brad garland

Dear Mr. Email,

Our relationship has been going on for almost 15 years now and I feel like you have done an amazing job of slowly becoming an integral part of my life for both my business and personal affairs. We spend so much time together that some would consider it cheating. What I’ve come to realize is that we are too close and I need a break. This closeness has come at the expense of other things (productivity to name one, my attention to name two). You and I need some rules to help continue our relationship. So here’s how this relationship is going to go moving forward. These are the rules:

1) We will ‘talk’ twice daily. - I’ve spent many years thinking I need to talk every fifteen minutes to you but we both know that’s just not true. I’m limiting our chats to twice daily, I’ll review any and all emails that come in during those times and handle them accordingly.

2) No notifications - I’m switching all my email notifications (desktop & mobile) to ‘manual mode’ and will only check them if it aligns with rule one.

3) Deal or no deal - When I do review my emails I will handle it in two ways. If I can answer in two minutes, I’ll handle it now. If not, highlight it for later, delegate it, or follow-up by other means (phone, IM, video).

There is no negotiation here, Mr. Email. I know you don’t like this but I think this will be best for both us. Let’s start with thirty days and see how it goes from there.

Regards,

Brad