The use of
electronic mail (e-mail) by a pioneering community of scholars goes
back to the mid 1970s, long before the World Wide Web (1993). Combining
flexibility with almost instantaneous transmission of information
to one or multiple recipients across a computer network, e-mail is
a communication technology integral to today’s academic life.
Indeed, it enables extremely quick communication across borders,
making collaboration between scholars and researchers easy, rapid,
and almost cost-free. For example, by using the “attachment”
function, a scholar could send a draft of a scientific article to
a co-worker based in another continent. Feedback that once took weeks
to receive via the national postal service can now be obtained in
hours or days. Given the pervasive role of e-mail in today’s
academic life, it is important to use it judiciously.In 2009,
a seminal study correlated a large random sample of 3771 research-active
life scientists from 430 U.S. institutions with a data set combining
information on the diffusion of two early innovations, BITNET and
DNS, in information technology (IT) from 1969 to 1993.[1] BITNET is a U.S. network of universities comparable to
the Internet, and DNS is the hierarchical and decentralized naming
system by which Internet domain names are located and translated into
Internet protocol addresses. With electronic mail exchanged by networked computers, digital information is exchanged by the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) created in 1982.[2] The results
of this study were revealing.While established scientists did
not benefit from the adoption of IT by their institutions, early to
midcareer scientists experienced great advancement in the quantity
and quality of research and collaboration. Notably, IT acted as an
equalizing force, increasing the productivity of scientists at mid-
and lower-tier institutions by giving these faculty access to colleagues
and resources at top-tier universities and research centers.Since 1993, progress in the uptake of rapidly advancing IT has been
dramatic, changing the practice of research in academia, and also
that of teaching and learning. Access to the Internet and e-mail became
ubiquitous. Alongside countless benefits, a number of problematic
consequences quickly emerged.In 2001, a study at a service
company in Britain reported that e-mail messages “have some
disruptive effect by interrupting the user - more than is generally
assumed”.[3] The scholars found that
nearly 70% of e-mails received were viewed within 6 s, “quicker
than letting the phone ring three times”. Furthermore, most
of these e-mails were not directly relevant to employees and were
mostly a result of e-mails sent using the “send-to-all”
function.Several years later, when the use of e-mail had become
ubiquitous, an experimental investigation approached these concerns
further by investigating how the frequency of checking e-mail affects
one’s well-being.[4] As part of the
study, 124 adults were asked to check their e-mail three times a day
for 1 week. These participants reported experiencing lower daily stress
and higher well-being, including improved mindfulness. During another
week, participants were permitted to check their e-mail an unlimited
number of times per day and reported experiencing significantly greater
psychological stress. Specifically, the team found that by limiting
the number of instances participants checked their e-mail they observed
lessened tension during important activities and lower overall day-to-day
stress.Many scholarly activities need quiet time, without the
interruption of phone calls, e-mails, and meetings. “Deep work”,
as defined by Newport,[5] is the ability
to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. Scholars
need this to creatively advance research ideas, solve problems, study,
write and review research articles, and research projects.Alas,
a 2014 study on faculty time usage carried out at Boise State University
in the U.S. found that the average professor spent 61 h a week working.[6] While 17% of the workweek days were dedicated
to meetings and 13% to e-mails, notably, only 3% were spent on research
and 2% on manuscript writing. Therefore, universities willing to prioritize
research and teaching would have to carefully re-examine administrative
and service activities to sift out those that are crucial or mandatory
for its faculty. To streamline these tasks, support from a dedicated
pool of assistants is essential.Restoring a healthy and productive
use of e-mail in the academy requires learning how to (i) clear the
mind at work; (ii) effectively process e-mails; and (iii) only write
useful e-mails.Clearing out unnecessary mental clutter caused
by trying to keep track of all work commitments is certainly a challenge.
One simple approach is to write down all planned (and unfinished)
tasks and projects, and then break them into “actionable”
work items to achieve the “ready state of the martial artist
- a mind like water.”[7] This simple
gesture of writing down planned tasks allows the mind to focus on
taking action instead of recalling tasks. In brief, focus on “organizing
tasks into actionable external memories, and on opportunistic, situation-dependent
execution.”[7]It is imperative
to effectively process our e-mails in an orderly fashion or in a state
“characterized by a sense of control, focus and well-being.
This is in sharp contrast to the confusion, anxiety and procrastination
that accompany the all-too-common situation of information overload.”[7]To this end, one method is to process yesterday’s
e-mails in a single batch:[8]Make it manageable by processing
a finite number of e-mails rather than an ever-expanding inbox.Avoid interruption from today’s e-mails.Answer e-mails in the right state of mind
to stop taking on unnecessary commitments in order to get rid of e-mails.Another important tactic is to take special
care in composing e-mails so as to avoid unnecessary verbage. A useful
e-mail comprises a short message directly focusing on the message
content, preferably on one topic and no introductory text. The important
points of the message will appear at the top, written in a clear and
readable fashion. Proofread your text, and if the message requires
two or three paragraphs, separate them with a blank line, and avoid
using all caps and large font sizes. Use a short and focused subject
line (e.g., “Betanin DRIFT: absorption frequencies”
and not “Molecular group absorption frequencies for betanin
DRIFT analysis”). Lastly, refrain from using “e-mail-to-all”
messages, especially “reply-to-all” messages.The education of scientists and managers needs to be renewed by integrating
science with management education so as to shape tomorrow’s
organizational leaders and scientists.[9]Misuse of e-mail, the main information technology used in
academia, can be ended through knowledge and renewed education. By
abandoning the use of urgent “e-mail-to-all” messages
with the request of ever new spreadsheets and reports, universities
and research centers (reformed by managers) can focus on advanced
teaching and research.[10]