Rethinking Email: Gen Z is Wrong…Email is Awesome
An article in the New York Times this summer quoted one young entrepreneur who said, “Email is all your stressors in one area, which makes the burnout thing so much harder.”
The younger generation is not the first to come to this conclusion. Many others (experts included) say the same. There’s an anti-email culture out there. But I stand to disagree.
Let me offer an alternative perspective to blaming email for our work woes.
Email is bigger than a tool, it’s a skill. It spans our old school and new school ways of working. Like any skill, you need to develop it, and then keep developing it.
Yes, our ways of communicating will change as technology and our roles evolve. But writing off email undermines one of the most effective ways we have to connect with people and get important work done.
(And besides, fighting email is not worth your energy: resistance is futile.)
Let’s rethink email.
Email is not distracting. (You heard me. No, it isn’t.)
Most anti-emailers argue that email is a huge distraction. But it is really us that are distracted, and that’s not email’s fault.
Now I do find meetings, phone calls, texts, and instant messages to be distracting. But there is an email “Zen” if you look for it.
Email is like a real, physical In- and Out-Box. You can pick up this mail when you want.
Most of us have (or should have) periods of the day when we are in “focus” mode to get things done and periods when we are in “communicate” mode. Email works in harmony with our daily rhythm between these two modes.
Email can save you time. (Yes, I said save time.)
One study estimates that the average knowledge worker spends 3 hours a day on email. Anti-emailers argue that email is too much of a time-suck.
I would put myself above that 3-hour average, but I disagree that it is a waste of time, especially if you treat email like a craft. Why? Email updates, follow-ups, and iterations of work-in-progress (not mindless chains) get me out of meetings and phone calls, which I would argue are a time-suck (or vortex or abyss for that matter).
It may sound anti-social to send an email when you could pick up the phone or book a meeting. But depending on the number of projects or clients on your plate, you can’t be on the phone and in meetings all day or you wouldn’t get anything done.
We all need “briefings” (just like the President) to stay on top of what is going on in our projects, operations, or business. Email lets you stay in the know.
Email is IP, but text and instant message aren’t.
Text and instant message are like one-night stands. Email is a long-term relationship.
Text and instant message may be good for one-off communications like, “Can you make the 3 pm meeting?” But email creates information that you can leverage for future work. It creates a trail of burgeoning intellectual property (IP)– the ideas, insights, and breakthroughs you and your organization are generating. Or should be.
You can mine email. You can save it. You can use the almighty Copy Paste.
It’s my firm belief that writing more down will move your business forward more than almost anything else.
A large part of my consulting business is taking information from conversations and then turning it into action. Email is the conduit for turning information garbage into gold.
Email is a better influencer than social media.
Book marketing experts such as Tim Grahl, author of Your First 10,000 Copies and others are unanimous. Email outsells social media.
We have an intimate relationship with information that comes into our mailbox whether we want to admit it or not. It screams, “You need to process me!” and elicits connection and action.
There’s a reason you still get flyers overflowing your recycling bin. Mail – whether physical or email – converts.
So, check your email attitude for a day, a week, or forever. Consider these new truisms of email and then plan ways you can make email work for you. (And let me know by reply what you discover and share any of your small or larger email “wins.”)
Liked this? Click here to get more insights and tips from me. If you’re exploring a documentation challenge, problem-solving issue, or anything else, I’d love to help. Shoot me an email at: adrienne@bellehumeurco.com.
