Cool idea. Sounds like you can still send emails but not receive any until work.
I noticed that mobile email doesn't always help get more work done, unless you're the person asking the questions in the emails.
If a bb user is busy answering other people's questions... you're likely doing their work too. The culture of "we're waiting on you" that grows in an organization is the real enemy.
Interruptions are bad too. When someone shows up to interrupt and steal your attention indirectly they are saying "what you're doing is not as important as what I have to say". It might not be in those words, the act of interruption does that. Emails, calls, have to be managed.
Somehow I manage most days to do okay with zero sms notifications, zero email notifications on my phone and zero notifications on my computer. Nothing beeps.
There rarely are many problems that can't wait 1-2 hours. When it's urgent, someone emails, then calls. Poor planning on someone else's part doesn't make an emergency in my part. If people really need you they'll send you stuff a few hours in advance if not a few days. I reward pro-active behaviour and get back to them really fast.
Do any of you employ any strategies to get a better email/life balance?
Poor planning on someone else's part doesn't make an emergency in my part.
I've always hated this statement. I can understand, to some extent, not bailing out those who are habitually poorly prepared, but how can you justify not bailing someone out if it's what's best for your company?
You're ignoring the longterm effects of someone who chronically creates work for others due to their lack of preparation or ability. It is not good for a company to put itself under stress like that. It's especially poisonous when the person shifting and creating work like that is in a leadership position in the organisation because it sets the template for everyone else. Organisations that let that kind of behavior run rampant; fail to achieve.
Being able to distinguish between a real emergency and a real problem that is solvable in the normal course of operations is an essential skill.
Totally, the "not my job" mindset only slows things down.
When one person starts being a joker and not taking things seriously and being thoughtful of the productivity of others or their team, it can spread like wildfire.
In a lot of cases the stuff is habitual, at which point you get extremely irritated that people keep screwing up and all the time you're the one who has to clean up the mess. Yea sometimes stuff happens, and I don't think most people have a problem with helping out. But so many times it makes people feel used, which (at least IMO) is why people have this sentiment.
It's a matter of respect for yourself, and the time of others.
People who don't respect their own time won't respect the time of others that much. People who think their time is more important than others time will also abuse the time of others.
If I bust my tail getting something done for you that you needed and you can't do the same for something I needed, I'm now doubly under the gun. If I said hey, I have to be there for thebrokencube and you believe in not letting me down, guess what, we have that magical thing of having each others backs and supporting each other.
Sadly, most offices are daycares for adults. People act out their high school insecurities on an epic scale and wonder why they aren't getting anywhere in life.
The key is to be clear that I'm not here to play clean up for messy people. I am happy to pitch in when things go sideways, but do my job and lift the business up.
A broken person, or process will only drag things down.
"Sadly, most offices are daycares for adults. People act out their high school insecurities on an epic scale and wonder why they aren't getting anywhere in life."
Can you elaborate? This was a fun teaser but you didn't flesh it out enough.
If we're really customer facing business, we're a proactive business.
Last minute fires mean reactionary mindset. You can never be the best business possible when reactionary. Learning to anticipate things and have them ready in advance is doable in every business.
If we look at every last minute thing and apply this simple test to it, we'll know where we're at:
1) Is this something we've dealt with before?
2) Could it have been dealt with in advance?
If so, I'm not a fan of feeding the monster.
If not, guess what, you have a first time occurence that can use some immediate attention.
How to plan for surprises? I only schedule 5-6 hours of work a day. I leave 1-2 hours a day free. Either that time gets eaten up with true surprises, or I get ahead on my schedule. Responsible scheduling helps everyone.
(If) What's best for you is making the most money you can.
and .. if you want to achieve this by doing the least work possible, and creating work for others, they will not help you be more successful at your job.
A real successful team, person, and company will all believe in getting more work done with less collective effort. So, if I make my job easier, it shouldn't make your job harder.
Sadly, too many people in management don't get team building, team development, but instead narrow minded views and babysitting everyone through it.
Edit: Added the word If at the beginning, I was examining what I interpreted the previous commenter to be saying.
> What's best for you is making the most money you can.
