You May Be Suffering From Email Addiction
September 23, 2008
Email is just part of our lives. Most of us send and receive close to one hundred emails a day; we rely on email to conduct business, to gather information, and to stay in touch with friends. But our dependency on email can be dangerously distracting and, for many, symptomatic of addiction. Social software consultant and writer Suw Charman-Anderson discusses the unintended effects of email on our productivity through her article “Email Becomes a Dangerous Distraction,” and, I have summarized some of her points below.
If You Are Addicted To Email, You Are Not Alone
Charman-Anderson begins by discussing the surprising results from recent studies on email behavior, providing quantitative evidence for a problem many of us are all too aware of.
- 56% of email users spend more than two hours a day in their inbox;
- 64% of users claim to check their email once an hour, and 35% said they check for new messages every 15 minutes;
- It takes an average of 64 seconds just to recover your train of thought after an interruption by email;
- Most users tend to respond to email as it arrives, taking an average of only one minute and 44 seconds to act upon a new email notification;
- One study reports that 70% of email alerts get a reaction within six seconds.
Email may be an Addiction
Charman-Anderson continues by offering an interesting parallel between the compulsive behavior of gambling addicts and those of us who just can’t stop checking our inbox every 15 minutes.
According to Tom Stafford, cognitive neuroscientist and co-author of “Mind Hacks
“Both slot machines and email follow something called a ‘variable interval reinforcement schedule’ which has been established as the way to train in the strongest habits. This means that rather than reward an action every time it is performed, you reward it sometimes, but not in a predictable way. So with email, usually when I check it there is nothing interesting, but every so often there’s something wonderful - an invite out or maybe some juicy gossip - and I get a reward.”
Consequently, as Charman-Anderson writes, “this is enough to make it difficult for us to resist checking email, even when we’ve only just looked.” It is, therefore, little wonder why so many of us ignore the advice of productivity gurus like David Allen, Tim Ferriss, and Scott Allen, who suggest that we should only check our email once or twice a day.
Suggesting to anyone that they should only check their email once or twice a day is a tough sale. I feel compelled to check my business email account at least two times every hour. I am not sure if this is symptomatic of addiction or just common business sense; but like most of you, I need to respond to my work-related emails in a timely manner.
However, their recommendation is easier to chew when applied to my personal email and social networking accounts. In contrast to work-related messages, my personal emails and Facebook wallposting do not require an immediate response. I have recently begun to limit the number of times I check my personal messaging accounts and it has really worked wonders and helped to reduce the email deluge.
If you suffer from email overload, simply cutting back the number of times you check your personal email is a relatively painless and effective solution to improving your daily productivity. To help me resist the impulse to check my personal email, I use NutshellMail.com to send email alerts to my work email account every three hours. In a single email, NutshellMail provides a quick snapshot of all my new messages so I can passively and productively access and keep track of all my personal accounts.
NutshellMail on the homepage of Forbes.com
September 12, 2008
We are very excited to announce that NutshellMail has been featured on Forbes.com. In this short video interview, I discuss the common problem many employees face when they can not access third party messaging sites while at work and how NutshellMail.com address this issue in a compliant way.
Facebook Fraud: Is This Guy Serious?
August 8, 2008
I have received several emails from disposed political leaders and wealthy business executives in Nigeria, who have honored me with the opportunity to make a cool $20K for helping them transfer money to the U.S.. And all I had to do was give them my bank account! So easy!!!!!
It doesn’t surprise me to receive scam emails like this, but it blows my mind that these criminals actually think people are dumb enough to fall for their half-baked schemes. However, I was shocked today to learn that cyber criminals are now hijacking Facebook accounts to try and scam users’ friends.
This afternoon I was thrilled to hear from a friend I haven’t spoken to since college. He contacted me through Facebook’s IM service. I didn’t take me long to figure out that it was not actually Matt reaching out to me. So I decided to have a little fun with this petty idiotic crook, and even took the responsibility to drop a little morality on him. It was very interesting, and I will admit, entertaining to play with this guy’s little mind. I have shared my excerpts from our conversation below:
Matt: Hi Mark
Me: What’s happening Matt? Its been a long time?
Matt: Is there any assistance i can get from you financially please? (Ok…this is not Matt)
Me: Certainly. What’s up?
