My partner Jeff just sent me a great article from the Farnam Street blog: The Tyranny of Email - 10 Tips to Save You. In it, Shane Parrish talks about how our constant connection with our electronic devices is eroding our mental abilities in various ways. Jeff sent me the link and noted, "The phrase 'working at the speed of e-mail' resonated with what I hear from a lot of our clients/participants: they say 'I can't think ahead or focus on what matters because of the demands/volume/distraction of the voices received via e-mail.'"
Shane cites a number of very interesting studies and data sources showing that this does indeed seem to be the case. This continual redirecting and engaging of our attention to deal with the little bursts of communication that come in via email, IM and text makes it much more difficult to do the mental 'stretching out and pulling back' required for any kind of deep thought.
I know that my best thinking is done when I have some time for uninterrupted concentration: when I can think about how things are connected; when I have the chance to reflect on why something is happening or not happening; when I can look for patterns and observe my own and others' reactions. And I know that my deepest connections with others and my most profound shifts in awareness generally arise out of focused conversation.
Shane proposes in his article that we only check email twice a day. That wouldn't be practical for me, nor, I suspect, for many others. However, I would suggest creating email/text/IM-free zones in your day. For example, when I conduct day-long executive coaching sessions, my coachee and I turn off our phones and computers, and only turn them back on during lunch and morning and afternoon breaks. When my colleagues or I facilitate planning or visioning sessions, or conduct leadership training, we make the same request: electronic devices off except during lunch and breaks. People sometimes grumble or even resist at first - but generally by about an hour into the session, they're experiencing the real benefits of temporarily cutting the electronic umbilical cord.
Here are six good things that are more likely to happen if you take conscious regular time away from virtual communication:
1) You'll actually hear what's being said. Someone I worked for once said to me, "You can't do two things at once if one of them is listening." I believe this is 100% true. If you're surreptitiously checking your email under the table while someone else is talking, you're only half-hearing what they're saying. I can't tell you how often I've seen this increasingly common practice yield real misunderstanding, unmet expectations, incomplete agreements. All of which necessitate various levels of re-do, and lead to various levels of irritation and distrust. When you put down your phone or turn away from your computer, it's amazing what you find out.
2) You'll get the subtext as well. When you're only partly listening, what quite often gets lost is your awareness of all the important clues that exist alongside what's being said. The speaker's body language or facial expressions; the reactions of others in the room; the pregnant pause or subtle emphasis on a particular phrase that carry all kinds of meaning. You can come across as clueless, insensitive, disengaged. When you're fully attending to what's happening around you, you're much more likely to see, feel and hear those important clues that three-dimensionalize human interaction.
3) You'll see the big picture. This is the main problem with working 'at the speed of email.' This almost-constant refocusing of our attention is, as Parrish says in his article, "like trying to gain a topographic understanding of our daily landscape from a speeding train." Only when you're fully focused - on a problem, an idea, an opportunity - are you able to "pull back the camera" and see how all the important elements of that thing are related. And that leads to the next reason...
4) You'll make intuitive leaps. When you're focused, and seeing a situation in its entirety, and not chewing up part of your mental bandwidth in dealing with the continuous 'incoming' of electronic communication ....that's when your brain can access its full capability to make deeper-than-rational connections, see new patterns, stumble upon new possibilities. That's when innovation happens. I suspect that very few game-changing ideas have sprung from a mind in the midst of clearing an inbox.
5) You'll build better relationships. And then there's the human cost of our continual, almost addictive message checking. I was on the elevator in my apartment building the other night, and a 20-something couple got on. They were in party mode, clearly new to each other; maybe going out for the first time. They stepped on, turned toward the front of the elevator, and took out their phones. They were completely oblivious to each other for the rest of the ride. I found myself wondering how they would ever connect on anything more than a superficial level; when they would have the opportunity to have those long meandering conversations that allow attraction to ripen to affection, friendship, love, commitment. Maybe never.
6) You'll get better results. Whenever we facilitate one of those meetings where people put away their phones, someone will invariably come up to me at some point and say "Y'know, we should do the no phone thing in our regular meetings - we're really getting a lot done." We think we're being super-efficient, when we knock back those email responses almost before the initial message lands...but there are all kinds of bigger, more importan things - things that require prioritization, our undivided attention, and collaboration with others - that aren't getting done, or aren't getting done well.
So, the title of this post actually should have been "6 Reasons Not To Check Your Email All The Friggin' Time," because that's the point. It's great being able to communicate so quickly and efficiently, and with people who are 10 or 10,000 miles away. Just don't let it take over your life.
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