First AA, Then NA… Now Emailers Anonymous?

Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:40PM EST

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You've heard of AA and NA. How about EA?

An executive coach from Pennsylvania has created a 12-step program called Emailers Anonymous for clients who say an obsession with email is taking a toll on their productivity and all-around sanity.

Before we get carried away, Marsha Egan's program is not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous and she does not hold EA meetings for self-described email-aholics. But she has come up with 12 steps for people who believe email radically cuts into their productivity rather than contributes to it.

Number one on the list, as Reuters reports, is to "admit that e-mail is managing you. Let go of your need to check e-mail every 10 minutes." Egan tells Reuters that one of her clients could not walk by her computer, or anyone else's for that matter, without checking her email.

Think you need to hear some more steps? Answer these questions:

• Do you check email on your BlackBerry (or other smart phone) or on your computer periodically every few minutes.

• Do you check email to avoid doing other work?

• Do you look up at the clock to discover you've been reading and writing emails for the past hour, and none of them have anything to do with the work you need to get done today?

If you come close to saying yes to any of these, and I suspect we all do some days, then Egan's steps, taken as guidance or advice, can help all of us, even if we don't think we're addicted just quite yet.

Step 2: Commit to keeping your inbox empty.

Uh oh. I'd be in trouble there. But some of her other recommendations are common sense pointers we have heard before:

• Establish regular times to review email.

• Deal immediately with any email that can be handled in two minutes or less but create a file for emails that will take longer.

• Do not check email more than three or four times a day.

Egan points out that if email overindulgence is cutting into individual productivity, it has a cumulative effect on overall workplace productivity. She figures that employees, on average, take four minutes to read and deal with one email before they resume working productively.

Time to take stock: Are you an email addict, or just plain unproductive some days more than others?

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Comments on First AA, Then NA… Now Emailers Anonymous?

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  • 6 Posted by tim_kievit on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    Um, if I waited to check email 3-4 times a day, I'd have about 150 to deal with by lunchtime... Media relations is very time sensitive stuff...

  • 7 Posted by ayamix88 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:00PM EDT Report Abuse

    I check my company and personal e-mail almost every 5 minutes if I am not overloaded with work. I think I need to cut back but some of the work I do is transfered via email so its hard to not check personal e-mail while I'm checking my work inbox.

  • 8 Posted by jstlvly_98 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:43PM EDT Report Abuse

    Judith Wright also addresses this "soft addiction" in her book, The Soft Addiction Solution. She also offers solution trainings on the topic which I've attended. It is, indeed a problem that I'm battling and winning.

  • 9 Posted by babyellabella on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    Happy to hear there's more of those like me out there. I have a severe habit of all things computer. Search engines, craigslist, email, ect. Not so sure the steps will be strong enough to curb my addiction.

  • 10 Posted by daniellemarie5629 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:35PM EDT Report Abuse

    It's kind of scary how true this can actually be....I think I may have a problem! Helpful hints yes, but not exactly what I would call solutions. There may not be any solutions other than blocking my own email site at work!

  • 11 Posted by kh2win on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    FIRST! Yes we're all addicted, noes...

  • 14 Posted by valokelu on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:31PM EDT Report Abuse

    Good stuff! The part on '...e-mail managing us...' really hits the nail on the head. Valentine Okelu

  • 15 Posted by friendofbillw1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    My name is Daniel....I am a email-a-holic. OMG what will they think of next. I wonder if anyone has every emailed so much they lost their job...or better yet what does an email hangover feel like? I wonder if these EA members have passed out from too many emails and woke up next to a large woamn named twinkie whom they have not seen beofre? Hmm...You think they have emailed so much the house went down the tubes???? Marsha, way over the top here.

  • 16 Posted by rduxler on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:33PM EDT Report Abuse

    I would have to disagree. This article is VERY realistic. I had read some similar advice one time, and switched to only checking my email in the morning, after lunch, and in the afternoon. I set aside a half-hour each time to work on responding OR printing emails that I needed to f/u on. And I get over 100 emails per day. Before, I had my email (Groupwise) open on my desktop, and was constantly checking it and wasting time. With my new method, I can stay on the task at hand. It wasn't easy at first...I felt a compulsion to check my email, and realized that I WAS using it to procrastinate. But once I 'kicked the habit' I get SO much more done!

  • 18 Posted by mrxaius1 on Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:58PM EST Report Abuse

    yeah well I just get bored at work. does that count

  • 19 Posted by robbyd7368 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    it's just nice to know i am not the only one doing this. I have 5 addresses and it can take up to an hour or better just deleting nonsense. thanks

  • 20 Posted by friendofbillw1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    I wonder what an email hangover feels like? Or I wonder in an emailer addict has ever come too lying next to a large woman named twinkie? OMG Over the top here people.

  • 21 Posted by berryblonde6067 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:05PM EDT Report Abuse

    It was nice to hear that other people are addicted to their email but it did not say anything helpful

  • 22 Posted by amoncada1944 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    The last advice, "Do not check email more than three or four times a day," doesn't make sense. Precisely you are trying not to do that! On the other hand it does not deal with real deep causes, so it results useful.

  • 23 Posted by bmxerror on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    Marsha Egan needs to find something better to do with their time... And modern society needs to start taking responsibility instead of saying, "I have a disease." and asking someone else to 'fix' them.

  • 25 Posted by jerryinelpaso on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:33PM EDT Report Abuse

    Shucks, I could get addicted to anything! While I won't get arrested for driving with email on my breath and I won't be smoking the printouts I could end up wasting a huge amount of time. Just for me, I need to go back to checking my email twice a day. Do you find checking your email a form of task avoidance. Guilty here!

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