Lifehack: "When it comes to our work email, most of us see it as a ball and chain. We’ve constantly got to be checking it, or risk the wrath of the bosses and co-workers that are trying to communicate with us. If we don’t respond to an email within 5 minutes, we’re seen as lazy or unproductive. But according to some experts, checking your email too frequently is actually a major factor that can contribute to diminished productivity. If you are one of those “every time my phone dings I must check my email immediately” sort of people, read on to discover why you may have become your own worst enemy.
Monday, April 25, 2011
How Many Times A Day Should You Check Your Email?
Lifehack: "When it comes to our work email, most of us see it as a ball and chain. We’ve constantly got to be checking it, or risk the wrath of the bosses and co-workers that are trying to communicate with us. If we don’t respond to an email within 5 minutes, we’re seen as lazy or unproductive. But according to some experts, checking your email too frequently is actually a major factor that can contribute to diminished productivity. If you are one of those “every time my phone dings I must check my email immediately” sort of people, read on to discover why you may have become your own worst enemy.
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The problems I find with limiting when you check your email, are that you never know when something will completely change your day. Yes, maybe that makes me sound like an email addict, but I check my email when I wake up in the morning. Perhaps it is in hope that my professor will have canceled my class that morning, or that the reading that never showed up on blackboard is actually going to be due at the scheduled time. I, unlike many at the school of drama, do not have a smart phone. I'm really not trying to hold onto the past, but I just don't. I feel that I'm at a disadvantage of sorts because I don't know the information before others. I don't know certain things until I can grab my laptop and check. Maybe that's how I'm still avoiding the constant interruptions, but I check my email enough to compensate.
Although I believe that this article is true for people working in an office environment in which e-mail checking can become a problem, I feel that for people working in theatre, all of these suggestions are difficult to enact. In theatre, communication is the basis of our work in which everybody relies on everybody. Also, people in theatre do not have hours in the day. We have days. With some sleep here and there. Therefore, e-mail can be sent or read at any time during the day. But the key is responding as soon as possible with the best possible answer/solution/advice that you can give. Moreover, people working in theatre are at their best interest to check their e-mail throughout the day in order to ensue the best possible communication throughout the show.
I probably check my email 5 or more times a day. I do find though that on days when I really need to get up early and finish something I will do anything but check my email. And sometimes using checking my email as a reward for accomplishing something is a really effective way to make myself move faster. How messed up is that? That I reward myself with a whole bunch of communication that'll probably just make me miserable. Ah the age of email.
I completely agree with Ariel. There are so many random e-mails that I get through the day about crew calls getting canceled, classes getting canceled, things I need to suddenly bring to school for some reason and other things. If I didn't check my e-mail as frequently as I do then my life would be an absolute mess I wouldn't know about anything happening around me. But I do have priorities. I will leave some e-mails sitting for a while because I know they aren't important to read right then. But there are other times when I have to read the e-mails right then so my life doesn't fall apart.
These emails come up every now and then, and every time I see them, I always feel like this advice is focused towards a specific group of people. As Madeline said, this might be great for people working in an office, but for people in our field, it just doesn't seem like that great of an idea to only check your email once or twice a day. Morgenstern commented that checking your email isn't "actively making money for you or your company". Well, for people in our field, especially freelancers, that's not necessarily true. Many important communications that involve a job that you are/have the opportunity to make money from are done through email. It's a huge tool in our field. Sometimes I think we may rely on it too much, with one word emails here and there, but until we all as a whole stop relying on it so much, if you as a single person stop, you could be missing out on quite a bit.
Actually, based on Tucker's last post (which I know I read and likely commented on) I've started checking my email less and less each day. I try pretty hard to only check email two or three times a day, max. Pretty soon, I'd love to get it down to once. I've really cut back significantly on the facebook'n too. That's down to once a day, usually in the evening OR the morning.
What's surprising is what I've learned about my own habits once I actively cut out laborious email/facebook checking: Namely, that a great deal of it was just empty procrastination. Now, when I've finished a task, my "break" is to get up, get a drink, stretch my legs, etc and not more email-checking under the guise of getting work done. It FEELS like I'm more productive, even if it's only a slight increase in my output.
I agree that these rules are more likely to benefit an office worker than a theatre fellow. Because time is so important. The most realistic suggestion is the 5 times a day rule. And the flow chart idea sounds like it could help. Deciding if you can deal with it in less than two minutes or solve the problem at all. But I think that in theatre a few hours can make all the difference. For ordering, scheduling, problem solving, often the information does need be provided as soon as possible. Likely, if you don't respond to your email within a few hours or almost a day, people will start calling you to get the information they need. But also, lots of things change in the theatre and pretty last minute. You need to know if something has been cancelled, moved, or changed. If my computer is in front of me my email is always open on a tab, but I can go a day without checking my email and its not a big deal.
I am definitely addicted to my email. I check it way too often during the day, but most of my email is junk, so it's not like I spend hours responding to email. I'm sure this isn't the case for upperclassmen and faculty. But in my case I check my email just to see if something will change my day, like Ariel said. For example, I woke up this morning, checked my email, and my teacher canceled my first class. I think my downfall with the email battle is my iPhone that allows checking email to take two seconds, so I check it when I'm bored or waiting or something. However, I'm not someone who feels the need to respond to email as soon as I see it. Usually I respond later in the day or the next day depending on when I have time.
As the author of the article states, there are many "expert" opinions on what to do. It's kind of confusing.
I find that if I check my email too often I focus all of my attention and efforts for the day on an expected email and not on whatever else I need to be doing.
I can't tell somebody what to do when it comes to their own personal sense of email. It's up to each individual person to check his/her email when needed and still get their work done on-time. No amount of email tips will actually solve the problem. The biggest tip? Check your email when you need to and do your work. There, done.
I have learned from articles like this and a lecture given by David Boevers. I check my e-mail a lot less now than I did 6 months ago. (Unlike my wife who is a hard core e-mail and FaceBook addict.)The downfall is, sometimes I miss an important e-mail concerning a class cancellation, and when I do get to responding to e-mail it takes a bit longer than normal. I also have become more patient when sending e-mails and not expecting immediate responses.
It's quite funny that I read this e-mail today of all days. Just this morning I checked my e-mail as soon as I woke up only to find that my morning class had been canceled. I then proceeded to sleep until 1:30. Every person's situation is different and unique and therefore everyone should have their own e-mail schedules. It is unfair to say that one way is wrong or right. There is no way of creating a fair and generalized 'proper' e-mail schedule.
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