I can't even begin to fathom that mindset. No amount of money is worth my health. None. I walked out on a great-paying job that turned into a clusterfuck and voluntarily did nothing for a year for exactly that reason.
I worked way below market for quite a while for that reason.
I'm working somewhat below market even now for that reason.
I keep score in happiness and satisfaction, not dollars.
> I keep score in happiness and satisfaction, not dollars.
The only way to win at society's collective pissing contest is to opt out.
I believe that this is the secret of work: find the work that gives you more satisfaction than pain, and become the very best you can at it. The money will follow, and it will no longer control you. What controls you now is a sort of purpose that you find through your work. Mind you, it doesn't negate the fact that there will be unpleasant/unsexy things to do at work. (That is one reason why you're getting paid for it, after all.) And it may even make it harder, as you now have a greater emotional involvement in your work.
Purposelessness will suck you dry. I think people instinctively know this when they choose salary over happiness, they just believe it to be inevitable.
If my company dies tomorrow I can easily find new work or try to start a company for a year and then look for a job if that fails. I basically think of the company as a client who I get stuff done in exchange for money and I think that's far more healthy than the alternatives.
PS: I live well below my market rate and toss the extra into savings. Living pay check to paycheck when your location or skills make it hard to find a new job is simply poor planing.
There could be serious/hilarious consequences to this send-but-not-receive policy... inability to correct a mistake in an email sent right before the embargo-period... a bunch of work done on cancelled/already-solved issues... expectation mismatches with new/outside/other-time-zone correspondents.
For some reason I'm also reminded of the scene in Swingers where Jon Favreau's character leaves a string of increasingly pathetic chopped-off voice messages, each trying to soften/undo/complete the previous, but in the absence of real interactivity, failing miserably.
I think it might slam inboxes early in the morning and late at night but over time (I would hope) people would learn to prioritize communications....
Ever tried making plans with someone who doesn't have a cell phone? I damn well make sure I'm not late because I have no way to reach them. Maybe the same will happen with less available email.
No good deed goes unpunished. It's sad but true. The key is to be helpful without being too helpful.
If you get a reputation for being the one to call in an emergency, you'll be the one who gets called in emergencies. If on the other hand, you get a reputation for getting back to people in a day or two unless there's an appropriate reason you need to get back sooner, people will expect you to get back in a day or two unless there's an appropriate reason you need to get back sooner.
That was exactly the story of my life. I got a reputation for handling the work of many people and making emergencies go away (more) permanently.
What did it do? More problems sent my way. I became the catch-all.
The tough part was transitioning to the 24-48 hour response, not so much for me but the people who knew I can reply in minutes.
I added an email auto response saying
"I schedule my time in a new way --I check my email 2-4 times a day to reply to everything at once and work uninterrupted for 90 minutes at a time.
Call if it's an emergency that hasn't happened before. Otherwise please send me all the details I'll ask you about anyways and I can get back to you right away with an answer in the first email instead of going back and forth.
If you need something done right away please let me know what you can take off my plate while I give you a hand."
After this, I simply replied to the best emails that let me write them a 30 second response. When you're the guy who helps solve problems, believe me, people will do their leg work to set you up to get back to them quickly.
A lot of emails I just emailed them what I would google to find the answer, enjoyed that a lot too.
I noticed that mobile email doesn't always help get more work done, unless you're the person asking the questions in the emails.
If a bb user is busy answering other people's questions... you're likely doing their work too. The culture of "we're waiting on you" that grows in an organization is the real enemy.
Interruptions are bad too. When someone shows up to interrupt and steal your attention indirectly they are saying "what you're doing is not as important as what I have to say". It might not be in those words, the act of interruption does that. Emails, calls, have to be managed.
Somehow I manage most days to do okay with zero sms notifications, zero email notifications on my phone and zero notifications on my computer. Nothing beeps.
There rarely are many problems that can't wait 1-2 hours. When it's urgent, someone emails, then calls. Poor planning on someone else's part doesn't make an emergency in my part. If people really need you they'll send you stuff a few hours in advance if not a few days. I reward pro-active behaviour and get back to them really fast.
Do any of you employ any strategies to get a better email/life balance?