Saturday, December 01, 2007
Treat Your Email Like Snail Mail and Walk Away with change
lifehack.org: "Email is a constant struggle for most of us these days. It comes in thick and fast and threatens to overwhelm us if we take even a few days away from our inbox. Is it just me, or does anyone else think that email is becoming the New Boss?"
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8 comments:
I would love to only check my email once a day. But when we first walked into Purnell it was expected that we would be checking email almost every couple hours. I am finding that if I don't check my email when I first wake up, and right before I walk out my door, I waste my time getting to school just to find that my first class at 9am was canceled at 8:31. At this point I don't think it is possible to slow down the email process.
I don't really think it's practical to answer and urgent email a week later. I think you will loose clients/jobs/employees if you started doing that, especially in our business. I answer email on my own time I think. If I get an email that deserves a real answer, I might open it, read it, and answer it later that night or the next day. I don't think that in our business, waiting so long to answer an email is wise. I think you would get fired.
One thing that I can't stand about e-mail is that not only do I check it whenever I first get on a computer, but when I get any e-mail of any sort I feel the urge to answer back straight away. That the person is wanting back an anwser right away, and that are just more and more frustrated the longer I don't answer. But I think that there is really no need to answer back right away unless it is an urgent e-mail. Althoug it would be nice if everyone treated e-mail like snail mial then i also don't think that it would be as effective as it is now. People would just start ignoring it, and then communication would tens times worse.
As others have said, I do not know how well this would work in the Purnell world. However, it is true, people will grow to expect things of you, and that is generally your own fault. Evidence? There are plenty of teachers I know within Purnell who are not in the "I ANSWER MY EMAIL MORE THAN I SEE MY OWN CHILDREN" club. I think that although in the long run this may not be completely practical in our situation, it would be interesting to try for let's say, a week. And even if we need to check it constantly, still setting a time during the day to delete and respond could be very beneficial. Especially to those of us who delete emails, let's say....NEVER!
Towards the end of this semester, as available time had gone out the window, i started doing the 'reply to all non-urgent emails once a day' thing. At 2:00a i would lay in bed and read those rehearsal reports, meeting notes, and reply to anything that did not have the dreaded 'Pre-Rehearsal, or Pre-Tech' deadline. I would still leave my outlook open most of the day because you never know when something will arrive that needs to be completed before the 6:30 deadline.
I feel like technology is increasingly taking over my life. Not just with e-mail, but in general we should be in control. Not that I'm supporting a paranoid outlook, but I'd as soon send a letter. My paper and pen will never tell me what to do.
Remember that guy who wrote last year that if you go more than 7 minutes without checking your email in today's high paced world you'll miss something important? It'd be interesting to have that guy and the one who wrote this article sit down in a room and debate this out.
Sometimes I wish more teachers had screen names so that those quick questions that I actually would like answered within the hour could be so I could get on with my work.
I think this article brings a good point, you establish how others percieve appropriate email turnaround. I typically respond to an email in an hour or two, depending on the day/personal schedule. When I went away for Thanksgiving, people were surprised I was not in correspondance as usual--but I was in the boonies with no computer or internet. I kind of chuckled at how predictable I had come. By being so connected to email, I worry that people will use it to get in contact with me urgently, I need to develop a system that reminds people the only immediate way to contact me is in person or over the phone
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