I occasionally offer a rant on how email may be destroying the universe, which a few hundred of you appropriately receive by email as encouraged by yours truly. The word sanctimonious describes me if just to give hypocrite a break.
But, still, I believe that email may be destroying the universe! And although it would surprise us all, I may be an actual prophet. A hypocritical, sanctimonious prophet for sure, but a prophet nonetheless.
I shared a Harvard Business Review article in March that proposed the elimination of email. The latest issue of TIME magazine offered a mini-article titled, “Why we’re addicted to email—and how to fix it.” The Atlantic shared a video last week that explained “How an Editor Stays at Inbox Zero.”
Though I’m sensing a growing recognition of the problem, I have yet to hear much of a solution. The TIME article’s conclusion as to how to fix an addiction to email is that “we must learn to say no to some opportunities, in order to say yes to our priorities.” There you go addicts, problem solved! And The Atlantic‘s video was all about how to email efficiently (i.e., three sentence emails or fewer; dispense with a salutation, etc.). Sorry, but increased efficiency simply tells me that I can (must?) handle more volume.
So what to do?
- Step #1: Recognize the problem. It is growing and powerful.
- Step #2: Rant about it in appropriate places. I have found that email works well. (Ha!)
- Step #3: Adopt all preliminary suggestions you find in magazines. In other words, do your best not to drown while waiting for help to arrive.
- Step #4: Come up with a miraculous solution. I’m still fleshing out how this step works but feel good about its substance.
Hate to post and run, but I need to go work on a miraculous solution. First, I should check my email.
Starting to Look Up 