Man cuts email use 80 percent in a week... but for what?

Tue Jul 1, 2008 12:02PM EDT

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IBM's Luis Suarez got "tired" of answering email every morning, which he says sucked hours out of every day. Rather than moan about it and maybe install a plug-in to help him cope, Suarez did something drastic. He just stopped using email.

How does a guy that works at a place like IBM get away with "stopping" the use of email? Very carefully.

But seriously, there's something to this: Suarez has hit on the hard truth that email begets more email. Send one message and it can generate a chain of 20 responses, back and forth. If you don't believe me, check your Sent Items folder and see how much you correspond with the same people on the same topic, over and over again. (Also see how many of those emails consist of one word: "Thanks.") But if you stop the first message you stop all of them.

Suarez didn't just cut himself off from technology, though. Rather, he's replaced email with a number of other technologies that still allow him to communicate with others, namely social networking sites, instant messaging, blogging, and collaborative wikis. He's even turned to—gasp!—the telephone to get in touch with people.

If there's a flaw in Suarez's plan it's this one: Doesn't all that time spent blogging and IMing eat up just as much of the day as sending an email? Every morning my inbox is crushed with press releases, responses to questions, spam, and even those "Thanks!" notes... but dealing with them isn't that much of an onus. Most are simply deleted immediately. I can't imagine how much time Suarez must spend on his intricate "social bookmarking and tagging" system, nor do I really understand how IBM's home-grown Facebook-like social networking system actually helps get work done. The so-called "Beehive" system, says Suarez, helps "build trust levels with peers in order to get a job done much faster." That sounds great, but trust alone can't write and edit this blog post. (God, I wish it could!)

Bottom line for me: Sure, it may actually be easy to get rid of email, but consider what you're replacing it with. Would you rather spend two hours a day answering email messages, or spend that same amount of time composing 140-character blather on Twitter and editing a wiki? Is the cure worse than the disease?

LINK: I Freed Myself From E-Mail's Grip

Comments on Man cuts email use 80 percent in a week... but for what?

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  • 2 Posted by jim12957 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:35PM EDT Report Abuse

    In this case, I'd say the cure is worse than the disease ... yes, you 'can' get along without email ... but until something 'truely' better comes along (and so far it hasn't that I know of) ... a few minutes/hours each morning returning/reading those emails is a small price to pay to keep the world's corporations (and our own careers) moving forward.

  • 3 Posted by gooddayz39 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:11PM EDT Report Abuse

    By showing all the information that your working on and a which times you are working on it. You can simply cut down on the time you spend replying to emails... And then use your e-mails for the really important stuff like... maybe prospects? depending on what your working on

  • 4 Posted by norreggy on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:41PM EDT Report Abuse

    I tend to agree with the guy. When you get an email with a long cc list but only a couple people are actually involved, it might be better to use a phone or make a visit to the person's cube to iron everything out instead of engaging in ping pong replies on a piecemeal basis. All those one liner comments are pretty annoying and gives people who have little or no contribution to a project the chance to insert their "2 cents" and claim involvement, when they're simply pests best ignored.

  • 5 Posted by muscogeekid on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:30PM EDT Report Abuse

    For me, if people would just cut out the forwarding of jokes and political hyperbolae, my inbox would shrink considerably. I never respond to those and rarely comment on them to the sender.

  • 7 Posted by wcarruth@att.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:42PM EDT Report Abuse

    IMing IS tiresome. So at 83 I'm embarking on a research effort to 'discover' how the Amish do it. No phones, no e-mails, no TV, and - danged near no nothing that Americans have been suckered into. There's GOT to be a better way to enjoy my remaining years! Maybe a quill and a piece of parchment OR - perish the thought: SNAIL-MAIL but only when ABSOLUTELY necessary. The Ameche? I'm experimenting with a long piece of string and two tin cans. Bill Carruth, Royal OAK, MI

  • 8 Posted by enishewa on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:55PM EDT Report Abuse

    He went from a big screen to a smaller IMscreen? I get 1000's of e-mails per day and IMming, or other small screens dont allow me the same speed in flying through all my e-mails ... This IBM guy is not so smart is he? Does he know simple e-mail filters can help? He obviously does not want the co to get his messages for some reason, probably all bad. yes, co networks are allowed into employees recieved and sent e-mails since it is a company and more is at stake! I really hope IBM is not just letting this guy slip one over on them... E-mail does work, and gets the job done too.

  • 9 Posted by lennyogarc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    Of course IMing and the social networking site would be better... at a large company like IBM do you know how much email one gets that doesn't relate to you? The other methods save you time as you don't have to filter through it all. More direct form of communication.

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