Matt: am stuck here in Nigeria and really need some money to get the hotel bill settled due to that fact that i was attacked by some armed robbers and all my money got stole.
Me: Oh that’s right, you told me you were going to Africa with Jared (not true, there is no Jared) Are the two of you ok? Tell me how I can wire and what you need.
Matt: You can get it sent to me through western union money transfer. Can you lend me the sum of $2,500 USD?
Me: How is Jared though? He was worried about going to Africa?
(No response)
Why so much? The best I can do is $1000.
Matt: Its ok (I guess $1k doesn’t go as far as it used to in Nigeria)
Me: But i will have to charge you interest…something small
Matt: I’ll appreciate it if you can get it sent to me asap please mark
Me: Tell me what account number
Matt: There is no need for an account. All you need to do is or you to take the money to any western union money transfer outlet and get it sent to me through my personal information which i will send to you asap.
Me: Have you reached out to your brother Justin? he can probably get you the rest of what you need
Matt: Sure. Just let me know when you are ready to get the $1000 sent to me please. ok
Me: Sure? Did you talk to him or do you want me to reach out to him?
I can go to WU today, tell me how to reach you.
Matt: I will reach him asap.
Call me through the hotel manager’s cell # +234-808-867-9171
Here are the details :
Receiver’s Name : Matthew (Last Name Removed)
Address : 115 Water Harrington way,
City : Victoria Island
State : Lagos
Country : Nigeria, 23401
Me: Ok. I will get on it. So other than the whole getting held at gunpoint and getting robbed, how has Africa been? I hear Nigeria can be dangerous.
Matt: thats just out of what am into right now. i really need to get out of here asap before i can narrate any thing to anyone please
Me: I don’t understand you…I think you have been in Africa too long…your English has gotten worse
Matt: Am so frustrated and confused
Me: I bet, has Jared called his parents or are they still not talking to him
Matt: He can’t get the cell # off his head cause the address book is not with him
Me: Yeah I can never remember my parents number either
Matt: Is there any assistance coming from you please ?
Me: OK OK don’t be so short with me. So you need to be very careful in Nigeria; there are tons of criminals there
Matt: I know that quite right
Me: I bet! So it was strange for you to reach out to me after so long. I hear there is a lot of fraud going on there. Oh I am so sorry, I have been calling your brother by the wrong name. What’s his name again?
Matt: Eric (That is actually true…this guy did his research)
Me: I just have one more question before I run off to send you the money that i earned through hard and honest work. Do you think I am dumb enough to fall for your half-baked scam? You should be ashamed of yourself, not for trying to cheat innocent people out of money, but for being so stupid as to think that anyone would fall for it. You are a moron criminal. I have contacted the authorities and your Western Union account has been reported so you can no longer use my friends identity. I advice you to find a new career.
Matt: LOL
Me: Don’t you feel bad about what you do. You know you can make a living through honest work, even in Nigeria. You should reform yourself. Stop praying on innocent people; the only ones dumb enough to fall for your scam are elderly or mentally challenged.
Matt: Listen Mark. Now you got my attention
Me: Do you feel good taking advantage of mentally handicap people?
Matt: no no. but we need to talk now
Me: Well that is what you do and that makes you are very low person, but its not too late for you to change you ways. Ok talk to me
Matt: Alright. I will be very much appreciating if you can assist me. I will stop all this scamming. I mean it. I really need help (I bet!)
Me: Ok what is your true story?
Matt: Am really in need of cash to pay up my bill. Am a graduate of computer engineering in the university here but due to the poor economy i got no job and i couldn’t meet up my daily living everybody rely on me for survival in my family have pity on me please
Me: Well I can appreciate your situation but I have no pity for criminals or beggars. Use your talents and education for honest work.
Matt: i understand you. if you can help me to travel overthere i will work a honest here (I thought about it because we need to hire a few developers…ok that’s a lie)
Me: I am sorry but you will get nothing from me other than my hopes for you to become an honest person. Money will not solve your problems if you have no respect for yourself or other people
Matt: i will if you can give me hope for survival and assistance from you
Me: Change your ways, be good to others and you will be rewarded. Continue to be a criminal and you will live a long painful sorry life without respect for yourself. That is the assistance I will offer you….a chance to be a better person. And my other advice is for you to stop using Matt’s identity. This incident has been reported and your Western Union account under Matt’s name will be terminated
Matt: ok
Me: That is as much charity as you will get from me and much more than you can expect to get from most people. Good luck to you and be sure to make the right decision…your reward for living an honest life will come in time, your punishment for not changing will destroy you …your choice.
