Bit literacy productivity in the age of mark hurst

[...]... receive.4 Rather, the solution has to do with message count Put plainly, here is the solution to email overload: Empty the inbox at least once a day In other words, clear out incoming e-mails before they pile up too high in the inbox Delete most of them, file some of them (as described in the chapter on storing files), but most importantly, get them all out of the inbox before they become stress-inducing distractions... compounds their feelings of guilt and stress, making them even less effective at managing the problem A full inbox showing weeks or months of old work constantly reminds the user how far he is from being “done.” Dealing with old messages often requires the unpleasant step of admitting one’s mistake and apologizing for being so late E-mail load is measured by the number of messages sitting in the user’s inbox... demonstrate bit literacy in seminars by drawing on a whiteboard I draw a square with nothing inside, just blank white space Then I write a word in the box There was nothing in the square before, and now there’s one thing in it The word is plainly visible Then I draw another square, the same size as the first I use the marker to color in the entire box, so it’s all ink and no whiteboard showing Then I ask everyone:... messages This is a needlessly time consuming task Others maintain the Sent Items folder to function as a separate filing system—a use it was never intended for Instead, whenever users send a message that they want to save, they should BCC themselves so that it comes back through the inbox, allowing them to engage it in the inbox, along with all other incoming e-mails Users can then file the message in. .. means wrestling with one’s own distracted mind; painting means picking up a paintbrush; bit literacy means engaging the bits Bit literacy doesn’t even mean that you should engage fewer bits To the contrary, the goal is to free users so they can engage as many bits as they want, and yet never feel overloaded The actual quantity of bits you engage, whether it’s higher or lower from one day to the next,... awaiting their next trip across the world Bits, not software, are what’s most important today The world has changed, but most people haven’t caught up yet Millions of technology users are trying to survive in the new world of bits with only the skills of computer literacy They know how to send an e-mail and print a document, but they’re powerless against the avalanche of incoming bits Without managing their... important documents often sit in the inbox, instead of going to a proper project folder Calendar: Dates and times for meetings, conference calls, and other appointments pile up in the inbox, often sticking around long after the appointment has passed Bookmarks list: Some e-mails remain in the inbox because they contain Web addresses, or usernames and passwords for website logins, that the user isn’t sure... complain that they get fifty or a hundred messages a day, they’re talking about their volume the number of daily incoming messages But volume isn’t an appropriate measurement of load, since it says nothing about how many other messages are still awaiting their attention As stated earlier, the correct way to measure e-mail load is by the message count, the number of e-mails currently sitting in the inbox Someone... solution, therefore, must be both effective and sustainable, indefinitely, in a world of infinite bits There is only one possible solution Let the bits go The key to managing and thriving in a world of infinite bits is to let the bits go This deserves some clarification, because the phrase is easily misinterpreted First, it doesn’t mean to delete everything— hardly an effective strategy I once gave a seminar... Cleaning the inbox doesn’t mean doing all the work described in the messages; it just means moving the messages to their proper places Only then, with an empty inbox, can you focus on the actual work to be done Induction Before getting to the steady-state method, many users need to first go through induction, the one-time removal of long-standing overload Induction takes an inbox full of e-mail from the . Managing Incoming E-Mail The first skill to learn in bit literacy is managing incoming bits, and the most important bitstream to manage, for most users, is e-mail. There is a simple solution to e-mail. longer the industrial age, the atomic age, or the space age. We are now living in the age of bits. Those who know how to work with bits will master the age; those who don't will be left further. is the problem, then removing the load is the solution. Bit literacy means letting the bits go; anything else perpetuates the problem. Consider what happens when the e-mail inbox is full of messages—dozens,