Inbox Zero or for some the Holy Grail.
Me? It just means nobody has been in touch recently.
I recently listened to Unfinished Business with guest Harry Roberts (great show by the way). The discussion… email and how much it gets in the way. Along with emails, notifications from various social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook.
We do live in an age now where we are never truly alone. We have the world at our fingertips the majority of the time and stepping away from that can be pretty hard. I’ve tried to limit the amount of social media I get involved with and daily I question why I am on there. It’s very hard work and a balance needs to be found.
But the podcast got me thinking. Yes, notifications can be a nuisance, mainly because if you are like me, you feel obliged to reply to all of them. I know if someone doesn’t reply to me, it could be for a number of reasons but I don’t want to be seen as “that person who never replies”. Back on topic, it got me thinking that whilst it can be a pain to reply to people via social media or by emails, it shouldn’t be seen as a burden or as something to worry about.
As someone who doesn’t get much email apart from the usual “This job is amazing, please come work for the [insert skill you can’t do] team today”, I actually enjoy getting email. I like to feel wanted and for me, the biggest worry is not having to reply to them, it’s more the emails stopping, the same with the notifications.
Way I see it, people are contacting you because they see you as the go to person. Whether it be work, a chat or advice, be thankful. Don’t worry about that it might take time to reply to all, people will be thankful for the response no matter. The day that stops means you are no longer that go to person.
And that is shit.