spend an hour on a bunch of “important” cases and mentally praise ourselves than to spend it puzzling over a complex, large-scale problem.
It is not easy to cultivate discipline in oneself, and modern technologies, which send us more and more convenient ways of distracting oneself from business, only complicate this process. Being constantly distracted, we spend less time on really useful things. In addition, we become a little bit more stupid, because we waste energy and time for nothing - instead of concentrating on the task, going deeply into its essence and looking for solutions, we try to remember what we thought at the moment when we decided to distract ourselves to checking mail or pages in the social network.
Mail helps us to spend time and attention on:
- on duty mailing
- notifications
- invitations to "interesting" webinars and conferences
- updates of services to which we are subscribed
- non-priority requests and tasks.
Ask yourself - if your work does not involve life and death issues, is it really necessary to check your mail more than once per hour? Well, well, you can skip a profitable auction on eBay or something like that, but this is rather an exception to the rule. Discipline yourself, get used to the mode of receiving information to maintain mental health and have more time.
Erin Andersen wrote an excellent article about how technology is fighting for our attention. Spending about a tenth of our working time on checking mail or other notifications and finding nothing important there, we subconsciously, imperceptibly to ourselves, get upset and annoyed. At the same time, being in constant contact makes us feel important and necessary, even if a robot writes us or someone just included us in the promotional mailing list.
On the other hand, conscious isolation from distractions can have the opposite psychological effect. Andersen quotes Linda Stone - perhaps it’s time to talk about “attention management” and not about “time management”. It turns out that there is even a whole science of distracting things that studies the effect of regular and freelance events on employee productivity. And guilty in this context should be considered ... notices!
In principle, there is nothing bad in wanting to be in touch, in the know, and sometimes take breaks, bringing diversity to the work on a boring or difficult task. But the more we get involved in the events (most often not too important for us) of the virtual world, the faster real life passes by. Let's ask ourselves - a person who is struggling to fill in photos and videos from the concert of his favorite band - does he really experience the moment with his whole soul, is he enjoying it to the fullest?
Time is the most valuable resource. Use it economically, efficiently and for good, and not to collect information, without which the world - and you - can easily live.
How to become a Time Lord of Email:
1. Divide time into portions
In an article for 99U, Cal Newport describes how he distributes the time of the working day. He divides the work time into half-hour “portions”, which he spends either on complex tasks or on small activities. That is, if you check your mail, you will have to spend the next half hour on tasks of this kind before returning to the main one.
2. Spend a strictly limited time for checking mail / notifications, for example, no more than five minutes per hour
This approach provides more flexibility and freedom than the half hour interval, but be aware that five minutes can easily turn into twenty. Again, you need to remember about discipline - so, if we set aside ten minutes for a test, but actually spent twenty minutes on it, the next test will have to be missed. In principle, the purpose of this approach is to spend no more than ten minutes per hour, that is, in general, from eighty to ninety minutes a day to check mail and important notifications. Although, of course, it is not necessary to spend exactly ten minutes each time - most of us will have five minutes.
3. Check your mail on arrival and once in the middle of the day
Radical approach. We check and respond to all letters strictly at 9 (10, 11 ...) in the morning, and then in the middle of the day, say, at 14:00. No matter how long it takes! Under no circumstances do we check mail between the hours indicated. You can inform the addressees with a signature in the letter - they say, because of the large load, I answer letters in such and such periods of time. Agree with colleagues to call you in cases where time does not tolerate. Of course, if you have contacts that don't have to wait, create separate emergency notifications for them. But only for them!
4. Unsubscribe from email
Say impossible? I do not think! ..
Based on the article "How to manage email and not let it manage you" Denis Duvoshelya for thenextweb.com site.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/290416/
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