Email Productivity Paradox

If you’ve been following my twitter feed you’d have heard me complain about falling behind on email.

A few weeks ago my work inbox was going to hundreds of emails and I couldn’t keep track.

It all started when I synchronized my office email to my phone.

The idea is I could use my free time at home or elsewhere to process and clear off my work email.

But the situation only got worse. When I was at home I wouldn’t want to check non-critical email. Some emails needed me to be at office to take action.

When I was at my office computer I wouldn’t want to process emails either, waiting to do it “later at home”.

Slowly my mailbox was growing and I started losing control.

The solution came by accident.

My phone battery was draining really fast (need charging after 6 hours). I eventually tracked it down to the email app. I had no choice but to remove my work email from my phone.

Battery problem solved.

Within one week I was back to processing emails on my work computer and now I have zero emails in my inbox.

Email problem solved too!

So it’s a paradox. I thought having more devices to check emails would make me more productive, but it had the opposite effect.