Introduction Ever complaint about too many emails? I think so. Not only because you clicked on this article, but I know of it being a common problem. So so often I hear my acquaintances or clients, saying “I have to do my emails!” or “I spend hours just to get ahead of things.” It´s worse after holidays. Source: https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/frau-schreibtisch-laptop-buro-4240504/ I have good news for you. And bad news. Good news: You can change that Bad news: You yourself have to change that You might think now, well, that´s a big say of him. He does not know about MY situation! I am so busy! I have so many emails! I have to deal with so many things! I am so important! I have to take care of everything! But are you? Do you have to? I mean, really? I don´t think so. That´s what I am going to show you in this article. Also, I have an additional bonus pro tipp at the end of my article. The stories we tell ourselves We, as humans consist of stories. Every group we interact with tells itself stories to keep them alive. Only therefore companies, money, states exist. I wrote about that by analyzing soccer clubs, which are also just stories. See . here Source: https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/schwarze-und-rote-schreibmaschine-1995842/ You tell yourself stories. I myself, tell me that I am not good in playing soccer (which I am really not), that I am not good in math (working on it) and many other things. When you tell yourself stories you believe in these. But you can change these stories. I changed my “I am not a morning person” into waking up at five or six am — by myself without alarm (to be honest, this is rather new). I changed “Cold showers are totally unbearable for me, big no no, I need the warmth!” into taking showers with ONLY cold water. I do that now for two years on average on 6 out of 7 days of the week. Trust me with this and read on. Or continue telling yourself your same old stories. Stay stuck and complain about it. Sound to harsh? Sorry, I read too many . So should you. Each of them. (I am working on the story of myself that I am a too diplomatic kind of guy, too. 😊) books of Nassim Taleb A different story to tell yourself Let me bring you another story, a theorem, a mental model. I wrote about mental models and what they are in connection with nightlife . here This other story is the , which basically says that increased efficiency in the usage of a resource does not lead to less but to more demand. This is because more efficiency leads to more usage. rebound effect Source: https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/arbeiten-muster-internet-abstrakt-1089438/ Applying this logic to you and your emails means that the better you get in reading and writing emails the more emails you will receive. For example, if you receive an email from a client and answer right away you reward her behavior by this reply. This — consciously or unconsciously — let´s her know that her action of writing an email will get her a reply back. You her behavior. reinforce You might now say or think: “But I have to reply!”. Again, do you have to? Do you have “writing emails” in your job description? If so, in case you are a communication agent or similar, better stick to it. If not? Well, this leads me to the ideas that can help you change your struggle with emails in the next section. Start with questions to ask yourself Take some time and ask yourself the following. No, not somewhen. Do it now! What´s your job? Is it writing emails? (yes, ask yourself again) What are the of your email reading and writing behavior? What kind of (deep) work do you cannot do? opportunity costs What else do you miss out on? What are the things you are missing out on worth in comparison to writing emails? If you wanna get one level deeper, close your eyes and ask yourself: What feelings come up in your body when you think of your email inbox? Listen to your bodily feelings here. What are your normal actions in response to that feeling? And finally: What do you really want to achieve with your behavior? You do not have to find answers now. Asking the questions is a good start. If answers come write them down to make `em stick. What to do now Time for some hands on ideas of what to do. Source: Based on: https://www.pexels.com/de-de/foto/motivierende-einfache-inschrift-gegen-zweifel-5238645/ Do not reply (to emails you receive), or at least a little later than usual If it´s your colleagues, suggest and do a or weekly instead daily standup When people start asking why you did not reply, tell them what you are doing — many will like the idea. If not, show them this article. If they still not like the idea, they wanna stay stuck. Let them. . And this doesn´t only apply to emails! Their expectations of you are not your problem — it´s their`s Create an “do not disturb” out of office reply in which you say something like: You can also add a link to this article. “I am changing my ways of handling emails. I thereby create time for myself to deeply work on meaningful tasks. I might get back to you, I might not. If it`s urgent, call me (is it urgent?). If it`s not, lets find some other time and means to deal with this topic.” Look at emails at certain daily fixed timeslots Delete the email app from your phone (tough one!)Disallow