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Check Your Email! Now!
When my phone is in my pocket and it buzzes, I feel compelled to check it.
I thought about that today during the podcast, when James and Peter and I were talking about the telephone and how it can rule your life. I never answer the phone, to be honest. Hate talking on it. But I do feel weirdly compelled to check my email constantly.
Now I know why. From Psychology Today:
The bottom line is that we are finding ourselves using technology for a variety of reasons ranging from anxiety to pleasure (positive attitudes). What does it all mean? From our study alone it appears that people are using their technology for a combination of gaining some pleasure and from avoiding anxiety about not knowing what is going on at every moment on every electronic communication platform including social media. If I had to estimate the contributions to our behavior I would say that our data support about a 3:1 ratio of anxiety reduction to pleasure. We are still checking in all the time to gain a bit of pleasure (perhaps a squirt of dopamine or serotonin) but I think that what is driving our behavior of constantly checking in with our technology regardless of whether we have received an alert or notification—an external interruption—or we are musing about missing out on something in our virtual social world—an internal interruption—is akin to an obsession or compulsion, both of which are anxiety-driven issues. We have not sunk to the level of a psychiatric disorder like Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder but we are not far away.
Well, speak for yourself. I may in fact have sunk to that level. I do find myself absently — compulsively — checking my phone for messages and emails. And lately I’ve found that I often cycle through a check of other social media — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram — without really pausing to ask, 1) Why are you doing this? or 2) Do you have time for this?
So, I’ve taken some steps. The first, this product, which has already cleared out some of the distracting clutter of my inbox. Sanebox works well with iCloud and GMail, my two main email providers, and I can report that it’s working.
The second step was more Old School: I just turned off my phone. For a day.
But then I freaked out — Too far! Baby steps first! — and simply went into the Settings area and turned off all of the noises and tones and vibrations and alerts that used to cue me, like one of Pavlov’s dogs, to pull the phone out of my pocket and see what’s up.
Because, honestly, what’s up is what’s up in real life, in front of me. What’s up on my phone can wait.
Anyone else have a better strategy?
Published in General
Cold turkey, I assume. I couldn’t care less about e-mail, but I am – LITERALLY – addicted to Twitter. My boss should fire me.
I just popped over to Ricochet so I could check to see if anyone responded to my latest comment, and I saw this post.
I think you’re overreacting.
I don’t tweet. I hate texts.
But I live on email. Check it all the time.
I got so bad with email/forums/texts I found I wasn’t even watching TV while it was on. An episode of Big Bang Theory would end, and I’d have no idea what just happened. If I’m going to read offline or watch TV or a movie, I physically move to another part of the room so I’m away from the gadgets and can focus on whatever else I’m doing.
I find myself checking emails and such while in meetings mostly because I am bored with the content of the meeting. At home I have to turn off the phone at bedtime because I will hear a beep and wonder who it is. Being constantly wired means being constantly wired.
Same here — I put my phone on a charger in the kitchen so that I am not tempted to glance at [dare I admit] Facebook and email. I leave my phone in the car when I go to church or am hanging out with friends so that I can focus my attention on the people around me, rather that the recent status of a virtual ‘friend.’ Not that I’ve truly conquered my almost OCD-like tendencies but am getting better.
I’ve gotten worse about it. I check the phone for emails at least once an hour – nothing that takes a long time at all, but I check. I know it’s weird, and I do it anyway. And I certainly have very little that could be considered earth-shattering coming through in an email.
That said, I still don’t know why people bring their phones into meetings at work. It never, ever looks good to be checking the phone in a meeting, unless it’s work-related. Even then it looks like you’re not paying attention. We’ve sort of quietly banned their usage in meetings when our director is there because we know he’s ready to freak out about it.
This is alarming: I worked on a book recently in which the author said that today’s kids are driving with their smartphone in their lap and can’t keep from looking down when the phone beeps, bleeps, and buzzes. They don’t realize how long they are looking down at their phone.
They aren’t technically texting while driving, but . . .
Nothing is that important. Turn off your data and simply link to your home and work networks. Set aside four times a day to go through your messages. Nothing after 5:00PM.
You can do it. Don’t let your phone run your life.
I don’t have any friends, I don’t have a career, I don’t have any hobbies, I’m not on Facebook, and I don’t much care about the weather, but I check my phone constantly. I suppose I should just trade my phone in for a watch.
That’s what I did. I check my email, facebook, ricochet, etc. when I want to, when I have time. It doesn’t even auto-sync. It only syncs when I deliberately open the email app and tell it to.
You make it sound so easy….
Right. I did that. And then I discovered that I missed your announcement that you got engaged. So, belatedly, congratulations! (It would have come sooner, but I’ve been trying to limit my social media interaction…)
I need to focus on work, so I give myself three slots during work to check email etc. Ditto for other distractions such as FB & Rico etc. Since most of my posse are less call more chat type of people, calls are not the same level of distraction as email / chat / text / msgs.
But Rob, if you are looking for serious time management strategy, I suggest GTD (http://gettingthingsdone.com/).
Last weekend I did not answer mobile calls, emails, text and completely unplugged. I spent the entire week taking heat because I did not respond back to customers, employees and employers in what they consider a timely manner. Every hiccup for every project was laid at my feet. So there is your answer. I phone, email, web sites because I want to remain in the realm of the working. I live in the world of IT, if you are not on 24/7/365 then you can be replaced by a very hungry Indian contractor relatively easily.
Note to self: Do not live in the world of IT.
I’m an estimator for a small concrete contractor. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to call me after 5. I have a flip phone. Most of the time, I don’t even know where it is. Right now, I think it’s in the passenger seat of my truck, but I wouldn’t want to swear to it. I got a text message once. It was a wrong number.
Email is a little different, but I only use it from my computers at work or at home. 99% of my email is either work related or spam. Sometimes, it’s important to answer quickly, so I try to read email when I’m notified that I have some, but I’m not notified by my phone, only when I’m sitting in front of my computer.
I live a very placid life.
My phone stays in my purse most of the day. Often we are not at the same end of the house. No tones unless I am expecting something important. Facebook at the end of the day only; if I fall asleep before I am through my feed, oh well. I check Ricochet 2-4 times per day, because I have more confidence in the news I get here than anywhere else (especially Facebook). Email about the same. I found all those things consuming my day, and wasting VAST amounts of time (except Ricochet, of course). All that time sitting could have been spent more profitably elsewhere. And, of course, I go somewhere really off the grid every year, three or four weeks in duration. Little, if any, connectivity. I have found that not much changes while I am in the jungles of Indonesia (or wherever).
hahahahahahaha.
I have that same problem – only it’s because of the IMDB app. I use it while watching TV to look up info on whatever show I’m watching. It inevitably begins with “I wonder who wrote the music score for this?” Or – “Where have I seen that actor before???” And before you know it, I’ve missed most of the episode, my nose buried in IMDB.
I know – stoopid. And ridiculously ironic.
I suspect that we are close to having an official psychiatric neurosis named for this problem of being attached to our phones.
But what will it be called?
This need to be on call is why IT is still relatively well-paying (and why it gives us the flexibility to sometimes work from home). Because we often need to respond on short notice and off hours, I’m more tolerant of flex hours, remote work, occasional smoke breaks, etc.
Which doesn’t always go over well, as we’re based in a HQ building attached to a factory/R&D facility. HR loves to carp about this “differential” treatment, but I stop them short when I ask when the last time they were expected to come to work on Saturday at 5 AM, or during a blizzard, etc.
If they don’t like it, learn to configure a router.
BTW, the most I do is turn off the ringer or the leave the phone hidden in the car.
I expect my directors and staff to handle most crises, but I need to know what’s up.
For each medium, think about its strengths and weaknesses, and decide personally how to use it to communicate.
For example, we have a $10 per month cell phone used for long distance calling and when travelling, otherwise it’s off. So we tell associates to always call our landline.
We check e-mail at least once a day, preferably twice.
We use Facebook for pictures and general announcements only, and check it once a week.
We do not have texting, so either call us or send an e-mail, based on the urgency of the message.
Fifty years ago, you had fixed telephones (without voice recording!) and U.S.P.S. mail, and important things still got done.
In my world nothing important happens on fixed telephones and snail mail. If I send something to those medium it is because I have no intention of dealing with them and it is easier than explaining they just need to go away.
I don’t know what it will be called, but it will fall on the spectrum of Anxiety disorders. Those who struggle with detaching from electronics need to use multiple strategies, at least some of which include managing the anxiety.
Part of the reason it’s so addictive is because it’s so rewarding (wondering and anxiety build, check the phone/email, anxiety minimized – checking behavior reinforced). And like addictive, repetitive behavior the high goes away and it becomes about avoiding the anxiety.
So, Rob was right with to say turning off the phone for a day was too big a step. How about for one or two hours – or during meetings, or some other time-limited task? Build up a tolerance. You also have to develop a strategy for when you feel the desire to check – personally tailored to whatever convinces you.
If we do come up with a diagnosis, I’m going retroactively charge for the above advice (heehee)
Thanks Rob! Now we can say our engagement was announced on the internet’s most influential website by a big shot Hollywood writer. Not formally announced, but announced-in-passing in order not to oversell it. Less is more.
So you’re talking about a condition where your cell phone causes you to make spontaneous, irresistible, involuntary motions?
Telekinesis.
One without a battery.