{"text":[[{"start":12.17,"text":"What fresh torture is this? "},{"start":14.262,"text":"“Just resending this email to get it to the top of your inbox! ”"}],[{"start":18.56,"text":"Let me stop you right there. "},{"start":20.476999999999997,"text":"There is no top of my inbox. "},{"start":22.631999999999998,"text":"My inbox is empty. "},{"start":24.274,"text":"At least it was before you decided to do the digital equivalent of emptying the contents of my waste paper basket all over the floor of my study. "},{"start":31.579,"text":"Back slowly away, if you value your typing fingers. "}],[{"start":35.3,"text":"Not a month goes by without some monstrous email habit catching on. "},{"start":39.254,"text":"Isn’t it about time we figured this all out? "},{"start":41.708999999999996,"text":"Email celebrates its 50th birthday this year and has been ubiquitous in the office for a couple of decades. "},{"start":47.214,"text":"Yet it is hard to think of a workplace practice that causes more aggravation. "},{"start":51.357,"text":"Well — there’s the open-plan office. "},{"start":53.599,"text":"But let’s not go there, metaphorically or otherwise. "}],[{"start":57.839999999999996,"text":"When I asked people on Twitter to share their pet hates about email, I was struck by the fact that they were still arguing about etiquette. "},{"start":64.39399999999999,"text":"Some hated the stiff formality of “Dear Tim” and “kind regards” while others insisted on it. "},{"start":69.137,"text":"A few complained about people who typed the message into the subject line; many people wanted to see much more of this, for swifter reading. "}],[{"start":77.12,"text":"One must always be considerate, but it is a category error to think of email as governed by the rules of etiquette. "},{"start":83.224,"text":"Email is a tool for getting things done, and so the essential questions are not about salutations but about productivity. "},{"start":89.679,"text":"Emails are problematic not when they use the wrong sign-off but when they waste time and attention. "}],[{"start":95.54,"text":"The more thoughtful treatments of this problem — for example, Cal Newport’s new book A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Overload — rightly diagnose a systemic malaise. "},{"start":106.04400000000001,"text":"Part of the problem stems from email’s sheer versatility. "},{"start":109.31200000000001,"text":"We can use email for almost anything, so we do. "}],[{"start":113.48,"text":"A wise organisation will seek out tools and processes better adapted to collaborating on specific tasks. "},{"start":119.634,"text":"If you try to co-ordinate a complex project with your colleagues in a general all-purpose inbox, stress and overload are inevitable. "},{"start":126.63900000000001,"text":"You enter what Newport calls “the hyperactive hive mind”. "}],[{"start":130.7,"text":"Yet while this is a systemic problem, there’s a lot each individual can do to tame it. "}],[{"start":136.25,"text":"First: use the tools that many email programs offer. "}],[{"start":140.6,"text":"If you want to send an email to a large group while ensuring that only you receive the replies, don’t type “PLEASE DO NOT REPLY ALL”. "},{"start":147.579,"text":"Make it impossible to do so by putting the group in BCC. "},{"start":151.197,"text":"If someone else fails to follow this rule and your inbox fills up with witty but irrelevant banter from colleagues, try “mute”. "}],[{"start":158.63,"text":"Use “schedule send” to ensure your email arrives during office hours, no matter when you send it. "},{"start":163.884,"text":"This is a kindness, but also trains your colleagues not to expect instant responses. "}],[{"start":169.44,"text":"Second: be the change you want to see in the world. "}],[{"start":173.07,"text":"Try announcing that you are “moving Julia to BCC” as a way of politely excusing her from further duties in a group email. "},{"start":179.762,"text":"Dabble with changing the subject line: “Arrangements for AGM 8 July” ceases to be a good subject if the AGM has been moved to July 7. "},{"start":187.804,"text":"If your entire email is that the 4pm meeting has been postponed by 15 minutes, then I recommend a subject line “The 4pm meeting has been postponed by 15 minutes //” rather than “URGENT PLEASE READ”. "}],[{"start":199.63,"text":"Why act like this? "},{"start":201.272,"text":"Because it makes you a more pleasant person to work with. "},{"start":204.064,"text":"Because people will notice, and they may learn. "},{"start":206.557,"text":"Just as people acquire appalling habits from each other, such as sending repeated invitations to the same Zoom URL (or is it the same? "},{"start":214.137,"text":"they also follow good examples. "}],[{"start":217.06,"text":"My third piece of advice is the most fundamental: clarify and decide. "},{"start":221.452,"text":"A hundred emails a day is a lot if you leave half of them sitting in your inbox. "},{"start":225.55700000000002,"text":"Keep that up and in a month you’ll have 1,500. "},{"start":228.724,"text":"Give it a year and you’ll be begging to be allowed to declare email bankruptcy, post the keys through the letterbox and walk away. "}],[{"start":236.2,"text":"The solution is to be sharper about your decisions. "},{"start":239.254,"text":"If no action is needed then delete or archive. "},{"start":242.209,"text":"Most archived email is easy to find again. "}],[{"start":245.51999999999998,"text":"If action is needed, and it is brief and obvious, do it immediately. "},{"start":249.94899999999998,"text":"Otherwise, archive the email and note the project in a task manager such as Trello, Remember the Milk or even a simple text file. "},{"start":257.61699999999996,"text":"If the email is about a meeting, put all the details in your calendar. "},{"start":261.43399999999997,"text":"But unless you want to give the entire world access to your to-do list, do not make the mistake of using your inbox as that list. "}],[{"start":268.79999999999995,"text":"This isn’t always easy, but the alternative is worse. "},{"start":272.3539999999999,"text":"I recently had the opportunity to discuss my work habits with productivity trainer Todd Brown of Next Action Associates. "},{"start":278.87199999999996,"text":"A hard core of about a dozen emails sitting in my Action folder, stubbornly unmoving, was giving me headaches. "},{"start":284.96399999999994,"text":"Todd correctly diagnosed the problem: in each case I hadn’t quite decided what the action was supposed to be. "}],[{"start":291.69999999999993,"text":"The solution to email overload is to make clear decisions, quickly. "},{"start":295.8789999999999,"text":"That does not and should not mean instant replies, but it should mean that the email no longer festers in the inbox. "},{"start":301.9219999999999,"text":"A sharp organisation will find better ways to handle its core activities than reverting to email. "},{"start":307.08899999999994,"text":"But so too will a sharp individual. "}],[{"start":310.37999999999994,"text":"Tim Harford’s new book is “How to Make the World Add Up” (UK)/ “The Data Detective” (US "}],[{"start":315.88999999999993,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/001092066-1617788885.mp3"}