Overwhelmed by Email? One Firm Goes Email-Free on Fridays

Tue Oct 9, 2007 3:57PM EDT

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I'm sure you know the feeling: You spend five minutes answering one email, only to find that a dozen more have taken its place while you were crafting your response. During business hours, email can be a vicious cycle that never stops, to the point where some are taking drastic steps to get out from under its crushing weight.

The latest idea: Email-free Friday, which a group of engineers at Intel are kicking off in an attempt to stem the tide of electronic noise. The idea isn't just to get people away from Outlook for the day, but to get them interacting more in person or even over the phone, hopefully to encourage better idea generation and more effective problem solving than the coldness of email can offer.

There may also be a secondary benefit of stopping people from sending so much email on the other days of the week: One company says that, after implementing an email-free Friday plan in early 2006, overall messages sent within the company have dropped by a whopping 75 percent. That's incredible.

Sounds like a great start. As a companion, can I humbly suggest a telephone-free Thursday? 

Here are some additional personal tips on getting more control over your inbox:

  • Don't check your inbox so often. I tweaked Outlook to check for new messages once ever 10 minutes instead of every 2 or 3 to help eliminate distractions from other tasks. Some heavy mail users check once or twice an hour. You aren't going to miss anything, I promise.
  • Delete or file messages you're done with. Some people just leave everything in their inbox, from critical tasks to newsletters to spam... and I have no idea how this "system" could possibly function. Create folders for related messages you want to save, and delete the rest. Invest in a spam filter. Most experts say that you should aim for a maxmum of 10 to 20 messages in your inbox at any one time. I personally feel a great sense of accomplishment when I am able to delete or file an email permanently.
  • Use a calendar to help you. There's no need to leave a message in your inbox for months to remind you to do something in January. Set an appointment in your calendar and file away the message until you actually need it.
  • Use appropriate subject lines. Or change them if someone sends you a "keeper" with a vague heading. Seeing "Project due on Friday 10/19" will be much more helpful than a subject line that reads "Hey..."
  • Don't forget the phone, IM, or even a walk down the hall. If it will take you longer to type it than it will to discuss in person, consider getting up out of your seat. The walk will do you good, and they might have candy in their office.

Comments on Overwhelmed by Email? One Firm Goes Email-Free on Fridays

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  • 26 Posted by tratios on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    I can see how this would be a nice thing in certain jobs, however it would never work in any company which deals with service, in fact even in those other jobs, you have outside contacts who will be awaiting a response. It would make more sense to just focus your email traffic, so that its only used when needed. If your getting 100 emails daily, I doubt no more then 15-20 of them are useful, unless your providing service.

  • 27 Posted by texasgator1980 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    The idea is sort of nuts. Agree with all those that say, so you want to replace 100 e-mails with 100 phone messages to return? E-mail is quite frankly the most efficient means of communication. To simply declare it off-limits for a day with the idea that folks will communicate more face-to-face sounds nice but it's a bad business decision. Trying to solve personality issues (i.e. unwillingness to communicate face-to-face or by phone) by taking away a technology? Hmmm.... makes no sense to me.

  • 28 Posted by springfarm1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:37PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'd rather just have emails and not deal with anyone over the phone!!! Much easier to handle situations with email. And you don't sound so rude in an email.

  • 29 Posted by ashley_eleveld on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:58PM EDT Report Abuse

    That's ridiculous to say Europe has been email free forever. I work in Europe and I get emails everyday, sometimes non-stop, sometimes not, but I know my boss is definitely having this email-overload problem! Email problems have no borders...only organizations which let this happen.

  • 30 Posted by redstripe1022 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is ridiculous, people need to use email to get things done faster and avoid long phone conversations that are unneceesary and take up to much work time. Maybe people in Europe are just lazy.

  • 32 Posted by parasenorita on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    eeek- bad idea. the less face-to-face the better. i don't need people coming around my cubicle. at least with an email, i can reply when i'm ready to. working with/for demanding people does not mesh with this concept.

  • 33 Posted by bhong7611 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    this is a great idea... my company should adopt this, working with the leading chipmaker i usually recieved a minimum of 150 emails a day...

  • 34 Posted by ivan12261 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:25PM EDT Report Abuse

    Well, Brozenec- I have the opposite view on Europe. Usually, the only way to get ahold of my European business friends is via emailas most are mobile connected and IM-ing or texting away, as well. Europe surely does have a laissez-faire attitude towards time, I agree.

