You may be wondering what inspired the uncharacteristic abruptness of this post’s title. You may also be wondering what prompted a subject matter pretty different from all previous posts on this blog. Wonder no more:
- Bold titles seem to be what bloggers do.
- Subject prompted by a recent dramatic change in my email experience.
Extraordinarily ordinary
Email is extraordinary. The extraordinary thing is how it’s become ordinary for so many people in the world, yet it seems to possess an extraordinary power to dominate and frustrate our working lives or our personal lives. We recognise its usefulness, or perhaps more often we just resign ourselves to its inevitably (and sometimes uncontrollably) massive role in our lives.
That was very much my experience, but I’ve moved to Africa and a lot has changed! In my context here in the Gambia, email seems to be a much smaller part of life. I’m no expert in either information technology or global development but my impression is that this is one of those areas that people talk of in terms of “leap-frog development”, where a stage of development that the West experienced is jumped over en route to the next thing. Another example would be mobile phones - now almost universal here, yet very few ever had landlines.
In the West, computers gradually came in to business use then domestic use (oh, memories of Encarta in the 90s!), then the internet gradually became more widely used, then email became an increasingly dominant form of communication, to the extent where now we couldn’t imagine school / university / work / personal lives without it. But here in the Gambia, very few homes or schools have computers. So the level of general computer literacy is far lower. However, the mobile phone market has boomed, even quicker than it did in the West, I expect. The upshot is that people here (and I believe in many other parts of Africa too) do a huge amount on affordable smartphones with mobile data, which most of us in the West learned to do on computers. So people use mobile messaging, mobile social media, mobile banking, though they may have never used email, typed out a Word document or had a bank account. Now that WhatsApp and others don’t even require typing but can send and receive audio messages, all these functions are hugely useful when reading and writing might be more of a struggle. So it seems that emails were generally leaped over, and now it’s all about instant text or audio messages.
That’s just a little aside to explain why I now find myself in a context where email is (believe it or not) really not that big a deal for most people. That’s quite a change from my previous (ministry) job where communications and correspondence were a key element of the job. On a working day I’d normally get between 50 and 100 emails. I appreciate that many get far more. Well, I soon realised that, for me, that was enough to require a strategy for survival, if I was going to fulfil the duties of my job and ministry effectively and gladly, and not have to dread and endure every day feeling like I had massive heavy shackles round my ankles labelled, “YOU’VE GOT SO MANY EMAILS YOU NEED TO DEAL WITH!”
Seeking help
Reading some blogs was a help. And some colleagues and friends had various tips and systems, which were a help too. But I have to testify to one particular book, and the same author’s blog, being the most help.
That book is What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done (2014) by Matt Perman and his blog is here. (You can read a friend of mine’s review of the book here.) I hesitated to mention it because, whilst I and many others have been immensely helped by this book, some have understandably reacted cynically to what can sound - to suspicious British ears especially - like hyped-up thoughts of one particular fallible author from a particular (American) context. But I’d urge you to give him some slack. I won’t review the book here but let me just say that it’s one of the books that has had the most significant impact on the way I live as a result of reading it. (I was surprised and interested to hear a talk from a Kenyan at a pastors’ training conference in Nairobi last year, which was a very positive endorsement and summary of the book, suggesting that its appeal and use might be wider than one initially thinks. Admittedly, Nairobi is considerably more influenced by the West than many other parts of Africa.)
The book is a distinctly Christian approach to the old “Getting Things Done” question - how can I be most productive or effective? Perman persuasively shows from the Bible that this is not just a “secular” issue but a question of central importance to the Christian believer, as God saves people not simply to be saved but to be used for his glory in his world. And his intention for his people isn’t just to be used a little bit, but to to “bear much fruit” (John 15:8) and to “devote themselves to doing what is good” (Titus 3:8,14). After some careful theological unpacking of this theme, Perman moves on to a very practical second half of the book, where he draws on a lot of secular wisdom regarding productivity and “getting things done”, but uses a biblical and thoroughly gospel-centred filter to assemble his approach.
Transforming email
That was very much my experience, but I’ve moved to Africa and a lot has changed! In my context here in the Gambia, email seems to be a much smaller part of life. I’m no expert in either information technology or global development but my impression is that this is one of those areas that people talk of in terms of “leap-frog development”, where a stage of development that the West experienced is jumped over en route to the next thing. Another example would be mobile phones - now almost universal here, yet very few ever had landlines.
