Who doesn’t have an email habit? Do you set aside a specific time of day to “do email”? Are you the type who must clear your inbox every day? How many hours a day do you think you spend on email? 

There is no shortage of studies on how much time we spend on email. Some statistics reported include:   

• On average 28% of the work week is spent on email

• 62% of email received do not deserve attention 

• 64 seconds to recover from an email interruption 

• Email access causes us to switch our focus twice as much as those without access, resulting in measurable increases in stress levels 

• Over 320 billion emails are sent daily, with growth rates continuing to increase at 4%/year 

• There are currently over 4 billion email accounts, which is one email account for every two people on the planet!  

As important as email can be, most of us are looking for ways for less reliance on email. Most of us see email as a productivity drag; and the data supports this.  

Uniquely, email has achieved universality. No matter what email product you choose to use, you are able to communicate with any one of those four billion other email accounts. What’s more, in the business world, email has achieved a status of a legally binding communique, unlike nearly all other forms of electronic communication.  

Email is not going away. But that doesn’t mean there are no alternatives for improving our workplace productivity by spending less time on email. We have recently reviewed the pros and cons for internal communication being email, chat, threaded discussions and calls/meetings to conclude that one simple way of reducing your volume of email is to choose not to communicate internally using email. For communicating internally, there are much better modes of communication that can be better matched to your particular role or context. You will find that as a critical mass of your work colleagues move to non-email modes of communicating internally, your SWOOP Analytics Email Liberated score will improve considerably.  

What about the interruption effect?  

While there are many alternatives to email for internal communications, communicating externally, for the most part, will still rely on email. The interruption effect of email attracts the most attention:  

“The average worker is interrupted every 10 minutes or an average of 56 times per day, and it takes around 25 minutes to completely refocus attention back on the original task. That's 2 hours spent recovering from distractions every day.” - Wrike  

The ubiquity of email means it is always “present” as a temptation to stray from our current work tasks. But rather than label email as “evil and to be avoided at all cost”; we need to develop work habits that balance how email is used against other forms of communication (Chat, Microsoft Teams Channels, Yammer Discussions, Calls and Meetings).  

Developing better email habits  

Our SWOOP benchmarking data confirms the dominance of email as an internal communication medium, with three email activities for every Chat, Channel or Yammer activity combined. Where organisations have seen a decrease in email activity, it appears to coincide with a lift in one-on-one chat (One chat activity for every 3.5 emails). Replacing email with chat may result in faster response, but can also be like jumping from the frying pan and into the fire. Chat notifications are even more disruptive than email notifications, with the added expectation of a real-time response! Alternatively, Teams Channels and Yammer discussions are designed for broad-based sharing and collaboration. These modes of internal communication are viable substitutes for the more time consuming and demanding synchronous modes like chat, calls and meetings, along with the ubiquitous email.  

Changing an entrained habit like email is no different from any other habits we might have. Knowing that fast food or smoking is not good for you is never sufficient motivation to change an entrained habit.   

James Clear is an expert on how to develop good habits and break bad habits. His best selling book on “Atomic Habits”  has now sold over five million copies. His approach is less about setting goals e.g. use email less; and more about following a four-rule habit changing process:

The four steps track the progress of a habit. The cue is the trigger. It might be an email notification on your phone, or perhaps just sitting at your desk first thing in the morning.  “Cues” predict a potential “reward” e.g. finding out new information you were seeking. The potential for a reward is what creates the “craving”. Craving is the motivational force behind a habit; a desire to change your internal state e.g. a feeling of missing out. The “response” is the action e.g. you open the email and start reading. The response delivers a “reward”, which satisfies the craving. The idea is that forming good habits or breaking bad ones can be achieved by manipulating the environment around the cues, cravings, responses and rewards.  

Let’s walk through an example of how James Clear’s framework might apply to the email habit. In this case we would promote substituting internal email communications with Microsoft Teams Channels and/or Yammer discussions where practical, as a “Good Habit”. The corollary is living in email as the “Bad Habit”.

Feel free to think up other actions that can amplify the good, and dampen the bad, habits. Perhaps create your own cheat sheet to share with your colleagues.

Building identity through Working Out Loud

While the benefits of becoming less reliant on email may appear to be getting more of your precious time back; it’s important to consider what it’s being replaced with. By prioritising Microsoft Teams Channels and Yammer posts you are identifying yourself as someone who looks to openly share and thereby help and support your work colleagues. “Working Out Loud” (WOL) has proved to be transformational for many organisations . WOL identifies with:

• Building better relationships

• Promoting generosity

• Valuing transparency (visible work)

• Being purposeful

• A growth mindset 

Replacing email exclusively with chat might achieve one-on-one engagement, but falls short of the more desired WOL-inspired identity, and is likely to interrupt your flow of work even more than email.  

Being Email Liberated is more than just doing less email; it’s about being identified as a more valued work colleague.