Email makes you stupid, sick and poor | Anitra Eggler | TEDxSalzburg

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.
Anitra Eggler is a digital therapist. Before her independence she worked as a journalist, start-up manager, creative director, agency chief and at last online publisher manager. She has done everything you can do in Internet industry. For this she has worked for almost 15 years around the clock and experienced much before she pulled the plug. Anitra Eggler reveals in this talk how to regain control over your e-mail communication and communicate efficient and hassle-free.

Hello!

Welcome back!

Good news. Maybe you'll think,

[Email makes you stupid, sick, and poor.]

"Surely that's not good news."

True, but one of my life lessons is

that you have to know the bad news

to be able to turn it into good news.

Small warning for the next 18 minutes:

Much of what I'll say will sound as if

I'm preaching the digital end-times.

It's not the case, in fact,

it's totally false.

The Internet, digital communication and I

have been joined for 15 years

in what has become, meanwhile,
a very happy romantic relationship.

But why "meanwhile" very happy?

Because in all the years
of high-speed communication,

I've finally found the right balance
between distance and closeness,

which you also need
to be happy with a real-life partner.

So that was my introduction.

[Ping!]

Do you remember your first email?

It was crazy, right?

You could suddenly send a letter
from here to Timbuktu overnight!

You might've received a photo in return
only to discover

that your childhood sweetheart

now looks like
a pirate copy of Homer Simpson,

but it didn't matter.

You received a photo,
and you did so via email.

Initially email was a silver bullet.

It was all good.
It linked the world.

It brought us humans closer together.

It helped us to save time,

be more productive,
and have more time to enjoy life.

The early days were so wonderful,

but even before we consumers
could send our first emails,

something happened in my hometown.

1984 - George Orwell
was onto something with that date.

In 1984, on what was likely
an overcast September day,

the first email reached Germany,

in my hometown of Karlsruhe.

As you know, 1984 is quite a while back,

I was still young and analogue.

(Laughter)

Had I known

what email would provoke
in us decades later,

when we misapplied the technology,

I would've gone on a chocolate
hunger strike that very day.

So some time had to go by,

and what began as a beneficial innovation

unfortunately looks quite different today.

Look at me,
I also look different now.

Between the left and right pictures,
almost 30 years have passed.

I'm 38 years old,

but minus 4.

I did some recalculation:

In the last 10 years,
before I went freelance,

from 2000 to 2010,

I spent - or likely often wasted -
4 years of time on digital communication.

I calculated it.

I lost two and a half years on surfing

and one and a half on email.

Now you could say 38 minus 4 or plus 4.

It is indeed a matter of perspective.

And indeed, much happened during this time.

And maybe you're asking yourself,

"How can someone be online
for 4 out of 10 years?"

It was part of the job: I was
part of the hardcore Internet industry,

in which high-speed communication
was a competitive advantage;

it brought sales, created jobs,

secured jobs.

And for you to get a handle on
what my relaxed workday

looked like over these 10 years,

I'd like to show you a short video.

(Alarm)

(Music at high speed)

(Music ends)

I pulled the plug a year and a half ago.

One of the triggers was an anecdote

that a colleague told me one morning.

One sentence from the story
made me take stock

and made me question

what I'm doing to my brain and my life

in this high-speed communication rat race.

I'd like to tell you the story.

My colleague came into my office
on Monday and said,

"Anitra, you won't believe
what happened to me at the weekend!"

"I was at the playground
with my little boy

and as always couldn't leave
my Blackberry alone!"

I must say that my colleague
was a hardcore Blackberry addict.

I hid his company Blackberry
before his holiday

in my desk drawer.

He swore he wouldn't take it along.

When I came back to my office,
the Blackberry was gone,

because he couldn't live
without this device.

He was at the playground with his son.

Child on the swings;
he's "playing" with him,

in that, with his other hand,

he's checking mails the whole time.

And then he received a mail
that somehow annoyed him.

He pushes the swing a bit too hard,

the little boy falls, starts crying,

and then came the sentence:

"Daddy, your phone makes ouch!"

I thought a lot about this sentence

and knew that the time had come,

after so many high-speed years,
to take stock.

And so one comes face to face
with hard facts - 10 of them.

First: these days, we pay
more attention to our smartphones

than to our children.

We are more attentive
to digital communication

than to that which keeps our bodies going,

namely, our breath.

We spend more time on emails

than on what we actually get paid for,

namely,

for thinking.

We are permanently distracted
and proud of this loss of control;

we call it:

career.

The paradox: we know
that our brain is not a muscle,

and yet we train it
with permanent multi-tasking

and somehow think

that it's healthy.

Science claims the opposite:

multi-tasking is unhealthy.

Being distracted by email
makes you stupid.

Two groups of test subjects:
One group was stoned

while trying to solve puzzles;
the other group

was distracted by emails.

Take a guess: which group of subjects

was faster and better?

(Laughter)

Distraction leads to
Attention Deficit Trait (ADT).

This term was coined by
Harvard physician Edward Hallowell.

ADT means that our brain
becomes addicted to distraction.

The study claims that an IT manager
is distracted from his work

on average every 11 minutes.

Distraction number 1: email.

Distraction number 2:
colleague enters, "Could you just..."

Distraction number 3:
mobile phone.

The problem is that our brain
is conditioned to these stimuli.

Meaning, a stimulus comes,

dopamine is released in the brain,
and we feel happy.

The more we are distracted,
the more dependent our brain becomes

on the dopamine release.

And the twisted thing is,
when there's no distraction,

we create one.

We check emails and don't know

what to attend to next

if an interruption doesn't present itself.

["I'm addicted to interruptions!
Without one, I don't know what's next."]

If managers are saying this,
such interruptions are expensive.

