There isn’t a more eloquent way to frame it—sometimes we find ourselves buried deep under a pile of unfinished work, pushed aside obligations, and other good intentions. It happens at work, at home, and our personal lives. It is a huge contributor to burnout, echoing a message of failure in what otherwise would be the quiet moments of our day. Personally, it is what both keeps me out of shape and fills my inbox, leaving me fighting for survival.
After a few days out of the office, I don’t need a falling rocks kind of warning sign to tell me that there is an avalanche of emails that will soon cover me. When I shut down my computer, having dutifully prepped for only a few days out of the office, I walked away knowing there were 40 purposefully chosen messages in my inbox waiting as reminders of follow up needed after rest and relaxation. My return, though, wasn’t full of happiness and sunshine and who in the world can handle 500 unread requests, questions, concerns and to-do’s.
As the plane descended, I didn’t notice the skyline welcoming me home. My mind switched to what I knew was waiting for me and I dreaded it. It used to be physical files teetering on the corner of my desk and blinking red lights announcing streams of voicemail messages but today it’s that dreaded counter in my inbox. Emails, easy to track and easy to send, represent both my friend and my electronic enemy.
I’m as annoying with these numbers as I was with miles I used to run. For the last few weeks, I reported to my colleagues, the ones still talking to me, my woes of what was waiting for me and the count of these messages that seemingly multiplied no matter how many I filed away or deleted. It’s the same kind of irritation friends and family members must have felt five years ago when I spent a solid year training for a marathon and forcing everyone within earshot to count the miles with me, measure the splits and calculate the slow but still making it before the cutoff time predictions of my finishing time.
Today, with a marathon distance a distant memory, I find myself in a race with Outlook. In this race, there is no medal and no t-shirt. Now that I work instead of workout, I don’t know what goes up faster – my weight or the number of incoming messages. As I fight both, I see a more than chance correlation. With a new sense of dedication, the likes of which I usually only express on New Year’s Eve, I have over-analyzed and felt the frustration in this not-so-scientific study of sorts as I vow to formulate a training plan that will put it all back on track.
If I chart it out, it’s clear that the more I sit, the more I weigh. The more I live in my inbox, the more I sit. This isn’t a coincidence. If researchers are right, the cost of a sedentary workday is a daily payout of at least 60 minutes of exercise. With so many numbers floating in my head, I don’t need the pressure of knowing that unless I somehow add an hour that isn’t there to my day, the choice will eventually be between the inbox or me.
I know what you are thinking— “I have to respond, I have to get this done, people are waiting and the only thing that will happen if I ignore my email is that it will climb.” Today’s too many emails will be way more than I can handle by tomorrow. If the choice is truly between me and Outlook, I am choosing me and so is my firm. They want us here for the long-term, and that means there has to be some changes before the “sitting is the new smoking” warnings become all too immediate and too much to finish.
This isn’t the first or the last time I will dig myself out of an email hole just like it isn’t the only time I have restarted a get fit plan. Years before I trained to run 26.2 miles, I learned to run 30 seconds at a time. Intervals, bite-size pieces of time and attention, can cover any distance when you string it together. Run, walk, run, walk, and repeat until you make it to your goal - the same kind of perseverance of climbing that electronic message mountain.
Like any lawyer, I like a list. Here is part of my multi-point plan to conquer my inbox before it conquers me:
- Stop counting: Turn off the counter and stop looking at the scale. There’s no progress in letting digits drown you in shame and ruin your day. If you still need to count something, maybe all that talk about steps wasn’t so bad after all.
- Turn off the noise: When the ding, ding, ding of new email messages feels like you’re under a missile attack, shut it off. It’s not a battle or even a war. It’s an email and it can wait.
- Unsubscribe: Don’t just keep deleting the same emails that you can stop all together by unsubscribing. Besides, was that 10% discount really worth all the time you spent wading through the clutter and chaos of constant advertisements.
- Be realistic: It’s impossible to respond to every message, solve every problem, and change every habit today. It’s better to do it right than to do it all once.
- Sort it out: If I can’t do it all at once, then I can do all of one thing at the same time. A little bit of focus can go a long way.
- Set boundaries: Establish a work schedule, make it known, and stick to it. And, when you wake up in the middle of the night and feel compelled to send one more message, at least schedule it for future delivery. If I know you are available 24 hours a day, I am contacting you when you are available. If you close your Mac at 5 and I know it, I’m remembering to reach out to you earlier.
- Go back to basics. If one phone call prevents a dozen emails, pick up the phone. In the time you just saved, you’ve just found time for that walk.
- Set an example. You’ll get through it bit by bit, moving that boulder up and over the hill before it crushes you. Someone will see you do it. Show them how.
