Do you return every email message? Do you check your email in the bathroom?

Photo by ArtNow 314

via Mashable 

According to a new study from AOL, 59% of people check their email in the bathroom.  The study of 4,000 users also showed people check their email from the following locations:

•  In bed in their pajamas: 67%
•  From the bathroom: 59%
•  While driving: 50%
•  In a bar or club: 39%
•  In a business meeting: 38%
•  During happy hour: 34%
•  While on a date: 25%
•  From church: 15% (up from 12% last year)

This may be a less of a statement about email addiction and more about how email is out of hand.  Maybe it's time to turn off the damn email software and take a walk or get better at social productivity?

Earlier in the summer, Linda Stone wrote a piece called "RIP: Returned Every Email."  She wrote about a conversation she had with "Bruno, GenY and twenty-something," who named three communication tools: email, I.M., and the telephone and detailed his response habits.  Linda suggested adding your communication preferences to your email signature as a way to cut down on unnecessary email.

In the comments, I riffed on it a bit:

1.) Give a hoot, don't data pollute.  Think before your click reply all.
2.) If you replying to edit my copy, let's take this to a wiki, please
3.) I put you on the cc:line as FYI no need to reply
4.) One word rapid replies are best done in IM.  Are you my skype, google talk, or aim buddy list?
5.) If we've traded more than 3 emails, let's resolve this the old fashioned way - pick up the phone.
6.) No need to say thanks
7.) Short and sweet gets answered before long winded ...

Linda has since abandoned the signature spelling out communication response habits as she received some odd reactions.  People were offended.

But how can you avoid spending your entire day hitting reply?  Living at the post office?

 

 

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Comments

[Holly]

I found this article in Time Magazine really sad - inability to pay attention. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4362950.ece

[Alicia C. Staley (@stales)]

I think this is an interesting discussion. Email has morphed into this catch-all communication black hole. My team is working to "redefine" what email really means for us.... Quick messages to to IM, SMS accounts. Discussions about a specific topic get pushed to our wikispace. It's quite a challenge. I'd love to see how more non-profits are dealing with this as well!

[Chad Brown]

I'm a big fan of the pick-up-the phone and face to face. You can't discount the emotional content of communication that can't be gleaned electronically. I like the idea of moving different conversations to different platforms such as IM, wiki and SMS accounts. The technical education barriers in a multi-generational office makes this challenging in my current organizational situation. (E.g. I work with some people that still keep paper calendars!)

[Amy Lenzo]

I agree with you on all but one item in your riffing - but I guess I've just resigned myself to dealing with a LOT of email. I confine myself to checking email from my office tho - can't see doing it on the toilet - t'would probably clog up the whole works! - and my bedroom is just for sleeping and oh, you know. Not email, anyway.

The thing on your list I don't agree with - for myself - is the no need to say thanks. It's very easy for me to read and delete simple "thanks" messages, and they let me know my message has been received.

Similarly I'm never sure what to do with "reply all" choices - presumably people are on there because they need to be kept in the loop, and it's certainly less time-consuming than having to go back and reconstruct disparate parts of a conversation. So I don't mind being part of a cc list - If I don't need to respond, I can just file it for future reference.

[Norman Reiss]

Beth, one tip I heard recently was to only check email a few times a day and to let co-workers know through your auto reply that this will be your schedule, while providing a phone number for more urgent issues. If you try to respond to everything as quickly as it comes in, then it will only create more email in response, creating an endless cycle of increasing volume.

Regards, NHR