There. First step for recovery. I admit it.
There are many with this affliction; I, for example, check for new emails every minute or so. My web-based email needs to be clicked to get refreshed, so it’s not only a matter of looking at the bottom right corner or gazing up from the research paper I am supposed to be concentrated on reading (or worse, writing.)
They say e-mail addiction might be caused due to craving for social interaction. Maybe.
In short, this obsession is gnawing at my productivity. Add that to the convenient procrastination practice of reading “relevant” news such as slashdot, Schneier, weblogs, news, crap… and I’ve got myself into a problem.
You’d think I’m getting tons of interesting e-mails… but, sadly, I am not. I only get a handful of relevant/interesting emails a day and honestly, I don’t have much of a spam problem now that I installed the Akismet plug-in on this very weblog. So, there is really no reason to be hammering the “check mailbox” button every freakin’ second, is there?
Some recomendations out there are taking an email “day off” and setting a virtual curfew. I don’t think I have that strong of a will.
I’m drafting a plan that will only apply when I’m “working” — I feel funny calling it working when I’m a free, self-regulated student, but what am I supposed to call it? — at my desk, not when I’m at home (that would be too much.) This means 9am-9pm in round numbers.
Weeks 1 & 2: Check e-mail 6 times. This will be during the first 5 minutes of a round hour. If I miss these precious minutes, I’ll have to wait for the next one. For the sake of my well-being, this will also constitute some stretching and perhaps a cup of water.
Weeks 2 & 4: Check email 4 times.
Thereafter: Check email twice.
Regarding other on-line content, I think one consecutive hour for news and weblogs is enough. Again, this excludes time spent at home.
I know myself; in order for this to work, there must be a serious penalty for noncompliance.
I’m open for suggestions from you readers; it must be effective.
I do not feel guilty checking my email regularly, though I use Outlook so it is automatic. Through the years, I have received many emails that required my immediate response, and therefore I will happyly sacrifice a (cumulative) few minutes a day to be in constant contact with the real world.
For me, my addiction to constant email checking is not the big sap on productivity — my Inbox is empty too often for that — but rather my overconsumption of news information. Unlike email, there’s always another news article waiting to be read.
For the penalty to be effective it can’t be too regressive (don’t kill the patient with the medicine). I would suggest a constructive penalty like dropping a pound (or a quid or a bob or whatever goes for money there now… hehe) into a large jar for each violation. The contents of this jar is not to be used at the pub but for a good cause, charity, etc.
Stu
Can’t help but notice you have to check your email in order to get suggestions to help you overcome checking your email all the time. :-)
I don’t have the blog/news content/etc. addiction, but it is pretty amazing how indispensible to my day email has become. Connection has gone down? Oh no! Worse than having the phone not working.
Thank goodness for remote access when away from home.