OK so I have a hate-it-but-need-it relationship with email (like most people I suspect). Lots of important stuff gets settled through email, most of my business comes through email, and without email my day would instead be punctured by phone calls and meetings and chats. But still... Past couple of weeks Ive been losing the battle so, like a good scientist, instead of solving the problem I analyzed it :) Average week is 104 emails (not counting stuff that gets caught by the awesome spam filter in gmail, and not counting my spotify-internal mail). Of those: 27 = junk email (newsletters and stuff). Need to unsubscribe more aggressively! 25 = info that I sort of care about but dont need to do anything with. Could probably cut that in half! 20 = social networking notifications. Not FB likes and comments, but things like the weekly batch of LinkedIn connection requests, direct messages and stuff. I care, but not that much. Could probably cut that in half! 9 = logistics for existing and upcoming commitments. Hotel arrangements, keynote topics, etc. Unavoidable. 8 = blog comment moderation. Keep. I want to be engaged in what people write on my blog. 6 = Random questions from people (can I translate your article), and light-weight assistance (like Id like to visit Spotify, who can I talk to). Will probably create an FAQ and a canned response for many of these. 5 = Knowledge sharing. People telling me interesting stuff about what theyre doing and learning. Keep! 5 = New customer inquiries (most commonly help my company implement agile/lean or do a keynote at our conference). Im pretty booked up, so mostly keep delegating to my colleagues & partners. Having to say no so often hurts my soul. 6 = other stuff, social chit-chat, etc. Overall goal: Cut email in half, so I can empty the inbox in 20 minutes per day (love the 2 minute rule!). Wish me luck! (and yes, Im a bit embarassed griping about this when so much more serious crap is happening in the world). And, you ask, why am I posting this on FB? Because Im procrastinating is why! There, I said it. Stay tuned for more meaningless stuff :) Or share your own email coping strategies.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 14:48:40 +0000
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