E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

Killing Email: How and Why I Ditched My Inbox by Zen Habits

As you may well remember, on the on-going series of blog posts dealing with the weekly progress reports of living "A World Without Email" I usually get to share a link or two of some interesting related articles I happen to bump into rather often and which I think would help complement nicely each of those different reports.

Thus earlier on today, I had one of those articles I wanted to reference on the last entry I put together on this subject, but then I thought it was just too good not to dedicate it its own space as a separate article over here. When I first bumped into I knew I would eventually be linking to it, and up until now I didn’t have the chance. But today is a good time.

If you are into some amazingly crafted blogging with some of the most insightful articles you can think of out there on the Internet Blogosphere, combined with a natural talent to write stuff that matters and makes a difference with such a wonderful byline as "Simple Productivity", then you know I am talking about the stunning Zen Habits blog by Leo Babauta. Indeed, one of those blogs you need to subscribe to to get your daily dose of Zen.

Well, a couple of weeks back, Leo put together what I can describe as one of those essential readings for everyone out there who keeps struggling with taming the email beast. Yes, that’s right, under the title "Killing Email: How and Why I Ditched My Inbox" he gets to describe a common problem most of us can surely relate to (Well, in my case, lucky enough, after 18 months, not anymore! ): how to keep up with email while keeping our sanity. Sometimes it’s more difficult than what people think, and other times, it just needs to happen…

And that’s exactly what Leo seems to have done: move away from email and start using other forms of interactions, mostly making use of social software tools. And by the looks of it I think things are going all right for him. That well crafted piece covers eventually the various steps he is attempting to go by in order to, slowly, but steadily, move away from email as his primary means of communicating, collaborating and sharing knowledge.

In that amazing article he gets to share some of the various tips he is now following to finally ditch email for good. And I thought about quoting them over here, so you could have a look into how he is doing it. But then I thought it would probably be much better if I just quickly quote the steps and then share a one liner, or two, on what I think about them myself, after having given up on corporate email over 18 months ago! And see where it would take us …

So without much further ado, here you have got the six steps that Leo shared over in that article shared a couple of weeks back:

1. I’ve set up an autoresponder: I haven’t. I didn’t feel I would need to and so far I haven’t had a need for it either, indeed. Usually, I set up an Out Of Office autoresponder message to let folks where I am when I am away, but in that same OoO message I stress out very clearly how can people reach out to me way faster than email. Yes, using social software. Perhaps main reason why I haven’t set it up as well is because I still process my calendaring and scheduling events through email and I still get to engage 1:1 with folks on sensitive / confidential conversations. Only set of interactions that still go through email in my case. Some things you always need to keep them private.
2. Twitter will be my main form of communication: It is mine, too! Well, actually not just Twitter, but micro-sharing / micro-blogging social software tools in general. I use several of them both internal and externally in order to quickly reach out to folks and share information / knowledge quickly. What I like is the variety of options I have: 140, 250 and 500 characters. So I can even write down slightly longer messages than usual and get them across to an individual or to my entire set of network(s).
3. For longer conversations, there’s IM or Skype chats: I live on these! Instant Messaging is probably the main tool I use on a daily basis to escape email’s yoke successfully. I am way much faster sharing information across through a short exchange of quick messages on IM than an ever lasting mail threaded discussion. Oh, and if that set of messages tend to go on and on and on, I usually turn to VoIP or the phone and talk. Like I have been saying all along, I have always been considering myself a fast typist, yet, I talk much faster! So what initially may take me a couple of minutes to get across, with the phone or VoIP I can relay that same message in a matter of seconds … and move on …
4. For collaboration, I’ll use Google Docs and/or wikis: I must confess I don’t really make heavy use of Google Docs; instead I use plenty of other collaborative, knowledge sharing and social software tools like wikis (As well!), blogs, Activities, file sharing tools, social bookmarks, online community spaces, etc. etc. And I still keep following that golden rule: If it is not confidential or sensitive in nature, outside the Inbox, please. Let’s bring the conversation out there with a chance for everyone to chime in and contribute. Not just me.
5. Friends and family can call me: Indeed, I do this one, too! And quite heavily. This bullet ties in quite nicely with what I consider my private life and in this case it’s no longer about respecting my own, but also that one of others, so a phone call is always much more efficient in this matter, specially, when once again, I can talk faster than type. And when trying to keep up with family and friends there is always time to talk. Not to write. Make it (more) personal.
6. A few types of emails will get through for now: In my case two different types of emails still get through that would require my attention and which I have already talked above briefly above. First the calendaring and scheduling notifications which I still need to process so that they go into my calendar (I still haven’t found a way around that one!) and, secondly, the 1:1 conversations with an individual on a subject that may be rather sensitive or confidential and where the dialogue needs to happen but only for our eyes to see. The rest? … All out!

From there onwards, Leo gets to share as well a very interesting FAQ section where he shares some additional insights on the reactions from his readers on this very same topic. Worth while reading through it, for sure. I must say that, out of all of the various questions the one I found the most interesting was this one: "I couldn’t do it — it’s required for my business". He gets to share a wonderful reply which I would want to point you folks to it as opposed to just reproduce it over here, but my first reaction to that question was… "What did you go in your business before email arrived?" Pretty much that, I am sure: business.

