Emails!

Back in 1999, I got my first email account. 

My friend and I went to a cyber cafe next to college. While surfing the net, we were intrigued and excited. We fumbled with the keyboard, mouse, and UI.  Soon we had opened our accounts in yahoo.com. We were the first recipients of each other´s first email. We felt happy that day!

In the first few years since then, worldwide web felt like an exciting, unique, and possibly fruitful addition to life.

A decade down the line, emailing is not a unique or exciting experience anymore. But is it usually fruitful? I still am not sure!

Now the internet encompasses our lives. 

I have a smartphone. I can access the internet at a click of a button and I have access to my emails at all times. Or rather emails have access to me all the time! :)

So I realized over a period of time that I was not sleeping well at night. I felt that the phone will ring anytime, and slept light in anticipation of that.  

I tried keeping the phone on silent, but even then I found myself waking up every few hours to check my emails on phone.

So now I don´t keep my phone with me in bed when I sleep at night. Rather I keep phone on table- and that´s quite a distance away from my bed.

Now I atleast get a few hours of being just with myself.

At work, we usually spend our time reading, writing, or replicating emails every second minute.  With so much emphasis on staying connected, I have been wondering what all might we be missing out on at work.

Over last month, I have been trying a new way of responding to emails. I check and respond to my emails only twice a day – for about 45 minutes each – 1 slot in the morning and 1 slot in the evening.

All the other times in the day are creation/relationship building/contracting/project times. 

This POA seems to be working for me.

I feel my day is more easy paced. I do more and better work. I feel more satisfied at the end of the day. I manage to clear and respond to all my emails too.

Importantly, I have defined and contracted on what timely response to emails means to me – response within 24 hours until and unless an email is marked as High Importance.

Work seems to be more meaningful now, inspite of barrage of emails I receive every day!

In this connected/networked world , what has worked for you in doing things beyond emailing?

-                                                           

Sourav