I received an auto email response from a friend just the other day. Said friend’s response went thus;
Thankyou for your email. I read my emails daily at 8,11 and 3pm. If your email requires urgent attention please phone me on XXXXXXX
I had a chuckle when I received it. It seemed a typical reaction from the “personal efficiency brigade”. Late last year I was at an event where David Allen, the father of “Getting Things Done”, (and the person that has made a fortune out of it) was presenting. I posted after the sessions saying;
Getting things done. (and a thought – isn’t spending time talking about having to get things done a little oxymoronic – kind of like fighting for peace?)
David Allen, founder of the Getting Things Done methodology spoke and described his process for Getting Things Done. I’ve never been a huge fan of these sorts of programs – I figure you’re either a good time manager or you aren’t. Although that’s easy for me to say – I find multi tasking pretty easy (no matter what my wife says!)
Pretty much I’m from the school of thought that contends that the “4 hour workweek”, “Getting Things Done”, “Sort Your Life in 12 Easy Steps” brigade are little more than snake-oil merchants selling the literary equivalent of the abflexer, eternal youth capsules or, for that matter, the social media consultant; people who sell an unsuspecting customer the hope and dream of a solution to all their problems in a few easy steps.
But getting back to the auto-response. The sender (a fine chap it must be said) is not only a major email user but also a fan of micro blogging who tweets with reckless abandon. I sent out something of a rhetorical question asking whether it wasn’t a non-sense to only check emails three times a day while still routinely using Twitter. Most respondents agreed with my perspective – to avoid checking email but to continue monitoring the fire-hose that is Twitter, seems a little counter-intuitive.
Or not?