How to stop wasting time on e-mail: usually three letters

Phil Simon, author of Message Not Received, offers a new way to deal with congestion address. He called it the rule of three letters and believes that with it you will be able to reduce their time working with the mail.

How much time do you spend on emails? Study Of McKinsey Global Institute, conducted in 2012, showed that "white collar workers" - workers sitting in the office - are paying almost 28% of their time. It seemed that with the advent of e-mail messenger should take a back seat. However, its impact on our lives only increases. If nothing changes, the number of incoming messages in the box to double in a few years. But I repeat: if nothing changes.

There are people who are trying to change that right now. Phil Simon, author Message Not Received, the past few years has been the problem of communication and trying to improve them so that they take less time.

In one of the chapters of the book, Simon compares the two types of communication: personal, such as a conversation at the meeting, and text (e-mail). Proving the inefficiency of text communications, he gives the example

Psychologists Justin Kruger and Nicholas Epley wanted to see how well people can interpret the text messages, compared with the usual speech. Dividing the respondents into two groups, Kruger and Epley asked the first group to communicate, and the second - to correspond by mail.

The results were interesting.

Participants in the first group could accurately capture the mood and emotions of its interlocutor in four cases out of five. In the second group it was only in two cases out of five.

The second group of respondents complained that they could not figure out whether to use their interlocutor in the letter sarcasm or humor. It got to the ridiculous: the sender can not say with certainty whether the recipient understand their thoughts.

In this regard, Simon offers a solution.

Usually three letters

Phil uses this rule for several years and believes it saved him from congestion-mail. Add the line in your email signature:

I adhere to the rules of the three letters. Let's meet and call each other after three letters.

Stick to this rule, as it will only work in the case, if you follow it consistently. If the correspondence is delayed, meet or talk on the phone with someone. So you will understand it much faster.