Per day, one hour of distraction

through email, unproductiveness,
loss of concentration,

let's take a manager-in-training,

who earns 3700 euro per month,

whose cost to company

including non-wage
labour costs and overheads,

is about 100 euro per hour.

Then, with 250 workdays a year,

this one hour per day
of distraction and loss in concentration

costs the company 25 000 euro per year.

If you have a small
or medium-sized business,

with 100 employees,

their distraction costs you

2.5 million euro per year.

The problem is that our "dealer"
is always in our pockets -

at the weekend, at night, on holiday.

Thanks to smartphones,
we are always available.

We are slaves to our work,
and the crazy thing is

we go get this work ourselves,
from inside the phone.

We look for distraction,
quick check, again and again.

It's sick.

How sick was proved by
one of the smartest women in Germany,

Miriam Meckel, once
one of the youngest professors,

undersecretary of state,
great author, communication scientist.

Three years ago she wrote a book:

"Unreachable and happy:
How to escape the communication trap."

Last year this work by her was released:

"A letter to my life:
[Experiencing burnout]."

Both books became bestsellers,

and we see that even
such a self-reflective person,

who should've known
how to avoid burnout, didn't.

The most important question is:

Do you do your emails,
or do your emails do you in?

Ten tips for regaining
power over your communication.

The first tip:
a shift in consciousness

must take place in your mind.

Emails are not ego boosters.

If you think: "I mail, therefore I am,"
for example, "important,"

you can cross out "important"

and continue as follows:

"I mail, therefore I am

a slave."

True masters are reachable
when they want to be.

Only slaves can always be commanded;
true masters command their time.

So make yourself the lord of your time.

Second rule: Start your morning offline.
Very important!

Emails always want something from you.

When you start your day
in bed with emails,

you'll be whipped all day like a mule.

Don't allow it!
Define your own priorities.

What 20% of the work
will bring about 80% of the results?

Don't let your planning be interrupted.

When your to-do list is ready,

then you can switch on your computer,

be distracted,

but first define:
What do I want from this day?

Rule number 3 - simple but poignant:

Shut your mail.

Everything that signals
"new message,"

"new chat,"
"new Facebook message" -

rigorously switch off
all audio and visual signals.

Even better: close your mailbox.

Because this rule also applies to email:

three times a day for working on emails,

focusing on them, saying,
"It's time for email,

I'm focused on it,"
is more than enough.

Define your "email opening hours"

and communicate them

to all the people you work with,
colleagues, service providers,

so that everyone knows
that you're not always available,

but at these times you are,

and - even better -
with your full attention.

The next rule is so simple
that you have to try it today:

You'll reap as much email as you sow.

Email is like ping-pong.

If from today you write 30% less email,

you'll receive 30% less.

Try it.

I'll bet you all 100 euro

that it works;

it's easy to implement
and doesn't hurt.

Next very important
but oft forgotten principle:

Language is the source
of all misunderstandings.

We've all seen an email

that wasn't meant to be mean,
but that was received that way.

Unfortunately ten superiors were CCed.

Only send out what you'd like to receive.

Never write when you're angry.

Don't use Saturday or Sunday night
to send your team

a to-do list for Monday.

Consider in advance
how much pressure you are exerting

and always ask yourself,

"Would I want to receive
an email like this from someone?"

If you can't answer this question

with a big fat "Yes,"

then maybe email isn't the medium

for your present message.

Ask yourself this question
every time before you hit send.

For your emails to be received
efficiently, one thing is crucial.

In your mind, replace the "subject" line
with an "object" line,

because this object or goal
opens the door to all your emails.

It doesn't have to be like
"FW: At Reference: FW: At XY: Funny."

It should state what this email
wants from the recipient.

Why did he receive it?
What should be done?

Write a good subject line
by clearly stating your object,

and if you forward an email
- please note -

the goals of the communication
might have changed,

which means the object
needs to be adapted accordingly.

When writing emails, you can't go wrong

if you write for
the presumed dumbest reader;

write like a tabloid journalist,
as it were.

Old journalism wisdom:

open with the important stuff, be brief,
and cover all the Ws and the one H:

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Bullet points guide the eye.

Done.

Email can't substitute
group discussions or novels.

Before you send your next email,

not from your Blackberry
or iPhone, please;

these emails usually aren't
intellectual masterpieces,

turn on your mail-shit radar.

Ask yourself before you send:

"Is email truly the best form
of communication in this case?

Might a phone call

be more personal and faster?

Might an in-person conversation

convey an emotion better and
more personally than this email?"

And if the other person
is in Timbuktu, why not

have a video conference -

and make sure
to look him or her in the eye

Check again:

Is my subject line
the object I want to achieve?

Is the mail concise and clear
and does it tell the recipient

what to do with it?

And when you can say

that you'd like to receive
such an email yourself

please, press send,
but just 30% less than before.

And the last rule:

Every unsent email is a good email.

If you feel overwhelmed
by emails, remember:

everyone else does too.

If you send fewer emails,

you do all of humanity a favour.

These 10 rules all sound so easy

that I feel they insult my intelligence.

But the point is that the more
Attention Deficit Trait

you already have

the harder it will be

to implement these 10 rules.

So my advice is
to start with these rules:

Start your morning offline
and plan your day,

send 30% less email,

open your mailbox three times
a day and close it otherwise.

If you can keep to these three
for one week without withdrawal symptoms,

only then revisit the others.

[A year from now you'll wish
you had started today.]

Take this quote to heart

and if you're afraid you'll miss
the end of the world in offline mode,

I can tell you that when the world ends,

you'll know it with or without email.

The only thing you could miss out on
if you're online all the time

hanging onto digital communication
with all you've got

is

[your life.]

In this spirit:

Bon voyage!

(Applause)