How to add an hour to your day with one small change
Here’s a hint — step away from that ‘send’ button. Reducing the amount of emails you send, and receive, can be a big time saver
I still remember my first office job.
For four months between years at university, I held the sexy title of “summer intern” at a big downtown consulting company. Chinese takeout, late nights, PowerPoint burnout.
On one of my last days, I made a big presentation to Roger — the CEO for one of our clients. It had been my project all summer. I was a nervous wreck, especially because our team’s emails to Roger over the summer were never answered. I was worried about the assumptions we’d made in the slides.
Despite all my stress and anxiety, it ended up casual, engaging and open. Roger loved it. I couldn’t believe how relaxed and trusting everything felt. So after the meeting was done, I asked Roger one last question. I couldn’t help myself.
“Roger, thanks so much for today. We had trouble checking some numbers by you in advance, so just for my own learning, can I ask why you don’t write or respond to emails? How do you do that?”
He seemed a bit surprised by my question, but wasn’t fazed.
“Neil,” he said, “there’s a problem with email. After you send one, the responsibility of it becomes the responsibility of the other person. It’s a hot potato. An email is work given to you by somebody else.”
I nodded, thinking about the emails I was drowning in every weekend. McKinsey & Company reports office workers spend 28 per cent of their time an- swering emails. And Baydin, one of the world’s largest email management services, says the average person gets 147 emails a day. We’re all attached to our cellphones and computers.
“I do read emails,” Roger continued, “but the ones looking for something are always much less urgent than they seem. When I don’t respond, one of two things happens:
1. The person figures it out on their own, or
2. They email me again because it really was important.
“Sure, I send one or two emails a day but they usually say, ‘Give me a call,’ or, ‘Let’s chat about this.’ Unless they’re from my wife. I answer all of those.” I was very confused. How was the CEO of a multibilliondollar company not emailing?
He paused to look at me and sensed I didn’t get it.
“You know what,” he continued, “since I don’t write many emails, I don’t receive many either. I probably only get five or 10 emails a day. Most of the time, people really do figure it out on their own. They realize they know the answer, they keep moving, they develop confidence. They become better. Your assumptions today weren’t perfect, but they worked perfectly well and you learned by doing them.”
I had worked with Roger a few months when I learned how to add an hour to the day with only one small change.
Block access. Protect your brain. Guard it. Remove all entry points except a single one you can control. In addition to Roger’s approach to email, I learned he didn’t have a desk phone, personal email address, or any social media accounts.
Fuel your brain and let it run wild by removing access points. Close the doors and lock the windows, but answer the bell.
What’s the bell? Your No. 1 top priority.
What was Roger’s bell? Emails from the chairman of the board and family. Not voicemail, not texts.
Have you ever shopped in a small town convenience store where they have a bell on the front counter?
They are busy stocking shelves. They are busy unpacking boxes. They are busy placing orders.
But when you ring that bell they are right there, right away. That’s what it means to close the doors and lock the windows but answer the bell.
Close the number of access points to yourself and watch your brain savour space to power your biggest ideas, most passionate efforts and greatest accomplishments. Neil Pasricha is the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. This is the first of a bi-weekly column to help us live a good life. Learn more at globalhappiness.org.