The report of email’s death is an exaggeration
Proponents of social software seem to think that email has had its day. Some have even given it up completely.
I respectfully disagree.
The problem with email at the moment is not email, but people. Basically, we need to re-learn how to manage our inboxes alongside all the other information flows. And it’s possible.
For Christmas 2006 I requested a copy of David Allen’s Getting Things Done for my stocking. On my return to work I used the GTD process to empty my inbox (aside: straight after a holiday is an ideal time to do this).
Since then, my inbox gets processed regularly and is always empty when I switch off for the day and most of the time in between. As a result I’ve felt more in control and responsive to my colleagues. And more importantly, I’ve seen incoming email reduce drastically as a result of social tools like RSS. I must confess that I actually relish the arrival of new mail so that I can process it and get back to my work as quickly as possible.
So fine, go ahead and kill your email if it bogs you down. But I suggest that a day reading Allen’s book and applying the GTD to your email workflow will make you much more productive in the longer term.
