In-Box Zero

Oct 30, 2020

Do you recall spending time at the beach as a kid building sandcastles?  The more you dug out the moat, the more water would keep seeping in.

In the same way the castle moat continuously fills with water, the daily emails we manage/address do not stop coming in.

Outlook tracks the amount of emails you send and receive over a specified time. Even with the exclusion of junk emails, the number of work and personal emails I receive is exorbitant relative to just a few years ago.  It seems the flow rate keeps creeping up with each passing year.

When I step back to think about how I manage email, I clearly show signs of addiction.

The addictive behaviors include: the need to respond immediately, late hour emailing and only feeling satisfied when I get to “inbox zero”. https://medium.com/swlh/inbox-zero-is-a-waste-of-time-dea2421b7f0

I know I am not alone in this quest as I have found myself emailing clients back and forth at all hours of the night on a few occasions.

It seems I have confused efficiency with living fully.

Whether email or texting, many of us view these forms of technology as making us productive and yet they are really just ways to keep us busy and distracted from more important matters such as spending time with family, being creative or just “thinking”.

I have rarely developed a new idea or concept because I was responding to an email.

As people continue to make claims on our time, maybe the response is not to try and be as efficient as possible.

Personal productivity is a technical word for busyness.

When was the last time you contemplated the fact the average lifespan consists of only 4,000 weeks?

When we are buried in emails and other distractions it is hard to think about what you truly want in your life.

Time pressures will never disappear if you do not make it a priority to “take back” time.

You will find yourself in the never-ending loop of believing that improving efficiencies provides this “take back”.

When we do not set time aside for our true priorities, we don’t allow ourselves to come to terms with how short our lives are.   Try and recall the last time you contemplated the shortness of life.

“Time is precious” are not just 3 words.  They are a call to action when we are surrounded by a world pressuring us to be more efficient and more productive.

Have a great weekend,

This space that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily, and so swiftly that all save a very few find life at an end just when they are getting ready to live. Seneca
How we labour at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our life because it is even more necessary not to have leisure to stop and think. Friedrich Nietzsche

Karl Choltus

Deep thinking Canadian sharing thoughts created in the shower.