In my daily effort to achieve a downshifting lifestyle, an increase of my efficiency at work would play a big role as it would automatically result in less time spent at the office and therefore more time for me.
Emails are one of the main distractions at work, causing waste of time and possibly representing the biggest inefficiency of all. What if I could dramatically reduce the time I spend catching up with my emails? How much time could I save at work and dedicate to something else?
Reducing the time (and effort) spent in such activity would end up in having more time for the really important targets to achieve at work, hence increase my efficiency and have more time for me to enjoy the real life out there.
Strange to say, I've noticed only 20% (or even less) of the emails I receive every day are really important. The vast majority are just crap: no really necessary information, no actions required, not linked to my workplan and deliverables, etc.. Many emails are so un-necessary that I think they're sent with the only intent to say "I'm busy and working hard, I'm good"; pathetic!
I have also noticed that when the email is important I always receive a reminder if I don't reply after a few days. On the other hand old non-answered emails are just forgotten by the sender when the topic is of little or no importance. If I answered it would have been a waste of time!
What would happen if I just ignored all the non-important emails?
What would happen if 80% of the emails remained unread?
The advantage would be very clear (less time wasted checking emails = more efficiency at work = more time for me) while the disadvantage is uncertain: would this create problems to my work? would I really miss something important?
I think the juice is worth the squeeze so I've decided to give it a try. I created a new folder in my inbox which I called "NO.RE.LO.P." (= NOt RElevant LOw Priority) where I will move all the crap emails not directly related to my deliverables without even opening them.
The "NO.RE.LO.P." experiment is on! Will it work?
I will post updates to monitor the progress, so stay tuned.
Emails are one of the main distractions at work, causing waste of time and possibly representing the biggest inefficiency of all. What if I could dramatically reduce the time I spend catching up with my emails? How much time could I save at work and dedicate to something else?
Reducing the time (and effort) spent in such activity would end up in having more time for the really important targets to achieve at work, hence increase my efficiency and have more time for me to enjoy the real life out there.
Strange to say, I've noticed only 20% (or even less) of the emails I receive every day are really important. The vast majority are just crap: no really necessary information, no actions required, not linked to my workplan and deliverables, etc.. Many emails are so un-necessary that I think they're sent with the only intent to say "I'm busy and working hard, I'm good"; pathetic!
I have also noticed that when the email is important I always receive a reminder if I don't reply after a few days. On the other hand old non-answered emails are just forgotten by the sender when the topic is of little or no importance. If I answered it would have been a waste of time!
What would happen if I just ignored all the non-important emails?
What would happen if 80% of the emails remained unread?
The advantage would be very clear (less time wasted checking emails = more efficiency at work = more time for me) while the disadvantage is uncertain: would this create problems to my work? would I really miss something important?
I think the juice is worth the squeeze so I've decided to give it a try. I created a new folder in my inbox which I called "NO.RE.LO.P." (= NOt RElevant LOw Priority) where I will move all the crap emails not directly related to my deliverables without even opening them.
The "NO.RE.LO.P." experiment is on! Will it work?
I will post updates to monitor the progress, so stay tuned.
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