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September 20, 2002

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E-mail addict begins recovery

I've got a problem. It's e-mail. And it's killing me.

Once I started using, I couldn't stop. I wasn't always like this. I was the last one in my office to make e-mail a part of my daily routine, and save for an older gentleman named Thurman Adkins, I was possibly the last one in Student Affairs to embrace the new technology when it first exploded into our lives.

It is affecting my relationships. In my work, I should be spending time with students, not my computer. I find that I can be easily accessible to students through e-mail, but something is missing. Sure, I form warm, cordial relationships over e-mail - but that leaves me afraid to actually meet them - afraid I will somehow be let down, or worse, they will.

This is an illness. I brag/complain about how many e-mails I send and receive. I proudly get up from my chair and strut around the outer office, pounding my chest, announcing to colleagues "I have emptied my inbox ALL THE WAY to zero." I excitedly show my e-mail folder management system to my glassy-eyed new employees. I even have a response arsenal: informational, clever, wise, terse, in your face, and understated, to name a few. Not only do I have a response arsenal, I have even categorized it.

Everyone does it, but that doesn't make it right. I walk around campus and see my colleagues typing away to one another. I send e-mail to co-workers - in the same office as me. Enough is enough. Is this what we do for a living? Not me. Not anymore.

I'm working on my recovery. I have stopped sending e-mails to my staff every time I have an interesting thought. We have pledged to conduct our business in weekly staff meetings, not in cyber-space. But the waiting… I don't know if I can keep doing it.

I have a support group. Along with my staff and some others, we decided to keep our Outlook e-mail accounts open only in the morning. We are saving the afternoons for meetings and "face time" with students.

We are also spreading the word. We use our "Automatic Attendant" replies to tell the world: "We are trying to better manage our e-mail by just checking them in the mornings." We want to create a ripple and then a wave. A half-day of e-mail means half the messages. Naturally, we have our detractors. Chuck White, Vice President for e-mail, responded immediately to my "out of office" message, calling me "unusual."

I excitedly show my e-mail folder management system to my glassy-eyed new employees. I even have a response arsenal: informational, clever, wise, terse, in your face, and understated, to name a few. Not only do I have a response arsenal, I have even categorized it.

I have fallen off the wagon. Some afternoons I'm awaiting word on something that I think is important. Well, I need to check my Outlook calendar… What's one more click into the Inbox… If I just read the message preview I am not technically engaging in e-mail communication… Before I know it, I'm aglow, wondering, "how did this happen again?"

Clearly, my recovery is ongoing. I need your support. But please, just give me a call.

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