Email can be a wonderful communication tool….until it becomes overwhelming. When keeping up with what’s in your inbox takes up more time than you have available, it’s time to make a change.
In the last five years, there has been a lot of data published regarding email and how it impacts our work-life balance, as well as our productivity at work. Did you know:
- 62% of work email is checked at home over the weekend, with more than 19% of email users checking it 5 or more times each weekend
- Organizations lose more than $5,150-$7,150 per email user in annual productivity due to spam, unnecessary, and poorly written email communications
And then there’s the impact that email has on face-to-face, interpersonal communications. I’ve seen it break-down workplace communication so badly that we’ve had to ban internal email usage just to get co-workers communicating in a meaningful way with one another again. It’s all too easy to hide behind email when you’re upset, frustrated, or looking to avoid conflict. The fact of the matter is that email only makes these issues worse.
I recently read Scott Berkun’s book, “The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work”. My main interest was in learning more about how a virtual company like WordPress.com operates, since my small company is also virtual in that we are spread all over the country. My biggest surprise was in learning that the employees at WordPress.com, a high-tech company, rarely use email. They’ve found other ways of communicating that mirrors live, face-to-face communication more effectively than email. And they work in small teams spread out all over the world!
It’s time to make a change, and what better time than January? Join me in taking the 2014 30-Day Email Reduction Challenge. Here’s how you can make a conscious choice to rule your inbox, instead of the other way around:
- Sending Email: Starting with Day 1, as you compose each email ask yourself if the email is necessary. If it is, then ask yourself if there’s an alternative, more direct way to communicate than the use of email. If you can, eliminate that email and use an alternative form of communication. At the end of day 1, count the total number of sent emails and for the next 30 days work towards reducing your sent emails by at least 1, each day. How low can you go in 30 days? I’d love to see you post your achievements in the comments section on this post!
- Receiving Email: I know that more than 50% of the email I receive everyday is unnecessary email from companies and brands I’ve signed up with (or not) over the years. It’s gotten so out of control that it’s pretty typical for my inbox to have more than 30 emails when I wake up at 6am. Starting with Day 1, instead of deleting unopened, unnecessary email—take the time to open, visually scan and unsubscribe to unnecessary or unwanted emails. Keep only the ones you are truly interested in hearing from on a regular basis. At the end of the month, how many emails have you unsubscribed from? I’ll post my numbers on February 1st!