In the West, computers gradually came in to business use then domestic use (oh, memories of Encarta in the 90s!), then the internet gradually became more widely used, then email became an increasingly dominant form of communication, to the extent where now we couldn’t imagine school / university / work / personal lives without it. But here in the Gambia, very few homes or schools have computers. So the level of general computer literacy is far lower. However, the mobile phone market has boomed, even quicker than it did in the West, I expect. The upshot is that people here (and I believe in many other parts of Africa too) do a huge amount on affordable smartphones with mobile data, which most of us in the West learned to do on computers. So people use mobile messaging, mobile social media, mobile banking, though they may have never used email, typed out a Word document or had a bank account. Now that WhatsApp and others don’t even require typing but can send and receive audio messages, all these functions are hugely useful when reading and writing might be more of a struggle. So it seems that emails were generally leaped over, and now it’s all about instant text or audio messages.
That’s just a little aside to explain why I now find myself in a context where email is (believe it or not) really not that big a deal for most people. That’s quite a change from my previous (ministry) job where communications and correspondence were a key element of the job. On a working day I’d normally get between 50 and 100 emails. I appreciate that many get far more. Well, I soon realised that, for me, that was enough to require a strategy for survival, if I was going to fulfil the duties of my job and ministry effectively and gladly, and not have to dread and endure every day feeling like I had massive heavy shackles round my ankles labelled, “YOU’VE GOT SO MANY EMAILS YOU NEED TO DEAL WITH!”
Seeking help
That book is What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done (2014) by Matt Perman and his blog is here. (You can read a friend of mine’s review of the book here.) I hesitated to mention it because, whilst I and many others have been immensely helped by this book, some have understandably reacted cynically to what can sound - to suspicious British ears especially - like hyped-up thoughts of one particular fallible author from a particular (American) context. But I’d urge you to give him some slack. I won’t review the book here but let me just say that it’s one of the books that has had the most significant impact on the way I live as a result of reading it. (I was surprised and interested to hear a talk from a Kenyan at a pastors’ training conference in Nairobi last year, which was a very positive endorsement and summary of the book, suggesting that its appeal and use might be wider than one initially thinks. Admittedly, Nairobi is considerably more influenced by the West than many other parts of Africa.)
The book is a distinctly Christian approach to the old “Getting Things Done” question - how can I be most productive or effective? Perman persuasively shows from the Bible that this is not just a “secular” issue but a question of central importance to the Christian believer, as God saves people not simply to be saved but to be used for his glory in his world. And his intention for his people isn’t just to be used a little bit, but to to “bear much fruit” (John 15:8) and to “devote themselves to doing what is good” (Titus 3:8,14). After some careful theological unpacking of this theme, Perman moves on to a very practical second half of the book, where he draws on a lot of secular wisdom regarding productivity and “getting things done”, but uses a biblical and thoroughly gospel-centred filter to assemble his approach.
Transforming email
There were many things, both theological and practical, that were of significant benefit to me from What’s Best Next, and one of the most nitty-gritty was about email. This was then further helped by Perman’s ambitiously titled blog post, “How to Get Your Email Inbox to Zero Every Day”. Now I know that that kind of title will lead to various responses:
If you’re a 1, you’re doing well so far - will you hear me out…? If you’re a 2, please also hang in with me. If you’re a 3, hold your horses.
1s & 2s: it worked for me. Honestly. When I implemented what Perman proposes (with minor tweaks for my situation), I would reach inbox zero every day. I promise. And it wasn’t burdensome. Perman also says it works for him and I’m sure he gets a lot more email than I did. I can’t stop you saying “Whatever” if you still want to.
3s: Having read Perman’s book steadily and prayerfully, I made some substantial bigger-picture changes first: most importantly, I carefully thought about a mission and vision statement for my life (one of the things he encourages in the book), which I hadn’t done particularly prayerfully or thoughtfully before. I believe that laid the larger mental and theological foundation that I needed, on which I could then build with practical disciplines and habits such as the inbox zero thing. I would strongly urge you to do the same - zoom out and invest some time praying and thinking through the highly important theological questions about what our lives are about and what your life in particular is about (and I believe Perman’s book will help you with that), before zooming in and addressing the nuts and bolts of email systems. Otherwise the systems and disciplines will have no foundations and will soon crumble. Then read the article.
Liberating unsubscribing
If you’re still with me… what’s this all got to do with unsubscribing from emails?
Well, one of the ingredients of Perman’s system is a ruthless approach to emails you receive but never read. Rightly so! It’s such an inefficient way to function, but I’m sure we’ve all done it (I certainly have) -
Consider how much time you’d save if the next time you receive one such email, you just click on the unsubscribe link and unsubscribe. Hooray! You’re free from ever receiving that annoying email again!
It will gain you time. Moreover, to use a classic Perman phrase, it will “reduce the drag on your life”. This is one of the recurring ideas in his book, and it’s quite compelling. Think how fast cars and planes are super smooth, to maximise aerodynamic efficiency. Little disciplines like unsubscribing from unnecessary emails similarly reduce the drag on our lives - not having frustrations or inefficiencies clogging up our limited mental and emotional capacities.
