Diary of an E-mail Addict

Chances are you or someone you know have been addicted to e-mail previously. It's time consuming and one executive coach in Pennsylvania claims the true cost to businesses in America is millions of dollars.

The Executive Coach, Marsha Egan, has developed a 12 step plan, which she hopes to teach executives in the coming months to help combat the overload problem. In addition to lost work productivity the flow on effect to personal lives should be considered from a marketing point of view.

Time is an increasingly scarce resource. The balance of family, work (now increased hours because of e-mail hold ups) and life is becoming elusive for many.

Implications for entrepreneurs may include facing the challenge of the seven day weekend and understanding that business may no longer operate Monday to Friday. Just as a home office should be seperate to avoid pleasure interrupting work, so too work should not interrupt leisure and family time.

From a product point of view there may be a way to simplify e-mail or other communications systems. Perhaps a tool to view multiple e-mails at a time could open an introductory paragraph with a one click trash button attached. Deleted and spam e-mail could be emptied automatically after 24 hours. Macro functions could be programmed for one click posting to a jobs list, diary or phone book. Perhaps the sender would be so kind as to fill in their name and phone number in the special new field, which would automatically update in the receiver's phone book.

For now we have to be disciplined and remind ourselves to check e-mail once or twice daily. If the process could be simplified or replaced with a new system, business managers would pay for the gained productivity. Just a thought...