There's no such thing as an urgent email

It’s time we put email in its place. It’s not urgent. When is the last time you received an email saying “Your child is stuck in an elevator between floors at the TD Centre Tower? Please come immediately.” Or “Honey, my plane arrived early. Please pick me up right away at Terminal one.” In those cases and others I’m sure you would receive a telephone call instead.

Let’s face it. Email is simply another communications tool, like memos or voice mail or faxes. Rarely would one use it to communicate something truly urgent that required instant attention. We have been exaggerating its importance and urgency for so long we are becoming its slave. I have talked to clients who check their email continuously throughout the day in the event their boss may request something. I have talked to one executive who prides himself in the fact that he can email any of his managers on the weekend and get an almost immediate response. Some people check their email before they get dressed in the morning and before they retire at night. At least one woman I read about takes her BlackBerry to bed with her.

Hardcopy mail is delivered only once per day. You can easily receive electronic mail two or three times a day. But checking it twenty or thirty times a day is a huge timewaster. And a habit you want to avoid.