Category Archives: technology

Stop Email Insanity

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How email intervals can save you from insanity
By MIKE ANDERSON

Problem:
Email is unre lent ing, and when you tend to your inbox—people just reply back to you more quickly. Email will take over your life if you let it. Here’s how I fought back.

Solution: Email Intervals
Step 1: At the beginning of the day decide when you’ll check email. I suggest that you pick a time in morning and at the end of the day, and stick to only opening your inbox at those times. We’ve been trained like lab rats to keep hitting the refresh bar, but it’s silly and makes us unproductive.

Step 2: Get a timer. Email inter vals will require you to sprint through your email for a set period of time. Grab a timer…..

Step 3: Work like a crazy person for 10 minutes. Open your inbox like a horse leaving the gate — hustle. You will be surprised how much email you can get done in the first interval. In the first 10 minutes try to use what ever processing system you use to tell what is important, what is trash, and what is good to just file away.

Step 4: Take a two minute break and read a few pages. I find that I clear my mind by reading a few pages of a book. It takes me out of the suffering torment of email for just long enough to remind myself that if I hurry I can get through my entire inbox and get back to meaningful work — creating things, meeting with people, planning, building, thinking, discovering, investing in relationships…

Step 5: Repeat and then shut down your email program. When you finish your short break, get back to another 10 minutes of hustling through your email. and repeat steps 3 and 4 until you’ve done what you need to.

My findings
Most people rely on email way too much — it’s a good communica­tion tool, but it lacks emotion, can go on rabbit trails, and gives peo­ple a sense that they need to include every one in their conversation (death by cc:).

People learn quickly that if they need you immediately, they should pick up the phone. A 3 minute phone call or face to face conversa­tion can clear up a 20 email conversation, and has the added bonus of build ing a trust relationship with that person.

A quiet soul… (updated)

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Cell PhoneAll too often, when I am waiting for something, or doing a simple task, I try to add another activity (reading something, or making notes, etc.). Multitasking may seem to be a virtue in today’s culture, but it cannot profit you spiritually. To properly approach God, requires a right attitude and sense of need, as seen in Psalm 131….

131:1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this
time forth and forevermore. esv

We need to grasp what David here grasps: humility and a sense of need before the Almighty, as well as a turning from anxiousness and the need for control. Calmness of spirit is the sign of one who knows the gracious qualities of the Lord he approaches, as well as child-like trust in His love.

O friends, hope in the Lord in this way….
pdb

UPDATE: Check out an excellent essay related to this post, by Dr Al Mohler entitled “Where Do All the Colors Go at Night?” — Children and the Need for Silence. Here is an excerpt…

One of the most lamentable aspects of modern life is the disappearance of silence. Throughout most of human history, silence has been a part of life. Many individuals lived a significant portion of their lives in silence, working in solitude and untroubled by the intrusion of constant noise.

Historians often point to the Industrial Revolution as a great turning point in the human experience of environmental sound and constant noise. The arrival of the factory and the concentration of human populations in cities bought a transformation that was accompanied by increased noise and the displaced silence. Today, the problem of noise pollution is a matter of concern to many of us, who find our lives frequently interrupted by unwanted sounds and constant noise.

Our culture now assumes noise and the constant availability of music, electronic chatter, and entertainment. In many homes, there is virtually no silence — at least during waking hours. In some homes, family members live in isolated environments of independent sound, with iPods, televisions, radios, and any number of other technologies providing a customized experience of noise.

All this takes a toll upon the soul…. READ THE WHOLE THING