push notifications on your mobile your laptop (disable of them in the best case) and all Continue writing your emails but look at it differently. Stop seeing it as a necessity. This will already change a lot. Summed up: Give up the idea of inbox zero. The more you work on your emails, the more you will get. If you still don´t believe me, see another theory below to back up what I am saying. Some systems theory I am a beginner student of systems theory and follow the . He worked on his systems theory for decades. Let me try to point out the most relevant points here. If you want to dive in further, you can listen to his on Spotify (German only). Luhmann school 14 (!) introductory lectures He says that systems are autopoietic. That means that they keep themselves alive. They keep themselves alive by performing operations (like reading and writing emails). What are systems? You are a system. You, together with your colleagues are a system. Your organization is a system. Your town is. Your country is. It´s systems in systems and it´s complex. It´s “ .” turtles all the way down Source: My own creativity with the help of Power Point In general, social systems keep themselves alive by communication. A system does not consist of it´s participants, but of the established communication structures. In this case your emails. In order to change a system, you need to irritate it. This does not guarantee a change of behavior of that system but makes the change a little more likely than without the irritation. That is the reason I mentioned the actions / interventions above. With these actions you can irritate others. Attention! They might fight back because you kind of question their deeply held assumptions (stories) about themselves. And if you yourself still do not believe me, well that´s part of a waaaaay longer discussion. Way longer means, of Niklas Luhmann. And he is not the only systems thinker. 70 books (!) and more than 400 articles Bonus pro tipp “Meetings should really be phone calls, phone call should be emails, and phone calls should just be texts.” (Naval Ravikant) Does that contradict partly what I said above? Sure! Cope with it. If you are looking for one sided answers, look somewhere else. Disclaimer I am really happy that you read this far. I am rather bold with my statements in this text. The points of view are quite one sided. I am aware of that. But they are also loosely held. I am ready to give them up in a glimpse because reality is always way more complex than one line of argumentation. But it`s less fun. I am happy to discuss any of the things I stated above. Mostly, to challenge my points of view — which I do continuously. I love to have opposing views in my head at the same time — and try to function nevertheless (based on a quote of F. Scott Fitzgerald) So, feel free to connect and discuss. You find me on twitter @SirRendipity or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-schmidt-550bb820/ If you are interested in the application of mental models on seemingly unrelated topics, follow me. Sources 100 truths you will learn to late — Luca Delanna: https://www.amazon.de/Truths-Will-Learn-Late-English-ebook/dp/B07RRCXV3J Tradeoffs: The Currency of Decision Making: https://fs.blog/2019/12/tradeoffs-decision-making/ Soccer and it´s loss of meaning: https://florianschmidt-43639.medium.com/soccer-and-it-s-loss-of-meaning-165fee548bd5 Books from Nassim Taleb: https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&query=124120180 Rebound effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebound_effect_(conservation) Reinforcement — Burrhus Frederic Skinner: . https://en.wikipedia.org wiki/Reinforcement#:~:text=In%20behavioral%20psychology%2C%20reinforcement%20is,by%20a%20specific%20antecedent%20stimulus.&text=Reinforcement%20does%20not%20require%20an,effect%20elicited%20by%20the%20stimulus Mental Models, the nightlife and the deejay: https://florianschmidt-43639.medium.com/mental-models-the-nightlife-and-the-deejay-4d4846a603c5 Opportunity costs: https://fs.blog/2019/12/tradeoffs-decision-making/ Stand up meetings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-up_meeting Systems Theory — Niklas Luhmann: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklas_Luhmann Spotify: Carl-Auer autobahnuniversität: https://open.spotify.com/show/0HVLyjAHZkFMVr9XDATMGz?si=6dQvjt_iRzuSaPNYzi2gTQ Also published at https://florianschmidt-43639.medium.com/inbox-zero-is-a-lie-you-tell-yourself-882c790b92bc

Amazon

Twitter

Read My Stories

Too Long; Didn't Read

Make resilience your competitive advantage

Inbox zero is a lie you tell yourself

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Untitled Story

Behavioral vs. Mechanical: Lenses to Evaluate Cryptocurrencies

How to Define User Behavior Using Methods Like Grouping, 2x2 Matrix, and Venn Diagram.

Understanding The Dunning-Kruger Effect

101 Stories To Learn About Email

10 Things to Do in a Professional Email Signature (With Examples)

Behavioral vs. Mechanical: Lenses to Evaluate Cryptocurrencies

How to Define User Behavior Using Methods Like Grouping, 2x2 Matrix, and Venn Diagram.

Understanding The Dunning-Kruger Effect

101 Stories To Learn About Email

10 Things to Do in a Professional Email Signature (With Examples)

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps