Day 10 - Dr. Pepper Time

The biggest time suck in my (and very possibly your) life is the frigging emails I get on a minute by minute basis.

My junk box intake is over 1,000 emails a day (often twice that) and that doesn't even count the several hundred more that sneak through the filter. On top of that is time I spend having to go back through that "time-saving" junk filter to find the occasional piece of email that I need and that got shunted tot he wrong place.

Tim Ferris makes the case for checking email no more than twice a day: once around noon and once at the end of the day. This of course doesn't address the fact that each time I go into email I can spend an hour dealing with the various issues, but I have tried the plan a few times and it does in fact help.

One problem with the model for me however is that if I wait until noon to make my first email check in the day I can miss certain things that I need to deal with, or people I need to hear from. I'm probably overvaluing this need, since on the days when I have waited, the world has not ended, but this fear remains in my mind nonetheless.

However... I do know one thing very clearly. Email is wasting my life.

On days when I don't force myself into a rigid regulation of the time I spend on email I lose literally hours of time in the black hole of this silently overbearing fascist technology.

So... I'm starting a new plan that I'm calling Dr. Pepper Time.

10 - 2 - 4 may not mean a lot to you unless your a Dr. Pepper fanatic and/or at least 50 years old. For me it stands out in my mind because I am both.

So it's easy to remember (hell, I might even start drinking DP again, though I think I'll have to buy a case of the REAL thing (and I ain't talkin' Coke) first.

10 gives me the opportunity to get some things done in the morning before I risk becoming irretrievably distracted by email. At the same time it gives me a chance to check on people on the US East Coast (or even across the pond) before the day has completely gone away.

2 lets me get through other stuff in the middle of the day, grab a bite, run or workout, yet at the same time it gives me a chance to catch people on the east coast at the end of the day or people on the west coast while there's still time to make things happen.

4 means I get responses from the other interactions of the day, still have time to respond, yet also leaves me with time before the end of the day to make plans, look to the next day, get out last minute material.

All of this serves a singular purpose... improving efficiency while reducing the unbelievable amount of wasted time and energy I've watched email steal over the last ten years of my life.

So... if you send me email and you're wondering why you're not getting instant answers like you used to... just have a Dr. Pepper and give it some time.