After this incident occurred, i contacted my friend Matt to inform him of the incident and then reported the crime to the FBI. To report cyber crimes and fraud, contact the FBI or fill out a crime report at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx.
Two Outlook Add-ins You Can’t Ignore
July 21, 2008
Many of you are all too aware that Microsoft’s Outlook is less than perfect. However, if you are like me and stuck in your old Outlook ways, I have two great recommendations that can significantly improve the speed and performance of Outlook. There are many new and not-so-new Outlook add-ins that you can download for free, however my two favorites are Outlook Attachment Remover and YouSendIt’s Outlook Plug-in.
The Outlook Attachment Remover is perhaps the quickest and easiest way to improve Outlook’s performance. This plug-in works by removing attachments from your Outlook files and saving them to your hard drive. What I love about this application is that you can still access your attachments in the same manner as before; however because the large files are removed from Outlook, the client’s speed and performance is greatly improved. In less than five minutes, I was able to automatically free up more than 500MB of storage space. EZDetach offers a low-cost application with additional features; however, I found the free version offered by www.kopf.com.br/outlook/ to be more than adequate.
YouSendIt’s Outlook Plug-in is another great tool for reducing the size of both your Outlook files and the storage space of your recipient’s email client. YouSendIt offers a free service for sending large files via email. The service works by uploading your attachment files and sending a link to your intended recipient so they can download your documents directly from the Web. (The service offers a subscription service with additional features as well). I have used this service in the past; however I was not sold on it until they released their Outlook add-in, which enables me to use the service directly through Outlook. The application is very easy to use; all you have to do is attach a document to an email by clicking on the YouSendIt toolbar within Outlook. The service will automatically upload your documents and directly insert the link in your email message. In addition to improving your Outlook’s performance, your recipients will appreciate the reduced file size of your message.
For more suggestions on how to get the most out of Outlook, I recommend you read Arrow Tips by Misty Khan of Advena Artemis.
Your Personal Email Is Not Safe: You Best Watch What You Say
June 12, 2008
On May 30, 2008 a New Jersey State Superior Court determined that emails sent and received on a private email service are subject to legal discovery under the Freedom of Information Act. This ground-breaking ruling relates specifically to emails that were exchanged between NJ Governor Jon S. Corzine and Carla Katz, a state union leader he once dated. However, the implications of this ruling are expected to have a widespread impact. In short, your personal email is not safe.
According to a recent Proofpoint study, 34% of the largest companies (20,000 employees or more) reported that employee email was subpoenaed in the last 12 months. While the data does not specify the inclusion of employee’s personal email, the precedent set by the NJ State Superior Court indicates that what you write in your personal email (eg: Gmail, YahooMail) can be subpoenaed. While there exist other examples of employee’s personal email being called into court; these cases were limited to emails accessed through corporate servers (ie: when you access Gmail in the office, the gloves come off). However, this ruling seems to indicate that messages sent from home or your mobile device are fair game too; especially if they mention business matters.
Many experts advise that you use a personal email account for non-work related email. However, it now seems that anything you say or do online can be used against you. The bottom line: It doesn’t matter where you write it, anything you write online can be used against you.
My advice: Never mention anything business-related in your personal emails. If you are not comfortable sending a message through your work account, you probably shouldn’t send it through your personal account.
Data Leaks Through Email
June 11, 2008
A Proofpoint study “Outbound Email and Data Loss Prevention in Today’s Enterprise, 2008” has revealed some interesting data points on the dangers of using email and other online communication channels in the workplace.
Roger Matus highlighted some of the key findings on his blog Death By Email:
- 44% of companies reported that they investigated an email leak of confidential information in the past 12 months.
- 41% of the largest companies surveyed (those with 20,000 or more employees) reported that they employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the contents of outbound email.
