homeplaceofthefuture daily log 5232

It's a re-entry day after an extended period of being off for personal reasons & the glorious holiday that is Thanksgiving.

Did you know that people actually emailed me on Thanksgiving? I logged in on this re-entry Monday and thought 2 things....

1. You're a moron!
2. I'm kind of honored that they are giving thanks to me for all I do for them!
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I would like to the point in my career where my inbox (and my workload) isn't other people's to do list for me.

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4935

It's been rough week of fighting the inbox and we're ready to celebrate the weekend here in the homeplaceofthefuture and not look at any screens this weekend! Rifling through my inbox this morning and the hundreds of emails that came in overnight (I heart global organizations) I had a thought that instantly relieved my blood pressure and made me smile

"there has to be a better way than email for EVERYTHING and if I could figure out what that is and sell it, I would retire somewhere warm and just drink on the porch"

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4913

If there's one thing I have learned in my years of fighting the inbox with clients & colleagues alike its never respond in anger! 

I like to give myself a pep talk vs. responding in anger to their less than stellar correspondence. Mark my words that in the future competence & common sense will be valuable traits in the workforceofthefuture, but for now in the homeplaceofthefuture I'm drinking my good coffee in my uniform and telling myself how great I am.

Repeat after me

competence is rare......competence is rare......competence is rare........competence is rare

common sense isn't that common........common sense isn't that common

homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4809

We'll talk about email a lot as we go, but for now I just want everyone to know that either marking your email as urgent or placing ***URGENT in the subject line doesn't magically move you up in the queue. Shocking I know and here's the kicker if you continue to mark routine emails as urgent I just assume you don't have your act together and I ignore your emails over everyone else's. 

The nice thing about working alone and virtually is I can laugh as I ignore your email and maybe even talk to the screen a little bit to help me deal with your constant "perceived" urgency.

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homeplaceofthefuture daily log 4788

If there's one thing that's consistent in the homeplaceofthefuture it's emails. My Christmas wish every year is to abolish Microsoft Outlook from my life. The more I try, the more emails seems to come into my life.  A zero-based inbox is a myth because once you send out those emails, eventually they come back to you. It's a never ending cycle and it's the most consistent thing in your life. Every organization, every non-profit, everything I'm involved in brings more email into my life. You are a slave to email!

Lately as I've been more vocal about email, my phone rings more. I'm beginning to think it's the cycle of ignoring email and not so much in me telling colleagues to stop emailing me. If you ignore an email long enough you'll get this call.

"Hey _____, this is Jewel did you get my email from Friday night at 11:07 PM?"

I have a set response to this person who we'll call annoying email follow upper.

"Sorry Jewel, I get 300 emails a day and yours is at the bottom of the pile. Why is your email from 11:07 PM on a Friday night so urgent? Are there lives at stake?"

I have literally said that and the response I get is yes, my client is waiting for this update. Really? Is your client really waiting all weekend for your response. I too am a client and I never wait over the weekend for my service providers to get back to me because I know that we are not saving lives here.

If there's one thing you can count on in the homeplaceofthefuture or the workplaceofthepast it's email. It's always there, it's always on your mind and it's generally not worth responding to.