Maybe you’ve become aware of the fact that you can’t seem to stop yourself from refreshing your Gmail inbox, your Facebook homepage, or your endless Twitter feed. Maybe you’re a student working toward your master’s degree, and you’re working full-time, too, to pay your way through school and you’ve come to realize your dependency on (or perhaps obsession with) the Internet. If you’re starting to think this sounds a lot like you, then maybe it’s time for an Internet detox.
At first it sounds scary. Even impossible. Maybe you’re genuinely perplexed when you begin to wonder how you ever survived before the Internet came along. Maybe you’ve taken after the “digital natives” and have forgotten what answering machines were for.
But we survived. Before the iPhone, we really did survive. And our minds were calmer then. The endless chatter of online communication — whether trivial or business-related — has removed many of us from the simpler life and led us to forget how to relax.
It is okay to take a break. You are allowed a break. You are allowed freedom. And it’s healthy to take a vacation from work, school, the “Twitterverse” every once in a while. Tell yourself you deserve it (because you do).
We live in a fast-paced world of technological communication where we are now able and expected to communicate with our coworkers, bosses, friends, family and community anytime, anywhere, 24/7; the Internet has morphed us into, if not workaholics, webaholics. So, as hard as it may be at first, it’s more important than ever to let yourself take a short-but-sweet vacation from your online responsibilities: to close your laptop, turn off your phone, and unplug your commitments for a while, to enjoy what you’ve probably missed out on for far too long: real life.
Emily Matthews is currently applying to master’s degree programs across the U.S., and loves to read about new research into health care, gender issues, and literature. She lives and writes in Seattle, Washington.
View this great online slideshow of 9 signs that you might be addicted to your Smartphone, composed by Dennis McCafferty of CIO Insight.
- Texting while drving a two ton killing machine?
- Withdrawel symptoms?
- Having to have it “always on?”
Have we missed any?
Just for fun, we’ve come up with some thought provoking (ok, silly) ways to tell if you’re addicted to your email and inbox:
•You email yourself if you haven’t received email for several minutes, just to make sure the email system hasn’t gone down…
•You look up EVERY time your computer “BRRRINGS” to announce an email…
•You name your pets Mozilla, Firefox and Google
•You name your kids Mozilla, Firefox and Google
•You get upset if you don’t receive a response to your email message in an hour…
•You refer to yourself as your email address when someone asks your name
•You email someone who has thanked you, thanking him or her for thanking you.
•You stop what you are doing to answer an “easy” email, even tho’ it might not be the most important, JUST to knock it off the list…
•You check your email the minute you get outa bed… even if it is the middle of the night
•You ask new acquaintances for their email addresses, not their phone numbers…
•You open your email first, before doing anything else…
•You sleep with your Blackberry nestled under your arm
•You keep more than 1000 items in your inbox at all times…
•You click “send/receive” just to make sure you haven’t “missed” any email…
•You check your spam filters hourly (or less) to make sure you’re not missing anything…
•You email the person sitting in the desk next to you, rather than turn around to ask the question…
Have any others? We’d love to see them… Comment below.
Concerned that you might truly be addicted? Listen to our interview with Dr. Joel Schwartz on the subject.
People everywhere struggle with how to manage their inboxes. Try this approach:
Sort rather than work.
I liken the viewing of the newly received email as a “sort” function rather than a “work” function. Some items could take a long time to handle, and not be urgent. These should be set up with reminders for the time to start the task and build it into your weekly or daily plan. Kind of like the triage nurse in the hospital’s emergency room – they sign everyone in, then handle in the right priority. Give it a try… You might like it.
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The way you manage your email only becomes a habit through repetition. In order to make these simple tips work, they have to become part of a daily routine. It takes commitment, self-control, and a new way of thinking, but the benefits make it all worthwhile.
Considering it takes 3 to 4 weeks to kick any habit, prepare yourself and focus your attention on replacing those habits that are stunting your productivity with these healthy email practices.
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Use the search bar to find email tips that will help you, or take our free online assessment which will give you tailored suggestions on how to improve your email and inbox productivity.
According to TechDirt.com, some psychiatrists have been pushing hard to have internet addiction officially classified in the psychiatrist’s bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The American Psychiatric Association recently proposed its new changes for DSM-5, the first update since 1994. Andinternet addiction is actually being considered
Read more…
Ostermann Research’s second annual “Mobile Messaging Study” polled employees at businesses to learn about their email habits and found that 95 percent of those surveyed check their business email outside of work, and 78 percent checked email while in the bathroom…
Read more of this article…
Hate having a Cluttered Desk? Then why are there so many messages in your inbox?
Keeping numerous emails in your inbox is akin to keeping all of your paper tasks strewn all over your desk. There is no organization, no priority, no categorization.
If you hate having a cluttered desk, then apply the same principles to how you manage your inbox. 200+ messages hanging in that inbox is equal to having 200 notes, files, messages, sticky notes ALLLL over your desk, in no piles, or files, – just strewn all around. That’s what you’re doing by leaving all that stuff in your inbox.
Your efforts to keep your inbox empty will hinge on the effectiveness manage all those messages coming in to your inbox. The key to this is: GET THEM OUTA THERE!
This doesn’t mean handling or working all those items, it means organizing them. That’s where e-folders save the day. See our posts on how to set up folders 12 steps .
By creating separate folders to store emails that have arrived in your inbox, you are taking a proactive approach to the problem rather than a reactive method that will lead to stress down the line.
The main goal of proper inbox maintenance is to keep your inbox available for newly-received items. Don’t get the shakes… it IS possible, and it DOES work.
Emptying your inbox does not mean HANDLING every item immediately; it means SORTING them.
By flushing your inbox each time you open it, you will be able to clearly label items, find them more easily, and respond appropriately to messages when the time is right. This way, you also avoid a serious accumulation of messages that need a response but ultimately get lost in the shuffle. After all, nobody wants to have to send a message that reads, “I’m so sorry it has taken me so long to respond to you; I have just been going through old e-mails and realized I’d never responded to your message.” By keeping your inbox clean and manageable, you will have a failsafe system in place to ensure that every message receives a response.
(excerpted from Inbox Detox (Acanthus Publishing, 2009))
Join Social Media Mentor Tom Gray and me as we discuss how to detoxify your inbox, and manage your email productivity.
Here’s his post.
And here is the link to the podcast, which includes at least 20 tips for managing your email and your inbox.