- 26% of companies surveyed terminated an employee for violating email policies in the last 12 months.
- 23% of U.S. companies surveyed said their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the last 12 months.
- 34% of the largest companies (20,000 employees or more) reported that employee email was subpoenaed in the last 12 months.
In addition to email, companies must be aware of the inherent dangers of allowing employees free access to blogs, message boards, media sharing sites, and mobile devices.
- 27% of companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information from lost or stolen mobile devices in the past 12 months.
- 11% of U.S. companies surveyed disciplined employees for improper use of blogs/message boards in the past 12 months.
- 13% of surveyed companies disciplined employees for social network violations and 14% for improper use of media sharing sites in the past 12 months.
- 14% of publicly traded companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of material financial information (such as unannounced financial results) on blogs or message board postings in the last 12 months.
The bottom line: Email is a critical business application and is not going away. Additionally, new media channels like blogs, message boards, and social networking sites are proving to be useful tools for marketing, collaboration, and research. However, companies and employees must understand the inherent risks associated with these applications. Employers should lay down specific guidelines for employees and incorporate technologies to track and prevent inappropriate use of such channels.
Gmail’s Mail Fetcher: Why You Shouldn’t Forward Messages into a Single Account?
June 10, 2008
So what’s up with e-mail forwarding? Most people have multiple e-mail accounts and find it a pain to access each one individually. Many email providers allow users to set their accounts to automatically forward all messages to a single universal email address. So why don’t more people do this?
I have found that most people shy away from email forwarding because they like to keep their inboxes separate. According to eMarketer, more than 94% of users in the U.S. (~160 million) utilize at least two e-mail accounts, and 65% of users (~128 million) employ three or more (3+) accounts. A principal reason users have multiple accounts is to stay organized. Personally, I have an account for business, an account for personal use, and an account for my newsletters (my “bacon” or “becn”). I like it that way. I know when I am in my business account, it’s all business. When I am in my personal account, it’s all fun. And my third account is for shopping, reading random newsletters, and killing time.
Gmail offers a forwarding service called Mail Fetcher. Mail Fetcher allows users to access up to 5 non-Gmail email accounts from within the Gmail interface. You can set Mail Fetcher to tag the messages by their source accounts through a color-coded labeling feature.
I am not sold on Mail Fetcher for various reasons. The first reason is that users are required to configure their POP3 server settings to utilize this solution; and most people do not know how to do this. Furthermore, some email services do not offer POP3 capability and others, like Yahoo and Hotmail/Live, charge for the privilege. Most importantly, however, I don’t like Mail Fetcher because it is not an effective organization tool. In my opinion, there is no substitute for the folder structure offered by email clients like Outlook or Thunderbird. Because you cannot filter or sort messages by their source account into separate folders, Mail Fetcher and other forwarding features simply add more clutter to your inbox. I have separate accounts for very specific reasons; my email needs to be organized and neither Mail Fetcher nor email forwarding is the solution. Sorry Google.
A Check List: Considering Leaving Your Day Job?
June 6, 2008
If you are considering leaving your day job to start your own business, there are some serious questions you must ask yourself. I did not erratically jump ship when I got bit by the entrepreneur bug. Before leaving my 9-5 (or rather my 8am-1am finance gig), I made sure that I assessed the risks and weighed the benefits.
If you think coming up with the idea is the hard part, you are mistaken. Certainly good ideas don’t come along everyday, but I can promise you that conceiving the idea is actually the easiest part. The process for determining if you should go off on your own is long, hard, and involves some serious introspective examination.
In general, investors look at three types of risks: 1) Market Risk, 2) Technology Risk, and 3) Execution Risk. When determining if you should go into business for yourself, you should weigh the same questions.
The first two are obvious. To quantify market risk, you need to ask “Is my concept/idea/product marketable?” “Does it solve a real problem?” “Will people pay for it or can I find a way to monetize it?” Most importantly, “Is this something that I need?” , “Will I use it?” To address the technology risk considerations you need to ask “Can this be done?” “Can I build it or find people to build it?” Both require extensive due diligence, and I personally spent a long time researching and writing everything down into a draft business plan before even considering leaving my job. Writing a business plan is a painful but critical step. (More on that to come later)
However, the third type of risk: Execution Risk can not be quantified by typical research. It involves serious self examination, understanding your personal limitations, financial situation and relationships with family and friends. To help you determine if you are ready to go off on your own, I have created a check list of questions I asked myself before submitting my letter of resignation:
1) Do I have an entrepreneur’s personality?
