What's a 'world without email' for the entrepreneur and small businessperson?
A new article on Forbes asks how the average entrepreneur stays focused while checking email, Slack, or Twitter every six minutes.
The author tells us about a new book by Dr Cal Newport, A World Without Email, as it explores the challenge facing knowledge workers to be productive and focused while all the time also facing the daily deluge of emails and external communications requiring their time and attention.
Newport identifies the problem as the "hyperactive hive mind," which he defines as "workflow centered around ongoing conversations fueled by unstructured and unscheduled messages." While email and messenger apps allow easy communications between large groups of people, he argues that humans perform most effectively in small groups.
Newport suggest several solutions to the problems. Firstly, he says we should consider our "attention" as capital. The author says that the majority of small businesses in America consist only of their owners, and another large segment have only 1-5 full-time employees. Newport says:
The author also asked Newport if working from home during the pandemic has changed things. He responded by saying:
The author tells us about a new book by Dr Cal Newport, A World Without Email, as it explores the challenge facing knowledge workers to be productive and focused while all the time also facing the daily deluge of emails and external communications requiring their time and attention.
Newport identifies the problem as the "hyperactive hive mind," which he defines as "workflow centered around ongoing conversations fueled by unstructured and unscheduled messages." While email and messenger apps allow easy communications between large groups of people, he argues that humans perform most effectively in small groups.
Newport suggest several solutions to the problems. Firstly, he says we should consider our "attention" as capital. The author says that the majority of small businesses in America consist only of their owners, and another large segment have only 1-5 full-time employees. Newport says:
| "The property that makes the hyperactive hive mind so detrimental is the need to keep checking inboxes or channels to keep up with unscheduled, back-and-forth messaging. The key to avoiding this harm is to put in place processes that help you get things done without casual, ad hoc messaging. One simple trick is act as if you have two part-time jobs: one working on product/strategy, and one working on administrative work, and assign clearly separated time for each, so the context shifting induced by the latter doesn't impact the former." |
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"Remote work certainly intensified the excesses of the hyperactive hive mind work flow, leading a lot more people to realize more clearly that the way we work isn't working. What I think is happening with Zoom is that a lot of people are using it as a proxy for productivity. They may be uncomfortable with their ability to keep track of an important project and put aside regular time to make progress all on their own. What they do trust, however, is that if there's a meeting on their calendar they will attend. So by setting up a standing meeting for a new project, you can gain some reassurance that you have it under control. The problem is that you've now taken a lot of time and attention from a lot of people. Back when we were in offices, when meetings happened in real rooms, and you had to see the resulting people in person, there's a higher social capital cost to bringing everyone together, so you're more likely to find other ways to organize your work. Also, a lot of what sometimes happens in these Zooms could instead happen by grabbing someone for 5 minutes after another meeting or in the office hallway." |
