Yes, it seems ridiculous to make assumptions about someone’s personality, their habits and their mental health based on the way they handle their email, but I’m willing to play along with that stream of thought, just out of curiousity.
The part that intrigues me is that GTD guru Merlin Mann was quoted in the article “What Your Inbox Says About You” which was originally printed in the Wall Street Journal and also picked up online here.
Here are some of Merlin’s observations about what part our personalities play in our inefficient email habits:
People pleasers need to have stronger email boundaries and a systemized, more “ruthless” way of dealing with emails. “Those who are too nice in other areas of their lives may be more likely to struggle with unwieldy inboxes, says Merlin Mann, creator of 43folders.com, a Web site about personal productivity. Polite people (or those who want to be liked) feel obliged to participate in ping-pong correspondences with chatty friends. They haven’t the heart to give anyone the no-response brush-off. But Mr. Mann says such ruthlessness is necessary.”
The solution–use stock email templates when you can. Merlin says he uses a few dozen “templates” to answer email — prewritten form letters in which he inserts a person’s name or a personalized comment.
I think he’s talking about those emails some of us get from different people all asking the same question. I do get those quite regularly, and after a while, I started to notice that I was spending a good bit of time crafting unique responses to each inquiry, even though it was largely the same info being conveyed.
After I realized I was investing time repeatedly in doing the same task, I started cutting and pasting parts of my previous responses on that topic into the new email. Finally, I took the plunge and just created a template.
I still personalize the emails–it’s not exactly a form letter or anything. But I am saving time by having an email template that I use as a starting point for inquiries on particular topics.
There were some other personality indicators in the article–A crowded inbox may indicate you’re disorganized in other parts of your life, vigilant email cleanliness may show obsessive/compulsive tendencies, and other flummery.
I think that’s kind of silly (and so does Merlin). I think all of us have trouble dealing with email, so it’s sort of natural to not be immediately, automatically good at it. It just takes a change of behavior (not a change of personality) to handle our email more effectively.
Posted on Nov 27th 06 by Sharon Sarmiento.
Sharon Sarmiento owns Streamline, the Virtual Business Management company. She works with internet tech & web media companies by managing the daily operations of online businesses and streamlining processes to maximize personal and business productivity. For free resources on productivity, creativity and virtual entrepreneurism, visit => http://www.eSoupBlog.com/
Other posts on Coachamatic by Sharon Sarmiento.
0 Responses to “What does your inbox say about you?”