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New boss same as the old boss

When I got in this morning, after a day away I waded though the usual emails, stopping what I was doing to read new ones pinging in my inbox, getting nowhere. What a pain.

It’s nothing new to comment on how emails make life more stressful, but it wasn’t intended to be like that. This was the new saviour that would free up time, allow us to communicate better and promote a more egalitarian office – you can email the MD or the admin assistant, and do it when you like.

But then we started using email like telephone conversations, the MD started to get the PA to screen (and write) his/her emails. The prattling gossipy ones arrive and stop you concentrating like those people that start chatting and fail to see you’re trying to think. In other words, we’ve made emails suit the way we behave.

And that’s worth considering when you think about technological advances. They fit around and sometimes magnify habits already there, they rarely change them.

Something worth thinking about whenever you consider influencing how people behave maybe.

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3 responses to “New boss same as the old boss”

  1. Mark McGuinness Avatar
    Mark McGuinness

    I’ve discovered the secret of dealing with e-mails:
    Answer them tomorrow.
    Seriously. I don’t mean ‘tomorrow’ as in ‘never’, but as in tomorrow.
    Most e-mails can wait until tomorrow, at least. If they can’t, then whoever sent them really should have phoned you, so it’s not your fault if you don’t press the button that will save the planet by 5.30.
    1. Every day, let e-mails pile up in your intray.
    2. Every morning, move yesterday’s (and only yesterday’s) e-mails into a separate folder. The contents of that folder are all the e-mails you have to answer/delete today. Once you’ve done that, you’re done with e-mail for today.
    3. Deal with the contents of that folder all at once – it’s much easier and quicker to plough through them in one sitting. And knowing that you only have a finite number of them to deal with is more motivating than reacting to the ‘never-ending’ stream of them that arrives every day.
    What about all the e-mails that arrived before yesterday? Put them in a folder marked ‘backlog’ and chip away at them whenever you get a spare few minutes.
    One of the nice things about this system is that it doesn’t really matter how often you check your e-mail during the day – as long as you don’t start answering them the same day.
    Another one is that you actually end up being much faster, on average, at replying to e-mails – if you stick to it, you should always answer e-mails within a couple of days, which is better than most people.
    I wish I could say I’d thought of this myself, but it was the idea of a man called Mark Forster, in this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tomorrow-Other-Secrets-Time-Management/dp/0340909129/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/026-2712801-9475642?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189235736&sr=8-1
    He also writes a blog: http://www.markforster.net/blog/

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  2. Onewomanrunning Avatar
    Onewomanrunning

    Mark Forster is cool. ‘How to Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play’is a great book.
    I used to temp for the Marketing Director of a property firm who wouldn’t type his own emails. He would sit by my shoulder and dictate to me as I typed. And deleted and re-typed and deleted and re-typed. Can you imagine how much time that took? And this was a guy who would get 50+ emails a day, so they would just pile up and pile up. It was fun though, he’d comment on things along the way “Oh bloody hell, what does that little sod want now!” I used to think it was because he couldn’t type, but one day after work I forgot something and went back to the office to find him stabbing away at the keyboard emailing. He just couldn’t stand emails and preferred not to do it alone. Whatever works for you I guess.

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  3. np Avatar
    np

    Nice to have you back young lady. Despite your Boney M leanings.
    And it’s about time. I trust you’re continuing the job search? I shall be cross if you’re not.

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