Why not have a blitz, and spend an hour (or a few…) going through your inbox and unsubscribing from all such emails (while you’re at it, turn off email notifications for things like Twitter or your calendar, if you don’t need them - colossal waste of email space) - and also resolve to do the same immediately the next time you receive any other emails like that. It’s very liberating! As they say, “tidy desk - tidy mind”. That just as much applies to our computer’s desktop or our email inbox.
Permission to ignore me
The thing that actually prompted me to write this blog post was when I was composing my last prayer email - a roughly monthly email to friends and gospel partners who like to hear some news from me and pray for me. I’m so thankful for everyone who receives it, but I can’t help but know that out of everyone on the list, I’m 100% sure that some don’t read it, don’t pray through it, and just ignore it or delete it. And that’s fine! Honestly, it is! Because I know that there are just too many emails, too many causes, and we can’t all read about and pray for everything. (Thankfully I have reason for confidence that closer family and friends do respond a bit differently and, I trust, some others too!)
So I truly wish those people would just unsubscribe. [*Braces himself for his email recipients list suddenly shrinking to 1/10th the size!*] I hate the thought of emails I’ve written being those infuriating ones that you know you should probably just unsubscribe from, but haven’t got round to / would feel bad about doing so… Please just do it! It’d be a far more efficient use of your God-given time, and I really won’t be offended.
Here’s to slightly improved email efficiency.
- “Whatever.” (*eye-roll*)
- “I despair: I’ve tried things but they never work.”
- “Yes please! Tell me how!”
If you’re a 1, you’re doing well so far - will you hear me out…? If you’re a 2, please also hang in with me. If you’re a 3, hold your horses.
1s & 2s: it worked for me. Honestly. When I implemented what Perman proposes (with minor tweaks for my situation), I would reach inbox zero every day. I promise. And it wasn’t burdensome. Perman also says it works for him and I’m sure he gets a lot more email than I did. I can’t stop you saying “Whatever” if you still want to.
3s: Having read Perman’s book steadily and prayerfully, I made some substantial bigger-picture changes first: most importantly, I carefully thought about a mission and vision statement for my life (one of the things he encourages in the book), which I hadn’t done particularly prayerfully or thoughtfully before. I believe that laid the larger mental and theological foundation that I needed, on which I could then build with practical disciplines and habits such as the inbox zero thing. I would strongly urge you to do the same - zoom out and invest some time praying and thinking through the highly important theological questions about what our lives are about and what your life in particular is about (and I believe Perman’s book will help you with that), before zooming in and addressing the nuts and bolts of email systems. Otherwise the systems and disciplines will have no foundations and will soon crumble. Then read the article.
Liberating unsubscribing
Well, one of the ingredients of Perman’s system is a ruthless approach to emails you receive but never read. Rightly so! It’s such an inefficient way to function, but I’m sure we’ve all done it (I certainly have) -
- We sign up to an email list,
- We regret it,
- We never read the emails and just delete them (or worse, ignore them) every time.
Consider how much time you’d save if the next time you receive one such email, you just click on the unsubscribe link and unsubscribe. Hooray! You’re free from ever receiving that annoying email again!
It will gain you time. Moreover, to use a classic Perman phrase, it will “reduce the drag on your life”. This is one of the recurring ideas in his book, and it’s quite compelling. Think how fast cars and planes are super smooth, to maximise aerodynamic efficiency. Little disciplines like unsubscribing from unnecessary emails similarly reduce the drag on our lives - not having frustrations or inefficiencies clogging up our limited mental and emotional capacities.
Why not have a blitz, and spend an hour (or a few…) going through your inbox and unsubscribing from all such emails (while you’re at it, turn off email notifications for things like Twitter or your calendar, if you don’t need them - colossal waste of email space) - and also resolve to do the same immediately the next time you receive any other emails like that. It’s very liberating! As they say, “tidy desk - tidy mind”. That just as much applies to our computer’s desktop or our email inbox.
Permission to ignore me
The thing that actually prompted me to write this blog post was when I was composing my last prayer email - a roughly monthly email to friends and gospel partners who like to hear some news from me and pray for me. I’m so thankful for everyone who receives it, but I can’t help but know that out of everyone on the list, I’m 100% sure that some don’t read it, don’t pray through it, and just ignore it or delete it. And that’s fine! Honestly, it is! Because I know that there are just too many emails, too many causes, and we can’t all read about and pray for everything. (Thankfully I have reason for confidence that closer family and friends do respond a bit differently and, I trust, some others too!)
So I truly wish those people would just unsubscribe. [*Braces himself for his email recipients list suddenly shrinking to 1/10th the size!*] I hate the thought of emails I’ve written being those infuriating ones that you know you should probably just unsubscribe from, but haven’t got round to / would feel bad about doing so… Please just do it! It’d be a far more efficient use of your God-given time, and I really won’t be offended.
Here’s to slightly improved email efficiency.
