consistency

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.