As a result of a delayed communication yesterday in coordinating the movie arrangements, Nathan and/or Dan brought up the question of why I don’t check my e-mail more frequently than I do, so I thought I’d briefly explain it here.
When I am working, I like to devote my full concentration to the project I am working on. Designing and writing complex software takes quite a bit of concentration, and I find that once you get into the groove of doing it, you are much more productive. I think that this is probably true for any type of work that involves a lot of thinking about anything that is complex. I also find that it takes a bit of time to get into that mindset, and if you are interrupted in order to do something else, it can sometimes take a bit of time to ramp back up to that level of productivity.
As a result, I usually do not check e-mail at all during the day (or at least while I’m working). I’ll usually (but not always) check it before I get started in the morning, and then rarely check it again during the day. Furthermore, I do not answer my phone while I am working, unless it is Martha. Anyone else can leave a voicemail and I will deal with it when I have a chance.
This is the whole point of voicemail, to allow you to deal with incoming calls on your time schedule, not the caller’s. Same thing with e-mail - it was never designed to be an instant back-an-forth communication tool. If you want that kind of real-time communication, that is what IRC and IM clients were invented for. Needless to say, I almost never run any IM clients, and certainly never while I’m working.
Hope that clears things up for anyone who may have been confused by my communication policies / practices. Please let me know your thoughts, either on my habits or outlining your own.
One Comment
I totally agree about the concentration and interruptions. I will be in the middle of teaching a very important concept in Algebra and the phone will ring. “Can you send Bobby to the office he needs to pay for hot lunch.” The office’s idea of an emergency is a little off, I think. I do in fact answer my cell phone occasionally. Which usually freaks the caller out. They think I won’t while teaching. It’s quite funny.