On Email as an Electronic Mailbox

Below are some email principles that I have adopted (and re-adopted) over the past fifteen years. Nothing original here; I got all of this from other people.

1. Email is an Electronic Mailbox. Treat it as such.

  • No email on my phone.
  • Only check work email on my work computer at work.
  • Email app or tab only open when I am intentionally reading or writing mail.
  • Ruthless elimination of Junk Mail. Mark as junk. Unsubscribe. Delete. Right away. No second guessing.
  • Only check email when I have five minutes to process the inbox.
  • Rules: I have one “Crush the Suck” folder that is a catch-all for a subset of requests that simply have to be done several times a week. Expense reporting, PTO approvals, purchase orders, etc. Instead of processing them one at a time as they come in my inbox, they are automatically moved to a “CTS” folder, which I have scheduled time each day to work through.

2. Work hours are limited. Make the most of that time.

  • No response needed? Archive right away.
  • Takes less than 2 min to respond? Respond right away.
  • Will it take longer? Time block (long), or add to my paper planner task list (short).
  • 4 sentence cap on replies. Needs to be longer? Make a phone call or talk in person.

3. Heed the wisdom of St. Francis.

  • By creating a CC folder. (Get it?) All emails that I am copied on go to my CC folder, which I check less frequently than my inbox. They remain unread, but skip the inbox.
  • By being an “instrument of peace.” Where there is disunity, anger, frustration: move the conversation to the phone or in-person.

4. Rinse and repeat. You will fall off the horse; always get back on it.

  • When you ease restrictions because you think you need to, always add them back as soon as you can. Remember: you set them up when you were thinking most clearly.

Why?

At my best, I try to use email as its namesake suggests it should be used: as an electronic mailbox.

As technology advanced in the 20th and 21st centuries, and the smartphone transitioned from an executive novelty to the norm, very few of us—including myself—stopped to ask whether this was actually a good thing. We can access email 24-hours a day on our phones, but should we?

Are humans the type of beings who are able to flourish when we are never truly disconnected from our work?

I would suggest that we are not. I know with certainty that I am not.

My tendency, like most of us, became to use email as a slower version of instant messaging. I had email access on my phone and on my computer, and each of these devices notified me the instant a new message arrived. I then replied as soon as I possibly could, often feeling as though my work was not finished until I responded to every new email that arrived. This, as you can imagine, led to a sense of never feeling like I was “off-duty.” I am not alone in feeling exhausted by the “always-on” approach to email.

I am now back to trying to use email as an electronic mailbox.

Like my actual mailbox, I will check it throughout the day if I am expecting important information. Otherwise, I will likely only check it once or twice. This means that I no longer have email or internet access on my phone.

You cannot really disconnect from email after-hours if you have any possible way of accessing it on your phone. Delete the native Mail app, and use Restrictions to disable the App Store and Safari. You can not break an email-checking habit without making it impossible annoyingly difficult to check email on your mobile device.

But what about…?

Several but what abouts almost ruined my endeavor to use email as email. Here are some ways I have talked myself back into it.

If someone needs something from me immediately, they can give me a call. If they do not have my phone number, then I am probably not the person that is best equipped to handle their emergency.

If you are thinking, “I would love to do this, but my industry does not allow it,” then I would suggest two things:

(1) I thought the same thing; you are probably wrong, or (2) You are right, but I imagine you can find a way to limit the “always-on” email mentality to regular work hours.