

I Freed Myself From E-Mail’s Grip  - ideas101
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/jobs/29pre.html?ref=technology

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lincolnq
Wow. This blows my mind. I have to beg people to email me instead of trying to
IM me, talk to me, or (God forbid) send me a Facebook message.

FTFA: "You can do something as simple as calling people instead of e-mailing
them. If you work on the same floor, you can even walk over to their desks and
talk to them!"

Interesting. When I'm hard at work coding, I really don't want to be
interrupted. (See Peopleware.) If you need something from me, email me.

Email allows me to respond at my leisure (which is fairly often, but not while
I'm in the zone, please). Email also allows me to keep a searchable record of
what is said (IM has logs, but most of everything is in email). Lastly, email
is my task list and if you communicate something to me in a different way, I
just have to send myself an email.

~~~
tomjen
Solution: Turn off your IM, and don't respond to facebook messages. IM is
optional, if you don't turn it on nobody will contact you.

That said I find a phone call even worse.

~~~
akd
The nature of phone calls and emails are extremely different. Email is better
for articulating complex ideas because you have the time to think them
through; phone calls are better for hashing something out with someone live
since the latency is in milliseconds instead of hours.

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xlnt
i love my email. i want more. 90%+ is stuff i enjoy reading.

