Here is a review of my book, wanted to share – Inbox Detox:
If you’re anything like me, you can’t function without email. We rely on it daily for communication across the office, across the city, and across the world, and it has probably had a greater impact on global communication than even the telephone. And yet, there are countless untold C-level executives with thousands of unread emails in their inboxes, an embarrassing amount of people who call you just to “make sure you received that email” they sent five minutes ago, and more SPAM than you can imagine.
In Inbox Detox, Marsha Egan offers both the diagnosis and the cure for toxic email behaviors. She asks readers to cast a critical eye on their own email (and, by proxy, productivity) habits, provides a model, 12-Step Program Style, for dealing with those habits, and then details newer, more productive ones. Egan breaks down the email issue into its most basic problem: email misuse is a constant drain on productivity, and therefore a constant drain on the bank account.
Inbox Detox is basically a step-by-step guide for both companies and individuals who have recognized that their own email habits have become problematic. Egan takes the readers through a program to help them clean out their inboxes and learn to manage their workload, making it clear that this is about more than just moving a few emails around.
When I first picked up Inbox Detox, I was unsure if I would find anything in it for me. After all, email has become such an integral part of business, and everyone handles it differently, so what could this book possibly teach me? I quickly found that I was absolutely wrong. Egan doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to getting the reader to call his own behavior into question; with the in-book evaluation and diagnosis tool, readers will know the extent of their own email problems within the first 30 pages of the book. She holds readers accountable for their own email habits – likely the only way to persuade them to actually change.
Egan also answers possible critics right out of the gate. She makes it clear from page one that this isn’t just about changing practices, but habits – a much harder cycle to break. She asks readers to fundamentally alter the way they go about their business in order to become more productive. And Egan has gone out of her way to make the book relatable. Her style is companionable and easy-to-read, and the book and the tips within are easily digestible – pulled quotes, graphics, and the all too recognizable “Toxic Emailer Alerts” make for quick and engaging reading.
Though this isn’t the most formal of business books, Egan keeps the information accessible to a wide audience. The message is clear: email is a widespread problem that affects both businesses and individuals in a very real way. The changes Egan calls for in Inbox Detox certainly don’t seem like rocket science, and you may pass on the book without giving it a chance, thinking you’ve got your email under control. But after reading this book, let me assure you – you don’t.
Klaus Givskov-Christensen
For more on this book, please visit http://EganEmailSolutions.com/inboxdetox.html
Posted Under:
12 Steps - Email Addiction,
Clean Out Your Inbox Week,
Email Etiquette,
Email Overload,
Email Productivity Tips and Solutions,
Email Usage Research and Facts,
Information Overload,
Media "Stuff",
Productivity,
Tips
This post was written by
Marsha Egan on February 20, 2009
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So, you wonder how businesses can reclaim an hour or more a day with e-mail excellence?
It’s the interruptions! E-mail has become the 21st Century Gran-daddy Interrupter of the Universe!
An AOL study found that almost 50% of all workers have their e-mail open, and dinging, and flashing – while they work. That’s one out of two workers. That means that one outa 2 workers is being interrupted… ALOT.
The recovery time from the interruption is what matters. It takes time – anywhere from 2 to 8 minutes to get back to the task at hand. You all know what I’m talking about… you’ve experienced it first hand.
If you walk around your office, COUNT the number of people who have their inboxes open. Those are the people who’re having a heckuva time getting work done cuz they aren’t allowing themselves to stay focused.
They have evolved this time sapping habit, and most likely have no idea how costly it is to them and to the business. And… habits are hard to break.
Consider the economic impact if businesses could reclaim an hour of productivity a day, per worker. It’s possible, but it appears most companies are clueless or could “care-less.”
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that he is poised to deliver 20,000 pink slips to state employees. Techcrunch.com’s layoff tracker shows that 300,000 people have been laid of since October in the technology sector alone.
These are truly scary economic times – but there is a cure that just about every business is ignoring. The reclaimed productivity comes from changed e-mail habits. You think I kid?
With better e-mail habits to help combat information overload, companies can easily save one hour of productive time per employee per day. And saving money means saving jobs: for a 20-person office at an average salary of $20/hour, that’s $2000 per week, and $104,000 per year. That’s the annual salary of 2.5 employees in that same office.
See our prior post featuring the information overload calculator. Just make sure you’re sitting down when you run the calc.
Instead of thinking about pink slips, why not focus on getting 10%-20% more out of each worker????!!!! THAT’S what will re-energize the economy!
Here’s another way to think about managing your e-mail…
Try to touch each message a maximum of TWO times. Huh?!! What about those ol’ time management rules that say touch each item only once. Buncha hooey.
There’ve been studies done showing that the average exec checks and reopens and rereads the average email an average of SEVEN times. Now, howzat for productive?
If you want to take control of your email, try from the angle of touching it no more than twice. Once to make a “sort” decision. Then when you’re going to truly work it.
What isn’t said when we commit to doing this is that when we take that action to sort, we also must decide when we will take the action. So… you need to think through the whole thing, relative to the other work you have on your plate. To many people put stuff in triage folders, then go in and read and reread and rereead and rereeeead that same email.
What we need to avoid is looking at things MANY times, trying to decide whether to handle or when to handle. Make that decision the first time you look at it instead. Try it – let us know how it works.
Our last post showed that the average emailer checks his or her inbox 70 times a day… Frankly, I think this is ridiculous. But aside from that, consider this:
If you want to have the advantage over the competition, other workers, and basically in life, you can have by just checking your inbox less!
Not to sound like a broken record, but the more you allow email to interrupt you, the less you’ll get done. It takes time to recover from each one of those 70 interruptions (not counting handling those email messages.) While 10 interruptions an hour may not seem like much, it is.
The average person takes an average of 4 minutes to recover from any interruption, so if you’re the average worker, you could be spending 280 minutes daily recovering from all that email checking!!!
We recommend checking email 5 times daily. Thats it.
If you can’t fathom that, try once an hour. You’ll enjoy how much you get accomplished. You’ll enjoy even more the extra time you have to play with your kids. End of soapbox. At least for now.
Let us know how it worked…
RescueTime, a company that analyzes computer habits, has found that the average American worker checks 40 Web sites daily, checks e-mail 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times a day.
Is this YOU?
