The Pointy End of Email Productivity

If most people struggle with being really productive – and I believe they do, then one way to be more productive is to simply identify what most people do, and avoid doing that. Have I stated a universal truth that was previously invisible to me? I’ve called this line of thought ‘the pointy end’, because it’s all about trying to get myself into the point end of the bell curve (normal distribution curve). If most people are in the middle of the curve (which they are by definition), then if I do what they are not doing, it will put me at one of the ends. Obviously I want to be at the good end J

I thought I would do some experimentation in the workplace.

I observed that most people (including myself):

• leave their email open all day, and enable the pop-up toast alert to pop-up and chime whenever an email arrives. I also observe that they reflexively look at the pop up, and more times than not, flick over to email to read the whole message.
• answer their phone when it rings, even if they are in deep concentration and are annoyed by the call.
• allow themselves to be interrupted by colleagues, and will allow that interruption to continue for a surprisingly long time e.g. 10-15 minutes.

Experiment 1 – Close email.

I decided to close my email for periods of the day. I’ve seen this discussed on various blogs, and seemed like the easiest place to start. I decided to check it first thing in the morning, just before lunch mid afternoon, and just before I go home.

Wow, it’s hard! I realise that I’ve accidentally established the BAD HABIT of checking email every few minutes. At first I didn’t realise what was happening, but I would just notice myself scanning through all the open programs on my PC. I then realised that I was surfing for email!

It has taken a couple of days to get the rhythm of this, but I’m discovering great tracts of productive time appearing in my days. I invite you to try it for yourself. At first it feels like skipping school (that’s a guilt thing for me), but then it feels liberating!

I haven’t experimented with phone and colleague interruptions yet, they will be the subject of future posts.

I realise I need to do 2 habit-related things:

1. Breaking the habit of checking email every few minutes. This will involve getting into the habit of checking email at certain times of the day, processing the email, then closing email (we only get snail mail 5 times a week – so it must be possible!)
2. Breaking the habit of using my phone as the email security device i.e. not ‘cheating’ and checking email on that device

So, since a habit takes 21 days, I’m committing to this regime for the remainder of June.

Any other tips/suggestions/strategies are welcome!