Back in the day when I discovered David Allen's book "Getting Things Done", the internet was ripe with great advice on personal productivity. I was hungry for this. No one teaches you how to be productive. They just teach you how to do work. And no one teaches you how to do email.

I discovered 43 Folders blog and I ate it up. I sported the hipster PDA for years. Still have some lying around.

I lost touch of Merlin Mann a few years later. My email protocols were going quite well. I used the GTD idea of Inbox -- the inbox is like the surface of your desk. You process the inbox like you process papers on your desk. Once you are done the desk becomes empty. Everything is put-away at the end of the day.

My engineer brain is good at categorizing, and also good at not over-categorizing. Not sure anybody taught me that. So Inbox Zero works for me. Has worked for me. For over 10 years. My inbox last night was empty. It will be empty tonight. It is not stressful. To me, after 10 years of Inbox Zero, it is like subconsciously folding your shirt or buttering bread. It is muscle memory.

More and more I see people treating email like text messages. In the middle of several legitimate threads, there unfolds a long stack of emails of people replying in half sentences in real time and rapid succession. When do they have so much time to sit on Microsoft Outlook? Our work happens in Microsoft Excel. I just ignore these threads as they unfold. I wait till the hose turns off. Then I respond. And I usually offer a time slot for a phone call which is waaay more efficient than hitting quick replies. And it is waaaaaaay less distracting to people doing knowledge work.

My search for better office work eventually brought me to 37 Signals Blog - Signal v. Noise. And their wonderful books Rework, Remote and It Doesn't Have To Be Crazy at Work. I inhaled those books as soon as they released. I also discovered Cal Newport's books on how to achieve excellence. Deep Work, Digital Minimalism and So Good They Can't Ignore You. Again, inhaled them.

Cal and Jason Fried from 37 Signals (now Basecamp) are having a public chat today. Cal Newport released a new book this week -- A World Without Email -- and this is the release party. Due to Covid this release party is virtual. I signed up.

My book arrived on the 2nd. I'm sure I will have read this book before the weekend is over.

Anyway, it was a privilige to hear the talk live. For those who missed the release party, here are some notes in no particular order:

Email is easy

• CN calls this Hyperactive Hivemind in the new book
• Convenience in short term; long term problems are not easy to spot like climate change
• High expectations of growth from firms - leads to high expectations from employees; we don't think about the mess and burnout we are leaving behind this growth
• Unfortunate byproduct is the Open Office - CN sees some benefit but JF sees this as net negative

The Metaphor of Processor War of the 90s

• "the sport of business"/ Busy = value in knowledge work / hero complex
• Efficiency is worshipped to no end
• Context switching is productivity poison
• Sleep is not cool, but very important for productive and creative work
• Work is measured in money

Solutions

• Slow is sustainable
• CN interviewed a German company -- they had to bring in an expert to train their employees to email less
• 8 hours is a long time to work but it doesnt feel long if your day is broken into small moments
• CN mentioned the 4-day Summer workweek at Basecamp. JF: work still got done in 32 hours, unnecessary stuff got squeezed out
• Time is not an endless resource; less time to do work makes time more precious

Overload Problem

• It is not sufficient to just change habits -- must change the workflow
• There is an epidemic of overcommunication
• Some benefits of hey.com email and how it reduces context switching

CN and JF talked more about hey.com email. I have been using hey.com since June of 2020 and I absolutely love it.

There was some Q&A afterwards. I am really glad I joined this event! All of this feels like the beginning of a revolution of sorts. Like the industrial revolution and mass production was to the work of making things.