Bit Literacy - Mark Hurst [14]
About Instant Messaging
Some users (and teams) supplement their e-mail usage with instant messaging, or chat. IM offers more immediacy than e-mail, displaying each line of text as the sender finishes typing it. This can be invaluable in situations where real-time communication is important—many online stores, for example, offer a feature to chat with customer service. On a project team, IM can grant an easy way for teammates to communicate quickly, especially if they’re in remote offices. Of course, phone calls also offer real-time communication, but it’s often quicker and easier to dash off a brief note in the IM program.
The main disadvantage of IM is that it offers one more incoming bitstream to manage, in addition to the e-mail inbox. Instant messages can be just as distracting as new e-mails—if not more so, since IM’s immediacy creates the expectation of immediate response. E-mails can sit comfortably for a few hours without a response, but people want their IMs answered immediately.
If invited to use IM, bit-literate users should think carefully about whether it’s worth opening a new bitstream. Some jobs may require IM, and some users may enjoy having another way to connect with friends online. But many users will find that e-mail is sufficient. It’s best to avoid two bitstreams when one will do.
Clearing the Sent Items Folder
A final note on e-mail overload: for many users, the inbox isn’t the only source of stress. Many people maintain a Sent Items folder holding hundreds or thousands of messages they’ve sent in the past. This isn’t as immediate a problem as the inbox, since users aren’t expected to review or respond to their sent messages. But the bits are always present, always growing, and they weigh on the user. (A large Sent Items folder can contribute to an e-mail crash, too, just like an inbox.)
Some users occasionally work on manually cleaning out their Sent Items—deleting sent e-mails they don’t want saved on the computer, or deleting especially old or irrelevant messages. This is a needlessly time consuming task. Others maintain the Sent Items folder to function as a separate filing system—a use it was never intended for. Instead, whenever users send a message that they want to save, they should BCC themselves so that it comes back through the inbox, allowing them to engage it in the inbox, along with all other incoming e-mails. Users can then file the message in the right place—a dedicated project folder, for example. (The proper use of the file system is discussed in a later chapter.)
Meanwhile, users should assign the e-mail program the task of keeping the Sent Items folder clean, by setting a “time window.” If the e-mail program contains this feature, the user should set it to delete all sent items after a certain period, like a week. That way the user can retrieve recently sent items, but there is never more than a week of e-mail saved. By letting the bits go in this way, the user is free from an unnecessary task and can get on with more important things.
Chapter 5: Managing Todos
Users with an empty inbox need to know what to do next, and that requires proper todo management. In fact, managing todos may be considered even more important than managing e-mail, since this is where users begin to really do their job. Bit literacy is essential: it minimizes the time it takes to organize todos, in order to maximize the amount of time for working on them.
The challenge is overload. Just as with incoming e-mail, each day can bring a barrage of new todos, adding to yesterday’s. But e-mail management alone can’t address this problem. While many todos arrive in the inbox, not all do. The boss might assign a new task during a meeting, or you might agree to a new task during a phone call. Even writing an e-mail can do it: if you send someone else a todo, you’ve also essentially assigned yourself a todo of making sure that they complete the task.
Todos differ from e-mail in one main respect: they actually need to get done.