An entrepreneur is a person who thrives under pressure, enjoys challenges and is self-motivated. You must be a high-energy person who is not afraid of hard work and long hours. Passion is a must. If you are not passionate about your business, you will find it hard to wake up every morning.
2) Am I willing to make sacrifices?
Becoming an entrepreneur can flip your life upside down and usually involves sacrificing customary ways of life and creature comforts. It is about more than cutting back on luxuries and discretionary expenses. For some, it even means moving in with Mom and Dad. The strain can affect relationships; girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, and best friends can be lost. When you become committed to realizing your dream, you may find yourself alienated from those who are central to your life. Balancing work and life becomes much more difficult and you have to be prepared to accept that.
3) Do I have the proper support system?
Not every entrepreneur is fortunate enough to have a strong family, supportive spouse, or rich aunt. But every entrepreneur must be aware of the role the people in their lives will play and how their startup will affect those individuals. You must consider your family and loved ones when starting your own business as it will most certainly affect their lives as well.
4) Do I have the financial resources to quit my job?
Many experts say you must have a least one year of salary saved up before even considering going off on your own. If you have significant financial obligations, dependents, or responsibilities you can not give up, you better make sure you can meet those commitments in the absence of steady income.
5) Do I interact well with others?
An entrepreneur is someone who can find answers to difficult answers. To find those answers you must be able to interact well with others, convince them to help you, and if you are good, make them want to help you. This is also crucial for building your team, attracting investors, and most importantly acquiring and retaining customers.
6) Can I trust others?
An entrepreneur must wear many hats, but you can not do everything. Those who try, typically fail. Those who are able to find the right people and delegate task have a much better chance to succeed. To be successful you must not only delegate but also inspire. This often means letting go of the reins, trusting in others, and making sure everyone’s mission and interests are aligned.
7) Am I confident in my abilities?
There is a fine line between confidence and cockiness; and, optimism and stupidity. You will experience ups and downs, successes and failures. To succeed, however, you must be resilient and, in general, positive. You can learn many things on the fly, a key trait of most successful business people. But you must also have a core skill set that you can use as a base. Experience in the industry you enter, is not a must, but it is a huge positive. The most important aspect, however, is trusting in your abilities, knowing when to ask for help, and believing that you can actually do it.
There are tons of online resources that can help you make this very important decision. However, two of my favorite reads include Founders At Work: Stories of Startup’s Early Days
I am Getting Sued and Laughing all the Way to the Bakery.
May 8, 2008
So we haven’t even launched and NutshellMail is already getting sued! I know you can’t hear me laughing, unless you are a member of the FBI surveillance team parked outside my building, but I can’t stop. Why you ask? I am being sued by one of my new favorite people-the beautiful, venerable, and zany Jenny Lawson (aka: The Bloggess and co-author of Good Mom/Bad Mom). Below is an excerpt from her email to me:
Hi nutshell guy!
So this weekend I was telling my husband that someone should invent something that would let me consolidate all my email accounts together and was all “God, I’m brilliant” and then I find this and it turns out you’ve already invented my idea. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m suing you for copywrite infringement of an idea I never copywrited (copywrote?) and came up with after you did it already. Also, I’m thinking a new version of your nutshell stuff needs to come out and be like faster or prettier or something, so just remember whose idea that was in case you ever think of doing a version 2.0. Mine, baby.
I’d like a million dollars to drop the lawsuit. Or maybe a slice of pie. Apple, preferably. No ice cream though. I don’t even know why people put ice cream on pie. Seriously, if I see ice cream I’m walking.
Have a nice summer,
Jenny, Bloggess
After asking Jenny if I can post her email on our blog, she told me that she was getting all “blushy” and that I could certainly post her email for a cool million in cash or nothing at all, whichever I choose. Does anyone know of a bakery that sells a million dollar apple pie (ice cream on the side)?
