Mailpost Organisation

There is a common assumption in our society that technology is makes life easier for us. What I find is that most people have a hard time ‘unplugging’ and become overwhelmed by the interaction technology provides. We are constantly bombarded with information from so many directions I can’t even begin to name them all. I even have a hard time remembering what it was like before cell phones and e-mail….and it hasn’t been that long.

The question than becomes how do you stay connected in a balanced way? I’ve discovered that people have one of two relationships with e-mail. Read on to diagnose yourself and begin your path to peace of mind!

Which e-mail type are you?

Type 1: The Avoider- You put off checking e-mail until you have so many e-mails that it is beyond a 2 hour job to deal with. You basically spend everyday avoiding e-mail.

Symptoms:

1) When people ask you “Did you get my e-mail?” you tell them, “Oh, I haven’t checked my e-mail in ___ days.” You feel either cool or stressed about the unknown items in your inbox.

2) Your inbox is HUGE. You have hundreds or thousands (no I’m not exaggerating) of e-mails in your inbox because when you do check it you just graze over them rather than dealing directly with them.

3) You think about how you ’should’ check your e-mail and you worry about what’s in there that you don’t know about. This the most challenging part because you’ve missed important things in the past.

The solution:

- Face the facts. E-mail is not bigger than you. Tackle it twice as much as you do now. If you check e-mail once a week and it’s a big dramatic, dreaded task, do it more often. The more times you do it, the quicker you realize that email is not a technological monster meant to defeat you.

-Reduce the amount of useless e-mail. When you check it, be sure to mark junk as junk so you get less of it in your inbox and get off of mailing lists that you don’t utilize. If you feel dread when you see a certain e-mail, unsubscribe. If you get unwanted e-mails from a relative that you always delete, gently e-mail them requesting personal e-mails only and no forwards.
-Do an internet spring-cleaning. Schedule a specific time to clear out the build up and unread spam.

Type 2: The Obsessive- Does ‘Crack-berry’ mean anything to you? For those of you who aren’t urbanites, this is a term for people who use a Blackberry and can’t get off of e-mail.

Symptoms:

1) Thoughts of what lurking e-mails are resting in your inbox haunt you throughout the day…but unlike The Avoider, you like the idea and want to check it immediately to quell the rising pressure to read it.

2) You check it every chance you get. You check it when you want to procrastinate, when you get bored, when you are suppose to be paying attention to anything else that is not email.

3) You have multiple e-mail accounts.

The prescription:

-DON’T check your e-mail first thing in the morning. Take care of your self first.

-Go to a café without internet so you can get other work done. (That’s where I am while writing this; I am a self diagnosed Obsessive.)

-Set a timer so you’ll know when it is appropriate to take a break. While being on the information highway is a good thing, it can go beyond the necessary amount of time and you unconsciously get lost. Office mates I had in Santa Cruz used to warn me, “Back away from the computer.”

-Check e-mail two times per day rather than constantly being distracted by the alluring sound notifying you of another email being sent to your computer.

-When all else fails, simply pick up the phone and call someone instead of e-mailing.

Tags: Mailpost, Peter Kritas

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