Well, the same would apply over here. Just like Leo mentioned, there are a whole bunch of fitter and more suitable collaborative and knowledge sharing tools to work better amongst groups (Teams & Communities), i.e. social software, and certainly one of the things we are realising over time is how restricted/-ing and limiting email has been all along, and still is, when we get more and more exposure to some of these social tools, which certainly encourage us to share our knowledge in a much more open, public and transparent manner. Something difficult to obtain through email alone, don’t you think?

So if we made that first switch a few decades ago with email (And survived!) and then we switched a second time with the introduction of Instant Messaging (And we also survived that one!), what’s stopping us from making a third switch in order to augment, even further, each and everyone of those former interactions we keep having by making heavy use of social software? Oh wait … Yes, I know… 

Ourselves.

(Remember the change starts within you)

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email, Killing Email, Zen Habits, Leo Babauta, Zen, Ditching Your Inbox, Twitter, Instant Messaging, IM, Skype, VoIP, Voice, Telephone, Google Docs, Lotus Connections, Connections, Activities, Blogs, Files, File Sharing, Bookmarks, Social Bookmarks, Online Communities, Inbox, Friends, Family, Personal, Private, Calendaring and Scheduling, Confidential, Sensitive

A World Without Email – Year 2, Weeks 23 to 27 (Recovering from a Moment of Weakness)

Goodness! I cannot believe it’s been another five weeks without any updates on this blog on my weekly progress reports (Now probably monthly!) on living a "World Without Email". Time flies, they say, when you are having fun, eh? Well, here I am again, then; sharing with you folks a couple of thoughts on what has happened over the last few weeks and with a clear resolution I need to go back to blogging, at least, bi-weekly on how things are progressing further and I will explain why shortly…

For now, let’s get started with the progress report from last week, week #27, i.e. the latest one (Since you can find weeks #23, #24, #25 and #26 in my Flickr account already), so you can have a look into what happened in those weeks:

Whoahhh! As you would be able to see, it’s been quite a roller-coaster ride so far! Started with week #23 hitting over the mark of 30 emails received then going down to 22, then 19 (Way on target this one!); then a whopping 47 and, finally, 15 emails received last week. Yes, I know! Quite a ride! Going from the highest number of emails received in a single week for this second year of giving up on corporate email to the lowest number so far in 27 weeks and counting!

Thus what happened? Why was such a massive roller-coaster ride effect taking place, specially last week and the week before? Well, if I would have to summarise it in a couple of words it would be "A moment of weakness from yours truly!". More than a moment of weakness an entire week of weakness!! Jeez! … Here is why…

Week 26 I lowered my arms (Probably way too much!) and started giving in by engaging with my colleagues using email when replying to their threads. Yes, I know! I shouldn’t have done that! I should have known better! But then again I thought my efforts of trying to escape corporate email  during the last 18 months would have payed off to some extent by now, and eventually I found out they didn’t. At least not as much as I would have hoped for!

People started to send me emails much more frequently than before, as opposed to reach out to me through the standard social software channels we established together a while ago. And I guess I understand it. Sending an email is still far easier than any other form of online interaction. Unfortunately, we are not there yet fully embracing social software to collaborate and share our knowledge with our peers.

However, just like 18 months ago, I’m not ready any longer to turn my Inbox into "a todo list that anyone in the world can write to" (I just *love* that quote from a fellow IBM colleague in Australia: Rene Cunningham), so I decided to fight back! And get tougher on engaging back with colleagues using email. I just didn’t! And the result of that was receiving the lowest number of emails in a single week this year! Down from 47 to just 15!

That, to me, is a good enough reason to understand that it’s still going to take a while for folks to perhaps change their work habits (And to start embracing some of these social software tools); and for me, of course, to keep putting up with that healthy fight and keep taking back control of my own productivity. Because, like I have been saying all along, if I don’t take care of it myself and re-gain that productivity at work back again, no-one else is going to do it! Thus I might as well keep going at it. After all, can you imagine yourself receiving 15 emails in a single week?

Well, I just did that last week! Yay! And after this short moment of weakness I went through a couple of weeks back, I can now say I have fully recovered from it and feel like I am back! Back into my usual self: demonstrating it’s possible to work in a corporate environment, as effectively, if not more, as ever, making use of social software tools as opposed to traditional "collaborative" tools like email, amongst others.

And one of the biggest culprits of that statement I have just mentioned above has been my number one social software tool behind the firewall that has helped me tremendously in achieving that: IBM’s Lotus Connections, which, by the way, just announced today the official Connections v2.5 planned availability for August 28th 2009. A new massive release I will be sharing plenty of details about in upcoming blog posts as I will try to detail how it is helping me escape the email beast, or, at least, keeping it under control with 20, or less, emails a week… Making up for a total reduction of my incoming emails in the last few months by over 90% … Not bad, eh? Indeed, not bad at all!

Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Social Software, Social Networking, Social Computing, Social Media, Collaboration, Communities, Learning, Knowledge Sharing, KM, Knowledge Management, Remote Collaboration, Innovation, IBM, Networking, Social Networks, Conversations, Dialogue, Communication, Connections, Relationships, email, Productivity, Re-purposing Email, No-Email, Challenge Your Inbox, Progress Reports, Thinking Outside the Inbox, Information Overload, A World Without Email, Moment of Weakness, Rene Cunningham, IBM Lotus Connections, Lotus Connections, Connections, Announcements, Connections 2.5, Lotus Connections v2.5