Breaking up with my inbox

Following the recommendations of my colleagues and a long waiting time at my local library, I finally got my hands on ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport. I knew I had to pick the book up when on sending an Instagram reel to a friend, I discovered she had decided to pause all her social media accounts upon finishing the book. Now, while I doubt I will do the same, I am only on chapter three, so time will tell.

However, two things have happened between me starting the book and reaching the end of chapter two.

1. I realized I suffer from a severe case of fractured attention span.

2. I need to break up with my inbox.

If you have been around long enough, you know that now and then I experiment with productivity hacks, and a few years ago, I got obsessed with the concept of a zero inbox. So much so, that my definition of success equalled my work inbox holding less than 20 emails at any point in time, which, if you work in my organization, you know is a laudable yet ludicrous aim. Over the last 9-12 months, I’ve gotten into the habit of checking new email the moment it arrives if it is within my waking hours; to the extent that I feel anxious every time my outlook shows an unread email or the number in my inbox exceeds 20. It is an effort akin to swatting flies, with more flies appearing every second. It took me this book to realize that THIS IS NOT HEALTHY!!!

I cannot go around saying, ‘my email is my to-do list’. That is a giant, unachievable to-do list and the obsession with my inbox means that in between swatting emails and attending meetings, I get a total of zero deep work time.

But I refuse to shoulder all of the blame. Work expects you to stay constantly connected, read and reply quickly to emails and instant messages. And as Newport states–in the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back towards an industrial indicator of productivity; doing lots of stuff in a visible manner.

I am a victim of this dictate.

However, now that I have my top three/four priorities for the year, I have complete clarity on what adds value and what does not, allowing me to confidently focus on what is important vs my inbox. If something is truly urgent and needs to be addressed in less than three hours, someone will find a way to get to me. And if questioned, I have research to back me up. A Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow found that the professionals she surveyed believed it important to answer any email (internal or external) within an hour of its arrival. Yet, in an experiment with the Boston Consulting Group, when she convinced a team to take one day out of the workweek completely off i.e. no connectivity to anyone outside or inside the company, the consultants found more enjoyment in their work, better communication among themselves, more learning and better delivery to the client. Think of it as the ‘meeting-free Fridays’ but on steroids.  

So, while I am not going to disappear for a day a week (yet), here’s my April challenge – over the next 30 days, I will gradually reduce the frequency at which I check my inbox till I find the right balance. I am going to start with the frequency of 25 minutes, which is the duration of a typical pomodoro session and gradually keep adding 25 minutes until I hopefully get to a stage where I can go half a day without the urge to check my inbox. By the end of April, I want to get to a point where I check my inbox thrice a day and don’t fret if the number of emails in there crosses the make-believe limit of 20.

If you are like me and live a life revolving around your inbox, my challenge to self is my challenge to you. Let’s vow to give the dratted box no more attention than it deserves. If you have already mastered this skill, please hop on to the comments below and let me know what you think is a reasonable frequency of email swatting. Thank you!

P.S: March has been absolutely chaos, but I am slowly realizing that chaos is my middle name unless some things change. Until then, amidst this chaos, I promise to be more regular here starting now. Also, if you weren’t aware, I host a podcast called HR Bandit that covers the top three (or sometimes more) work headlines from the month gone by. I would love for you to tune in and in the spirit of ensuring that those who prefer reading don’t miss out, I am starting a brand-new series on this blog that covers the same with my opinion sprinkled on. Stay tuned for that and a lot of new content. I’ll see you soon!