Email is a killer app

Email is a killer app.
That used to mean an application that works so well that people get computers and internet connections in order to use it.

Now it means something more like this: “I spend so much time handling my email that I have far less time and attention available to work and play offscreen and offline”.

By its very compelling nature, email and the chance of getting some interesting, worthwhile, or fun messages works to undermine whatever boundaries you may have put up around your time. Much the way a ringing telephone is still seen as a compelling reason to stop a conversation, the knowledge that an inbox may have material in it is seen as a good reason to go and check it.

Again. And again. And again, and again, ignoring any plan you may have had for your own time because, hey, the inbox may have something inside it.

That’s a fine way to lose control of your time, but in terms of living a satisfying and effective life it seems like an all-drawback, no-benefit proposition.

But work comes in by email. So many translators manage todo lists, calendars, addresses, miscellaneous information by keeping them in our inboxes, which is where they came to in the first place. And since they’re there, we leave them there in the digital equivalent of a sort of searchable mind-dump. Sometimes we even have fabulous, color-coded schemes of message handling, with start and stripes and patriotic music (or just a different blip for every type of sender; you’ve gotta love Thunderbird… …it’s the ideal of any ol’ geek).

It’s still a mess. And since it’s a mess, we know that spending time on it will help. So we go back and spend, and spend, and spend… ….time, not money, but that’s a finite resource. Even you-know-who only has sixty minutes every hour. And I’ll bet he’s got a much better system for handling email.

And as of yesterday, I do, too.

For the first time since 1984 I have an empty inbox.

The zero inbox movement has intrigued me for a while. ‘How do they do it?’ I wondered. Battling inbox clutter has been a major part of my life for years. I used all the technology I knew, but I’d still end up with a few tasks to handle, a few social letters to respond to when I have time (more, I suppose, than the 24 hours allotted to me as a daily stipend) and a few pieces of urgent information.

Then I read Bit Literacy. In that slim book, Mark Hurst of Good Experience maps out another way of handling all the email. His company runs an online to-do list service which solved my first misuse of the inbox. All my tasks do, now, belong to me, and I can access them conveniently, email tasks to myself, email tasks to later dates (how cool is that?) so they won’t bug me when I’m trying to focus on today.

The question of handling social emails becomes obvious separate folders for “yet to answer” and “answered and done”. When I visit with my aunt I don’t want lots of stuff around me reminding me of work – and vice versa. Contact information goes into a contact management program. Lists and stuff to remember sit in KeyNote.

There is a place for everything, and everything is in its place.

And by golly, I’ve got clarity, focus, an empty inbox and control of my tasks.

Now I can take on the world.