By Susan Tallant/editor-in-chief
My name is Susan, and I am an e-mail addict.
But lucky for me, I now have a 12-step program designed to help me deal with my communication fixation.
Marsha Egan, Pennsylvania executive coach, is the mastermind behind this uncanny plan.
“ There is a crisis in corporate America, but a lot of CEOs don’t know it,” she said in a recent Reuters story by Jon Hurdle. “They haven’t figured out how expensive it is.”
Egan’s 12-step recovery was designed for people like me who cannot walk past a computer without checking e-mail, for the golfer who checks a Blackberry after each shot or for the dim-wit who checks e-mail while driving.
The steps? Admit there is a problem and let go of the need to check e-mail every 10 minutes. I have no problem with admission, but waiting 11 minutes to check mail will be a problem. Maybe I can get advice at the meetings for that one.
I hope the meetings will be online.
Step two? Commit to keeping your inbox empty. Since it will take hours if not days to sort through mine, that is a huge commitment.
I’m scared.
Steps three through five talk about files. Well good for me because I have several, but they do me no good unless I manage them properly. Egan suggests dealing immediately with e-mails that you can handle in two minutes or less and storing the rest in a file.
Step six suggests setting a goal date to empty your inbox and not spending more than an hour at a time doing it.
Does she mean an hour at a time counting the two minutes in step five?
Let’s see … target date Feb. 28, 2012. That would give me more than 100 thousand minutes to get the job done. Is there an e-mail jail for forwarders?
The rest?
The e-mail savior says you should turn off auto receive, have regular times to review your e-mail, involve others in conquering your addiction, reduce the amount of mail you receive and use only one subject per e-mail.
Is FW:FW:FW:FW:FW one subject or five?
Step 12? Celebrate taking a new approach to e-mail.
Does anyone want to join me in starting an EMA chapter?
