In nearly every talk I give about email marketing I ask the audience to raise their hands if they’ve checked email within the last week. A collective giggle can be heard as every single person raises their hand. I mean, we all check email at least once a week, right? I then ask how many have checked in the last 24 hours. Again, nearly every single hand goes up. I finish the “game” by asking how many have checked or sent an email since I’ve been on stage. This number is usually around a quarter of the room.
We are addicted to email.
Many of us are also addicted to Facebook (that’s another post I’ll be writing in January – stay tuned). Still others are addicted to Twitter or Pinterest or Instagram or YouTube. But email is – without question – our biggest addiction. According to a February 2012 study by ExactTarget, 91% of consumers ages 15+ check their email at least daily. That number jumps to 96% if you include “at least weekly.”
On top of that, we check email while doing other things. According to Neilsen’s recent “State of the Media” Cross Platform Report, emailing is the heaviest simultaneous smartphone activity while watching TV. Over 50% of users – across all demographics – check email during television commercials and programs. 50%!!!
Our Email Addition
When it comes to “email addiction,” let me be clear that I am not one to point fingers. If I were the finger-pointing type, I’d be forced to point a finger or two directly at myself. That’s right. I’m also addicted to email. I’m not sure what it is, but there is something about my inbox that keeps me coming back – often. It seems that every “free” moment I have, I’m checking email.
The issue with our email addiction is that it’s a zero-sum game. In other words, when you “doing” email, you are not doing something else. Too often – at least for me – this “something else” is related to family time. That’s inexcusable. How can email be more important than family?
In the past, I’ve tried taking “breaks” from email. In April of 2011, I went an entire weekend sans email. Of the 215 emails I received over that 52-hour stretch, nearly 70% were sent to the trash – 80% of those I deleted were never even opened! In September of 2011, I intentionally deleted email from my iPhone.
During both “experiments,” I’m happy to announce that life went on. Nobody – that I know of – died as a result of my efforts.
Last week, I decided it was time to take another email break. Moments before Kristina and I jumped into the car with Eva and Cal to head to Buffalo, NY for 4 days (Thanksgiving!), I set up my Gmail “vacation responder.”
If you emailed me between November 20th and the 26th, you received the following “out of office” auto-responder email:
Subject: I am not checking email until Sunday (I’m serious!)
Body:
Yes. It’s true. As the subject line says, I will not be checking email again until Sunday.
Why?
Well, I’m off with my family to celebrate Thanksgiving. Is there anything more important than family?
(That was a serious question).
If you need to reach me before Sunday – if you have something that is so urgent it can’t wait – feel free to call or text. I’ll do my best to respond.
If not, I’ll get back to you Sunday (or Monday).
In the meantime, be sure to have some fun: http://socialbutterflyguy.com/2010/10/05/are-you-having-fun/
Smile. Laugh. Be happy.
I also posted the following Tweet:
And … I’m out. No more Twitter (or email) until Sunday. Family time. If you need me, call or text.
— DJ Waldow (@djwaldow) November 20, 2012
Yup. I also was “Twitter-free” for 6 days. Crazy, huh?
6 Days Without Email: By the Numbers
Over my 6-day “no email” stretch, I received over 700 emails. Yes. You read that correctly – 700+ emails. To be fair, much of my inbox overload is my own doing.
- I use Nudgemail to help manage my inbox. It “cleans up” my email and sends me reminders only when I need them.
- I use Google Alerts (daily digest emails) as a way to see who is talking about me, Waldow Social (my company), and email marketing (the industry I’m in).
- I subscribe to many blog posts via Feedburner and Feedblitz and thus get emails when new posts are published.
- I have alerts set up for Facebook mentions, Twitter DMs, and other social networks.
- I subscribe to a ton of email marketing lists. These emails are where I get many of my blog post ideas and presentation content. I also used many emails as examples while writing The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing.
- I send a ton of email. While I believe in what Chris Penn wrote in July of 2011 about increasing productivity by doing 50% less, I have not yet (unfortunately) acted upon it.
So yes, I receive (and send) a lot of email.
Remember what my out of office alert said? This line:
If you need to reach me before Sunday – if you have something that is so urgent it can’t wait – feel free to call or text. I’ll do my best to respond.
Any guesses how many calls and text messages I received over the past 6 days?* If you guessed “zero” you be correct.
*Note: I received a few phone calls and text messages, but none related to this out of office email. Thanks to my buddy Joe Saig for pointing that out.
My theory on our email addiction is this: We all – myself included – want to feel as though the work we do is critical. We want to believe that if we don’t reply to an email immediately, we’ll miss out on an opportunity. Social media – and technology overall – has forced us to always be present, always be available. As my friends Jay Baer and Amber Naslund talk about in The Now Revolution, speed matters.
However, for most businesses – for most individuals – “now” does not have to be immediate.
Is it possible that you’ll miss an opportunity? Sure.
Is it possible that you’ll not be 100% “in the know.” Sure.
But the bottom line is this: When you die, nobody will say, “Wow. That guy sure was quick replying to emails. He was all over it!”
If this blog post made you think a little bit, if it made you question your addiction to email, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. If not, well, it was quite cathartic for me to write it. Ha!
Cheers.
DJ Waldow
Waldow Social
@djwaldow