The Greatest Upset of All Time: Business Lessons From a 61 Year-old Potato Farmer
April 4, 2008
The greatest upset in sporting history has been debated countless times, but in my opinion, the 1983 Sydney to Melbourne Foot Race marks one of the most remarkable astonishments of all time. The 544 mile super marathon from Sydney to Melbourne is one of the most difficult challenges of human athleticism and endurance. It’s no wonder that when 61 year old potato farmer, Cliff Young showed up for the race dressed in overalls and gumboots, spectators and competitors alike thought it was a big joke. When he submitted his racing dues, event organizers pleaded for him to opt-out; such a race could kill a man 30 years younger. The other racers represented some of the world’s finest athletes, fully sponsored, and supported by teams of professional trainers and coaches. In Cliff’s corner? His 81 year-old mother, who planned to follow him in a beat-up pickup truck.
When the race began, the professional runners took off quickly. However, Cliff Young took his time, making spectators giggle as he awkwardly shuffled his boots against the pavement. His running style was unconventional; he was old, haggard, and quickly becoming the race’s humorous sideshow. The well-trained runners, coached by their staff of professional trainers, knew that if they were to finish the race within 6 days they would have to run for 18 hours a day and sleep the rest. But no one told Cliff this. In true Forest Gump style, he kept running and running and running through day and night. After 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes, Cliff stunned the world by completing the race in first place–beating the record by 9 hours!
This ultimate Tortoise vs. the Hare story teaches us a valuable business lesson. Cliff’s inspiring tale represents an example of the little guy wining out over bigger, better funded, and longer established competitors. The professional runners, like many industry leading companies, believed they had figured out the best way to run the race. Cliff, with his lack of experience and limited support, did not seem to be a threat. Although everyone told Cliff that he had no chance to win, he chose not to listen. He ran his race his way; and despite the mocking and his unconventional strategy, Cliff finished in first place by many long miles.
When I first heard this story as told by productivity consultant CJ Coolidge of Administaff, I immediately thought of examples where small business were cautioned and warned that it was crazy to enter a race they could NEVER win. WordPress, a blogging platform co-founded by Matt Mullenweg in 2003, represents such a case. At the time of its launch, WordPress entered a market dominated by Google’s Blogger (originally created by Evan Williams of Pyra Labs in 1999), as well as other players like MovableType, GreyMatter, TypePad, and LiveJournal. But WordPress offered a solution and business model different from its better-funded and longer-established competitors. WordPress started off as an open-source solution free to any capable programmer willing to help build a better blogging platform. Before Mark Zuckerberg opened Facebook to outside developers, Matt and the WordPress team invested unprecedented time and energy to develop a solid community. WordPress Made Community Matter. The end result was a more intuitive and easy-to-use CMS solution and blogging platform. WordPress gave its users the ability to easily customize their blogs, create reusable categories, block spammy comments, and easily deploy blogs to external servers. Through the cultivation of a loyal community of outside developers and by providing a service that even non-technical bloggers could use, WordPress defied the odds and established itself as a major player in an already crowded industry. WordPress is now considered one of the top personal publishing platforms in the world, and in 2007, was awarded with the much-coveted TechCruch Most-Likely-To-Succeed Award.
The story of Cliff Young (and WordPress) teaches us that following the road most traveled doesn’t always make sense. Cliff represents the ultimate entrepreneur: innovative, unconventional, free-spirited. While it doesn’t always pay to march at your own beat, most successful entrepreneurs have succeeded by going against the grain. Cliff Young serves as an inspiration to all and provides living proof that the little guy can change how things are done. In the years following Cliff’s ultimate upset, the Sydney to Melbourne race changed forever. Professional runners abandoned their established strategies. Now many competitors run all day and all night, rarely stopping to rest. Many have gone as far as to adopt Cliff’s running style (dubbed the “Young Shuffle”) after experts concluded that it is, in fact, a more aerodynamic and energy efficient way to run long races.
We should all remember that sometimes the turtle can win. But we should never forget that the race is never easy and almost always requires innovative and stubborn resolve.
Thank you to Erica O’Grady and CJ Coolidge for their input into this post.
For more information on Cliff Young’s remarkable feat, check out the following: EliteFeet, My-Inspirational-Quotes, TheAge, Coolrunning, and AustraliaHistory.
