EMAIL SPECIAL.......... Are You Living in Your Inbox?

Are You Living in Your Inbox?

It was midnight. I checked my phone, saw a notification in my  inbox, and without thinking opened it up and replied to it. I hadn't done this for a long time now. I had been consciously avoiding responding to my mails after office hours, especially in the middle of the night! Because the minute you give the opposite person an opportunity to think you are on call 24/7, you will take away any semblance of work-life balance that you set out to create in the first place. Inboxes are dangerous places to live in. They eat into your  precious me-time, shift your focus from the job at hand, and yes, destroy your sanity. The other day, a friend of mine said he receives almost 300 work  emails every day and is expected to reply to all. Is this really what work has become?  Weren't we primarily trained to ideate, manage, and create? If so, why are we living in our inboxes? Email is merely a mode of communication. It cannot be work itself, especially not to the point that we have no time left over for professional development. It also cannot become life itself, where we're so consumed by it that we are constantly checking for notifications from the boss or customer and responding to them during all hours of the day. Thus, it's important to maintain a healthy distance from your inbox and look at it with a detached and cool gaze, knowing that it is only a tool and not the end or goal. Here are some ways to avoid getting caught up in the world of never-ending emails. Reply based on urgency Some emails need your attention but not immediately, such as FYIs or those you've merely been copied in. These can wait until  a better time in your schedule. Then there are those correspondences  that need your instant response for the task to move forward.  An email that can delay a delivery or anyone else's work that is dependent on you should be addressed ASAP. Create time blocks  Many people divide their workday into blocks. One block of the day could be for ideating, planning, or creating. Another chunk could be for communications such as responding to emails and  conducting meetings. And still another could be for professional  development such as research and study time. Research at the University of California, Irvine showed that productivity starts at  around 11am and wears off by 2 or 3 pm. This theory actually works  for me too, and so I get most of my writing done in the morning before I set out to do any other task or reply to emails later in the day. Declutter your inbox  Productivity guru Merlin Mann developed the concept of 'Inbox Zero', which is about emptying your inbox to enhance creativity and productivity. A good way of doing this is by deleting all the emails you don't need. The next step then is to put emails for different tasks into different folders. You could sort them by company name or client, if you're managing more than one. While it may not be possible to completely empty your inbox, you could at least clear it of the junk and spam and keep it free for new important emails. Unsubscribe to the redundant stuff  I once subscribed to a newsletter for men. I did it just to know the style of the publication, since I'm in the information business.  But soon, the content was so irrelevant that I thought it better to unsubscribe. We tend to over-subscribe on the internet, especially to free newsletters that we don't need. Most of these  become redundant over time and we then have to delete them  as we get them. Instead, unsubscribe to what you haven't read  for several months. Moreover, all the content of newsletters  is on their websites too, so you will find it later, if at all you need to refer to it. Scan over what you can There are many emails we receive that are not meant to be read  in such great detail but we still find difficult to delete without opening them…read discounts, offers, invites etc. Such stuff can  be simply opened, scanned and deleted if not necessary. The same is also true for trail mails. You may just be needed for one part of the conversation and the rest may not be  addressed to you directly. So unless you want a background to the whole story, just scan the rest, respond as needed, and move on to the next email. Don't always resort to email A lot of an organisation's communication needn't be via email. What is simpler to do on the phone or on Whatsapp or even one  quick joint meeting shouldn't be done in heaps of emails that  decrease productivity and efficiency. When dealing with other geographies, email may be preferred to get everyone on the same  page. But with the various conference call options available, you could avail of them too for better communication. This will give you a greater sense of people's thoughts and help everyone involved stay more connected as well. Everything can wait Yes, anything and everything can wait. Not everything is urgent,  and not everything is important (unless, of course, you're a doctor or a fireman or in the armed forces). A sense of urgency is good, but don't let it overpower your reason. If nothing is going to happen in the night anyway, there's no point responding  to it at those hours. Time away from email is valuable time to yourself. You should use it to build on your skills, recharge your batteries, and to refocus on your goals. Use email as much as is needed - no more, no less - and watch  as you become more productive and time efficient too.  By Ritika Bajaj COMMONSENSE LETTERS