Monkeys love bananas, humans love e-mails.
E-mail is as addictive as gambling.
That’s the takeaway lesson from a Guardian article that Scott Hanson was kind enough to point out in a comment a little while back.
Back in the early 1990s, email was a privilege granted only to those who could prove they needed it. Now, it has turned into a nuisance that’s costing companies millions. We may feel that we have it under control, but not only do we check email more often than we realise, but the interruptions caused are more detrimental than was previously thought. . . .
It turns out that e-mail’s “variable interval reinforcement schedule” — a psychological appeal that it shares with slot machines — makes it, for many office workers, “a compulsion they are barely aware of.”
Sound familiar to you? I’ve seen this everywhere I’ve ever worked.
These findings also agree right down the line with the research embodied in this influential article, published by researchers from Intel in 2007:
Infomania: Why we can’t afford to ignore it any longer
My copy of this is marked up like a director’s script. I could quote a dozen chunks of the article for you and belabor the issue for the rest of the afternoon, but the point is this:
The stupid way YOUR organization uses e-mail IS COSTING YOU MONEY.
Please, print out “Infomania” so you can read it some evening or when you’re on a flight somewhere. Its observations won’t be going stale anytime soon.
Meanwhile, if you’re one of the huge number of people for whom e-mail is more of a burden than it is a useful tool, please DO THESE NOW:
- Turn off your e-mail and keep it off for, what?, let’s say 45 minutes for starters. Figure out how long you can go before you get in trouble with the higher-ups in your company. Your goal should be to check e-mail at two or three set times each day.
- Over time, work toward reaching Inbox Zero. For starters, read Merlin Mann on the subject.
If anybody objects to what you’re doing, just tell them, “I’m getting more done and saving my company money — and I’m not acting like a monkey anymore.”
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Related posts:
- Managers beware: Facebook isn’t the problem — e-mail is.
- Productivity tip: Batch Processing.
- Information overload: the best of the best take pains to avoid it.
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Photo by shawnbot.
Category: Productivity, The business brain
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6 Comments so far
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Tim, you are my density! Love this post, as I have lived in a place I’ll call “email hell” for many years. The company I’m referring to is hooked on email as if it were a drug. I believe we are the best at finding ways to abuse and misuse email. We’re #1, we’re #1 !!!
I hate email.
Neal — Understood, and you’re not alone in your hatred. But for many of the e-mail-afflicted that I talk to, the fact that they hate e-mail doesn’t keep them from being addicted to it.
Roy — Is this problem even on the radar for the management at your place? I mean, do they recognize at all that it’s a problem?
I had this conversation with a VP two nights ago. They realize it’s a problem, but don’t know how to get off the drug. Part of it is cultural–guys at high levels are hooked on their Blackberry instead of thinking and planning. What they fail to see is that they are busy, but not productive.
I’ve been able to “train” my peers, staff and boss that if something is urgent, CALL or TEXT me. I don’t check email like others at the office do. I’m actually walking around, talking to a few folks and trying to figure out how to get stuff done.
Roy — It’s a real epidemic. The more people I talk to, including those who consult on workplace efficiency etc., the more they tell me stories like yours.
I wonder whether it’s the case that most execs & workers don’t *know* that it’s a problem, or that they know about it but don’t / won’t / can’t take action on it.