Don’t Let Your Inbox Manage You

In today’s world, the most prominent mode of communication is e-mail. Either on our phones or on laptops, we are desperately waiting for the next e-mail to come and reside in our inbox. To be honest, if I don’t receive an e-mail for an hour, I do get a little bit uneasy and start to wonder whether things are okay. I am sure when you are reading this, you would also agree with me. However, if you are in the exception lot, I would say that you are lucky.

We start our day with checking and actioning e-mails. But this is the tricky part. Our jobs revolve around various activities and most of us wear multiple hats. Multi-tasking is the order of the day. The single trait common to all successful people is the ability to multi-task. But to multi-task properly, planning your day and activities are crucial. Good statement made – but what happens when that “high importance” mail comes to your inbox? All your planning goes for a toss as you scramble to get the work (read mail) done.

Mails come with their attachments. To be philosophical – what is attachment? The free dictionary definition says a bond, as of affection or loyalty; fond regard. In the more practical (computer-ruled) world, it means a computer file appended to an e-mail. As humans, we have the natural tendency of getting attached. Bad news is that the digital world has identified this human weakness of getting attached to its advantage. Precisely, now you have e-mails with excel files, word documents, power point presentations, images, workflows, etc., as attachments which bond us to our inbox.

Now, all thoughtful people should take note. No one is more cheerful than the one that lives in the greatest detachment (O’Neal p.123). The detached person is the happiest, for to live without attachment is to live in true freedom. This is the heart of Buddha’s teaching.

In the digital world, we should not only value our time but also learn to invest. As the saying goes – The Bad News is time flies but the Good news is ‘You’ are the pilot. As you start to invest your time wisely, things will be in your grip and you are controlling the way how your day proceeds. Take a pause and think whether the inbox is managing you or are you managing your inbox?

Sanjeet Kumar Sen is the SMB & Cloud Marketing Manager, Symantec Corporation