It costs how much?
The REAL cost of email
The student's question was given in desperate fashion: "PLEASE help me do something about my inbox. I'm drowning in email!"
This story is not isolated. Your inbox fills with emails. Many of them are critical, and the ease of responding on your schedule makes email a special blessing we've come to rely on in the last generation.
But just as quickly, you receive requests for action from meetings you didn't attend, information you have no responsibility to know, updates to docs you will never read, long-winded and multi-threaded conversations about topics beyond your expertise, and policies or protocol that you've heard in three other forums.
And that's just the work-related stuff. You also get jokes and links from friends (you won't believe what happened!), notes from your kids' teachers, schedule requests (maybe even from family), and newsletters from your favorite speech coach (you should read those first!). Then there's the spam, telling you that you have a package that wasn't delivered (open this .zip file to print out the delivery instructions!), are in danger of contempt of court (open the doc and fax it back!), have bank drafts being executed against your account (click here to access your account!), and a good friend who is traveling abroad and needs funds wired immediately.
Then there's texting. And the phone. And all those meetings, web conferences, and "presentations."
It adds up. Quickly. To the point that we spend a great deal of our time dealing with communication methods that were supposed to make us more efficient and give us more time.
Does this describe your world? Go
here to download the white paper we've written on the subject of the high cost of email. You'll be surprised at how much of your life is spent uselessly deleting email that you should never have to read?
What can you do about it? First, the real problem is almost always with the SENDER. We need to train our friends and organizations to communicate more efficiently. That can include well-structured emails and carefully trimming the To: and CC: lines. It's Rule #1 stuff - never send an email you wouldn't want to read!
But even when bad emails find you, there are lots of things we can do to manage the flow of information. The most dramatic is to limit the times you are on email and turning off alerts.
"But, I can't do that?" you say. You can. It might take some adjustment, but very few people are hired or make their living from email communication, so there are ways to accomplish what is important without a constant email barrage. It's a different mindset. But the tactical details can work themselves out quite nicely.
You may even get much of your life back.
Compute the cost of email to you personally. Draft a plan for reducing the amount of time you spend in email. Use that time for... Whatever you want!
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Why Modern Business Communication is Killing Productivity (and what you can do about it)
To see Alan give his lighthearted and convicting keynote, "Why Modern Business Communication is Killing Productivity (and what you can do about it)," on the subject of the cost of business communications (including meetings and bad PowerPoint), check him out at one of the following conferences later this month, or schedule him to come to your organization.
Speaking Engagements:
