Preoccupations - I Freed Myself From E-Mail's Grip [Telecom]

Preoccupations - I Freed Myself From E-Mail's Grip [Telecom]
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Preoccupations - I Freed Myself From E-Mail's Grip [Telecom] Monty Solomon 06-29-2008
Posted by Monty Solomon on June 29, 2008, 10:41 pm
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Preoccupations
I Freed Myself From E-Mail's Grip

By LUIS SUAREZ
The New York Times
June 29, 2008

EARLIER this year, I became tired of my usual morning ritual of
spending hours catching up on e-mail. So I did something drastic to
take back control of my productivity.

I stopped using e-mail most of the time. I quickly realized that the
more messages you answer, the more messages you generate in return.
It becomes a vicious cycle. By trying hard to stop the cycle, I cut
the number of e-mails that I receive by 80 percent in a single week.

It's not that I stopped communicating; I just communicated in
different and more productive ways. Instead of responding
individually to messages that arrived in my in-box, I started to use
more social networking tools, like instant messaging, blogs and
wikis, among many others. I also started to use the telephone much
more than I did before, which has the added advantage of being a more
personal form of interaction.

I never gave up my work e-mail address, because I still need it for
some work-related activities - for example, for one-on-one
discussions that are too private and confidential to discuss publicly.

I was in a good position to give up most of my other e-mail because
I'm a "social computing evangelist" for I.B.M. and have used social
software tools for years to collaborate on projects and to share
knowledge. I live in the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain and
report to managers in the United States and the Netherlands. Between
time differences and participation in various projects, it's
important that I spend my time efficiently.

I have had continuing support from my management in this effort,
because I've been able to prove how much more I can accomplish by
answering a question, and posting it on a blog, for example, than I
can by answering the same question over and over. I still help
people, but in a more open and collaborative fashion. Other people
can join in the discussions - maybe they will have a better idea than
mine.

I started this experiment by announcing my intention on a couple of
blogs, like my personal one and blogs inside I.B.M.'s firewall. The
postings in response were overwhelmingly positive - but I also
encountered some skepticism. Many people wondered how I would manage
to communicate and collaborate with my peers without using e-mail.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/jobs/29pre.html



Posted by David Quinton on June 30, 2008, 8:32 pm
On Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:41:51 -0400 (EDT), Monty Solomon

>
>Preoccupations
>I Freed Myself From E-Mail's Grip
>
>By LUIS SUAREZ
>The New York Times
>June 29, 2008
>
>EARLIER this year, I became tired of my usual morning ritual of
>spending hours catching up on e-mail. So I did something drastic to
>take back control of my productivity.
>
>I stopped using e-mail most of the time.
[snip]
>It's not that I stopped communicating; I just communicated in
>different and more productive ways. Instead of responding
>individually to messages that arrived in my in-box, I started to use
>more social networking tools, like instant messaging, blogs and
>wikis, among many others.
[snip]
>I was in a good position to give up most of my other e-mail because
>I'm a "social computing evangelist" for I.B.M. and have used social
>software tools for years to collaborate on projects and to share
>knowledge.

The words "vested" and "interest" come to my mind...

Personally, I *do* agree that it can be beneficial to adopt a
disciplined manner Re. email; but I fail to see that social networking
would be any less stressful or productive.
I'd just be F5-ing a webpage every few minutes rather than checking my
emails!
--
Locate your Mobile phone: <http://www.bizorg.co.uk/news.html>
Great gifts: <http://www.ThisBritain.com/ASOS_popup.html>


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