I have a simple question for you: how many email messages are in your inbox right now? The answer: it's probably more than you can handle.
I have reached the conclusion that email is the fount of all stress - well, one of the founts; there is death, taxes, environment, world peace, health etc. but email ranks right up there.
Fact: email is just the tip of the iceberg. All of our technology is steadily gaining importance in our lives to the point that it is, in many cases, overwhelming individuals.
We simply don't have the skills to manage the incredible volume of communications that arrives daily to our computer, our smartphone and our tablets. We face the productivity paradox. The fact that the technology designed to make us more efficient in fact now gets in the way of us actually getting things done.
In his book, Getting Things Done, productivity expert Dave Allen speaks about the fact that an overwhelmed inbox leads to overwhelmed individuals. And all of the stress created by having a full inbox leads to a loss of some control in people's lives. This often equates to stress, sleeping less, and a whole cascading series of negative impacts - all generated by email.
We need to begin to develop strategies and techniques for dealing with information overload. Of course, it is complicated by the fact that we don't have a single point of access to all of this information.
We have our desktop computer, often a notebook, or tablet and smartphones as well. Each of these devices becomes, when it is in our hands, our main interface for communicating with the world.
Syncing information between devices, choosing the appropriate apps to help us manage all of the information and learning to use the different tools becomes an important part of our day-today tasks.
Unfortunately, the fact is, most of us don't have the time, nor inclination, to learn to use the tools that could help us. We tend to install applications, and only learn them well enough to get the basic tasks done. We don't take advantage of all of the great built-in functions that could actually reduce the amount of time we spend in communications, give us control over the information flowing into our inbox, and help us gain a measure of control over our chaotic lives.
Where to begin? The answer is simple. Your email inbox.
The average North American knowledge worker checks email 40 times a day, and they don't normally just check their new messages, they use their email as a filing system. They scroll down in their email to see if there are any important messages or appointments or tasks that they need to accomplish. Revisiting old email has to be one of the biggest time wasters in our life.
If you're looking for the best place to start gaining time back from technology's relentless march, try following one simple rule. Read your email once, and deal with it at that point. Reply to it, if it just takes three or four minutes to do the reply. If not, schedule it for your attention at a later time, file it away for future reference if that's appropriate. Forward it to somebody, in other words delegate it (that's my favourite option). Or finally, the ultimate best thing to do with an email, trash it.
If you do one of these things, you won't be re-reading it again in an hour or two hours or two days, wasting your time. You will have taken the first step towards real efficiency.
Gaining control of your email is only the first step towards overcoming the productivity paradox. There's also contact management, calendars, meeting management, and many more areas that you can win back some time. In each case, though, the answer is similar to the email solution. It is understanding the impact that the information overload is having on your lives, and coming up with a personal discipline and strategy for dealing with it.
Steve Dotto is hosting a productivity seminar May 23 at Hollyburn Country Club. For details visit protechtivity.ca.
