Fixpert

I’ve read so many blogs that mention Getting Things Done, a book by David Allen which outlines a method for creating a stress-free, yet productive, life. I have been so busy lately, I turned to this book in desperation. In fact, I’m so busy that I bought it through iTunes as an Audiobook and I’m attempting to listen to it on my headphones as I work — there’s no time for reading! I’m about an hour into it, and I’ll let you know how I feel about it once I begin implementing his suggestions.

One thing that this book prompted me to do this morning was to pay extra attention to what a distraction email is for me at the workplace. Ok, maybe the word “distraction” is not fair, since these emails often relate to what I’m working on or provide helpful information. However, when you consider that I am working on 3 major (very involved, very high-priority) projects at the moment, large blocks of productive time are sacred — so you can see how email can be distracting.

After keeping track for the first 4 hours of this morning, on average, I receive an email that requires some action from me every 2 minutes. This might be unusually high because it is a Monday morning, but I will continue to track this number and let you know how it progresses during the week. Having a new task every two minutes is insane, particularly when most of these don’t relate to the 3 large projects that I am working on. Also, most of these tasks are undocumented and my manager is unaware of them unless I keep him informed of my email volume.

It’s a pickle. I’m not exactly sure what the solution is. If I completely turned off email, I would hold up other projects where people need information from me to proceed, or I may even be ignoring important site errors. I’m interested in hearing how email is helping or hurting your productivity. It seems email can often become an additional to-do list that everyone else in your life has control over.