Tuesday
Aug252009
Control your email addiction by ... checking more often!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 2:11PM
I'm just like most people when it comes to email: It's addicting and tempts me to do all those anti-productivity things I know I shouldn't do, like checking every 10 minutes (not batching) and "cherry picking" messages - ones that are fun, easy, etc. (not processing one at a time with no skipping until empty). While playing around with Gmail tools I discovered something simple that's been surprisingly helpful so far, but runs counter to common email advice.
First let's define some terms, then get into the details.
I propose breaking email inbox activity into three categories:
The general idea of the technique is to embrace the urge to frequently "get a fix" by making it easy to Monitor, more difficult to actually jump in, and easier to focus on single urgent messages, rather than getting sucked into the email black whole. Do this via a desktop widget that lists all unread messages' senders and subjects. (I used Google's Gmail dashboard widget for the Mac, but there are Windows ones such as GMail Monitor.) To apply the method simply invoke the thing when you get the urge to check. When you identify an urgent message, dispatch only that one then return your project work where you left off. Check as often as you need, but your focus is to: check, identify, handle, and return. Remember this via the handy mnemonic, CIHAR, as in "Chi, the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, gives me a chuckle - a hardy har har." (A joke, folks. We consultants apparently each need our own silly acronym.)
What I discovered is that by satisfying my urge to check, the monitoring tool gives me a few seconds of space to pause and consider whether I really need to deal with it right now, or whether it can wait. This intermediate step made me more discerning in whether to jump into email, and more likely to get back to work. If I decide to handle the message, I do so efficiently, move it out, and get back on task while resisting the magnetic attraction of other messages.
Why does this help? It might be explained by the New York Times article Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind, which discusses the limits of willpower [2].
Additional points:
Try this experiment: Use the method for a week, record your observations, then report back in a comment here or email me. Bonus: Create an Edison account (30 seconds) and track it there so we can support you and learn from your experience.
(Side note: Here's a tool opportunity: Have it count invocations/hour. I bet you'd be surprised at how high it is. Any guesses?)
First let's define some terms, then get into the details.
I propose breaking email inbox activity into three categories:
- Emptying: The standard "Base Zero" activity of examining each message in turn, deciding action, then dispatching it to another folder or the trash. GTD-ers will recognize this as Allen's Processing & Organizing phase. It's focused and highly productive. The goal: Empty the inbox as fast as possible.
- Monitoring: A triage [1] activity involving scanning unread messages, looking at the sender and the subject, and quickly pushing it through your action pipeline. The goal: Answer for for each unread message, "Is it truly urgent, or will it keep until my next emptying?"
- Checking: An ineffectual scanning, like Monitoring, where you think about each message, make a partial decision, then move onto the next one without acting. In other words, processing then unprocessing. AKA "grazing," this is what most people do, and it wastes your brainpower.
The general idea of the technique is to embrace the urge to frequently "get a fix" by making it easy to Monitor, more difficult to actually jump in, and easier to focus on single urgent messages, rather than getting sucked into the email black whole. Do this via a desktop widget that lists all unread messages' senders and subjects. (I used Google's Gmail dashboard widget for the Mac, but there are Windows ones such as GMail Monitor.) To apply the method simply invoke the thing when you get the urge to check. When you identify an urgent message, dispatch only that one then return your project work where you left off. Check as often as you need, but your focus is to: check, identify, handle, and return. Remember this via the handy mnemonic, CIHAR, as in "Chi, the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, gives me a chuckle - a hardy har har." (A joke, folks. We consultants apparently each need our own silly acronym.)
What I discovered is that by satisfying my urge to check, the monitoring tool gives me a few seconds of space to pause and consider whether I really need to deal with it right now, or whether it can wait. This intermediate step made me more discerning in whether to jump into email, and more likely to get back to work. If I decide to handle the message, I do so efficiently, move it out, and get back on task while resisting the magnetic attraction of other messages.
Why does this help? It might be explained by the New York Times article Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind, which discusses the limits of willpower [2].
Additional points:
- The tool is not a notifier - it doesn't interrupt on its own. It leaves that to you ;-)
- It must be lightening-fast to invoke it. On my computer, one keystroke. My process: Hit F11, scan quickly, then either click on and process, or F11 again to close.
- One risk is picking off the easy or interesting ones, and procrastinating on the difficult or important ones.
I'm curious...
- Have you tried anything like this? How'd it work out?
- How does my three-category breakdown of email behavior sound? What's your version?
- Do you buy the willpower explanation?
- How often do you check?
Think, Try, Learn angle
Try this experiment: Use the method for a week, record your observations, then report back in a comment here or email me. Bonus: Create an Edison account (30 seconds) and track it there so we can support you and learn from your experience.
(Side note: Here's a tool opportunity: Have it count invocations/hour. I bet you'd be surprised at how high it is. Any guesses?)
References
- [1] From the Wikipedia Triage article: "This rations patient treatment efficiently when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately. The term comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate, sort, sift or select."
- [2] Excerpts: "The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others. ... The brain's store of willpower is depleted when people control their thoughts, feelings or impulses, or when they modify their behavior in pursuit of goals. ... Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that people who successfully accomplish one task requiring self-control are less persistent on a second, seemingly unrelated task."