  • 35 Posted by melibeli2089 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:15PM EDT Report Abuse

    At my office I receive roughly 50-100 emails a day. I think having "email-free Friday" is a great idea. When discussing something, having face-to-face contact with someone can make all the difference and increase our social well being as individuals. It seems all around healthier to get up and walk to the person you are emailing.

  • 36 Posted by ct_price on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:32PM EDT Report Abuse

    The American Cancer Society's South Atlantic Division has been doing this for years. Jack Shipkoski - the CEO - is a visionary. It is a reason to put more personal contact back into business life. People are encouraged to call volunteers, constituents, vendors, and each other on the phone or meet face to face since most contact these days is via e-mail. The first Friday of every month is E-mail Free Friday.

  • 37 Posted by lmn0b on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    Actually, it's pretty sad that email and texting have surpassed real human communication and interaction. The purpose of the story wasn't to take a vacation from email and play catch-up the following Monday. It was a subtle dig on us for living entirely in email. It's just funny that companies have to come up with clever gimmicks to get people to talk to each other again. And it doesn't have to be cold turkey stoppage of email. I practice a similar method where I make an effort to TALK MORE, versus email or text. You still handle email, but instead of 32 back and forth messages, it takes one call and about two minutes to convey the same message.

  • 38 Posted by loyal_tree on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:58PM EDT Report Abuse

    I have way to much to do in one day to skip email. Sometimes people will notify me of a "situation" or a request and I ask them to email me a note so I won't forget. I can't remember everything that gets requested of me and if I ask the requester to email it, then I don't have to write it down! Someone mentioned saving all emails to CYA...I do that too. I just never permanently delete anything. It goes into the deleted items folder and stays there. I am constantly searching it for emails I didn't record, or to remember something that happened months ago that I need now. Same with my sent emails, but that's the one I use for covering my arc. No email Friday would drive me nuts because I do enough of emailing and talking to people all day, I can't handle anymore talking! Maybe it works for people stuck in a cubicle all day and can't wait for an excuse to get up and have some human interaction, but not for me, I get all I can handle most days.

  • 39 Posted by johnsonfarms on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:39PM EDT Report Abuse

    Email is the only way. The phone cost & long distance will break you. There just needs to be better way to stop junk mail. Try living in rual amercia & not have email, you will go nuts or broke on the phone. We run a small business & email saves us time. We use to transfer all phone calls to a cell phone, WOW we now saved $100's of dollars by email. The best phone for rual amercia is now Vontage. We took our land line phone bill down to $40 a month & was $200+. As for no email, our samll business would suffer big time. Sorry we won't be not emailling on any special day. Like we email 24/7

  • 40 Posted by tecnonongeek on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    How about web surfing free Fridays? Oh wait, how would I read lame things like this at work. I certainly wouldn't use my own time to do it.

  • 41 Posted by tonycorkran on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:16PM EDT Report Abuse

    I disagree with the 10 minute rule for email notifications. Depending on the entity that you work for, depends on the necessity of time response. Also if you answer the email back quickly and do not hesitate to check your emails until a bulk of them come your really getting into the fustration and time consuming process to try to clear and/or answer each one. Number 1 rule of thumb. Get the task on your end completed and off your desk as quickly as possible.

  • 42 Posted by petitepkg123 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm a corporate recruiter and I totally disagree about less emails. With the amount of information I have to exchange in a day my work production would be cut in half if I had to pick up the phone every time or walk down the hall. AND VERY IMPORTANT... EMAIL is a great way to CONFIRM the exact information/ direction you are either requesting or receiving. A REAL ...C.Y.A. tool for those that understand that abbreviation!

  • 43 Posted by punksloveelephants on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:22PM EDT Report Abuse

    i think this is a really good idea sometimes you just need a break from your emails and maybe Friday is the perfect day to do that :)

  • 44 Posted by flattedfeet on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:00PM EDT Report Abuse

    But there is nobody in on Fridays! All you get is their voice mail!

  • 45 Posted by bryan.brewster11 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    wow. like the idea but it really doesn't solve anything. More emails to read on MOnday, more phone calls to deal with on Friday. Email is used to send documents as well... so if no email, increased faxes? yuk! Email is used to document conversation, to have a running dialog of an issue or circumstance... it does create an atmosphere of accountabilty.... something that is dreadfully needed in our workplace and society today. No one can argue with an email... either it was written and sent, or it wasn't. rarely can one argue that they didn't receive it. It is a pain sometimes, but the benefits far outweigh the negatives. People should learn how to use it and not abuse it though... keep the subject lines accurate, keep to the point, and don't send emails back and forth as if you WERE having a conversation on the phone...

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