How do you handle daily e-mail? Some have over 1,000/day to answer, but even for those with far less, answering e-mail is a problem. Here are some ideas in a New York Times article from people who have faced high volumes of correspondence:
- Declare e-mail bankruptcy, i.e., delete them all and start afresh tomorrow. And if there are too many tomorrow, do the same thing again.
- In pre-electronic times, Thomas Edison dealt with hundreds of thousands of letters. Not all of them got a reply, but most did thanks to Edison’s solution – a secretary, actually several secretaries who became skilled in creating the impression that Edison himself was interested in the person’s concern.
- H.L. Mencken, journalist and essayist, answered every letter himself, whether the daily mail brought 10 or 80 letters. He answered them on the day received. He said, “My mail is so large that if I let it accumulate for even a few days, it would swamp me.”
- Time management specialists advise us to check e-mails only twice a day and to respond at times of our own choosing. Not all questions can be answered quickly.
I’m not sure what Jesus has to teach us about answering e-mails, but maybe e-mail and cell phones fall under his teachings about establishing boundaries. Jesus was often incommunicado—he couldn’t be reached—and when people asked him a question, he didn’t always answer. He taught us, “Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.” Is one’s sanity holy? Is one’s time valuable? Is communication something you don’t want others to trample under foot? Is e-mail mauling your life? God grant you guidance.
No comments:
Post a Comment