Corporate e-mail is like a mine dump
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When I was in grade 3 my dad got a promotion that came with a transfer. So, we packed up and moved from Brixton to Klerksdorp. There were several mines in the area and where there are mines there are mine dumps. I soon discovered that some mine dumps are reprocessed. Turns out they are not all worthless. If you have the right technology, process and a favorable market price for the material being extracted, you are in business.
E-mail in the corporate world is like a mine dump to me.
It’s not the primary engine of value. It’s the leftovers.
Most of the time it’s the distribution of notes or confirmation of actions after the real thinking and discussions have taken place. It’s the escalation as a last resort or someone’s desperate attempt at getting your attention after normal channels have not worked out. It’s the reminder after the reminder after the reminder. The mail about the blog post about the announcement. The endless copying in someone’s boss or a massive distribution group.
Like any decent mine dump, e-mail is not completely devoid of value though. It can still add value to your personal day to day work and the company’s overall productivity. But only if approached carefully. Just imagine, instead of using the correct tools and processes, the mining company hired a bunch of people and told them to climb up the mine dump with buckets and spades and come back with something valuable at the end of the day.
That’s kind of what we do in the corporate world.
I’m sorry, but I can’t be a part of that system. So, I’ve developed my own little mining operation. The processing plant consists of mail rules that ruthlessly filter out noisy subject lines, noisy e-mail bodies and almost everything where I’m on the CC line. On top of this are some exception rules. For instance, there is a rule to bypass those filters for the colleagues that I want to see every mail from. This is how all mails from my direct reports come straight to my inbox.
At the end of this process over 90% of my incoming mail go directly to the archive folder.
There are several automated mails that IT systems send me as reminders that someone has applied for leave or an invoice needs to be approved etc. These get marked as read and go to a special folder labelled “weekly approvals”. On Fridays I have an appointment in my diary to go through that folder and batch process all those actions.
The wonderful knock on effect of all this filtering and batching is that the signal to noise ratio in my inbox is much, much better than it would be for most people. As a result of that, I don’t need to check my e-mail every 2 minutes. The chances of me falling behind or missing important things are reduced. This in turn reduces stress and increases my focus.
This whole idea flows from one of my values: Live deliberately.
If e-mail is driving you nuts, take the time to conquer it. Show your inbox who is in charge. It takes some thinking, it takes some setting up, but those are largely once off costs. In fact, they are not really costs. They are investments in your sanity, productivity and ability to add value. And adding value is a million times better than just being busy.