The availability backlash

Spencer Gallagher of Blue Halo New Media explains how cutting himself off from e-communications has improved productivity.

As the director of a company specialising in designing, building and managing websites, I spend a great deal of time talking to clients about the importance of accessibility. Recently I began to question the wisdom of that message, and came to the conclusion that my accessibility was working against me.

During a rare holiday, I was contemplating how I could improve my time management. Brief calculations showed me that I was working from 7.30am to 7.30pm, and that four of those intervening hours were spent dealing with the 120 emails I received on average every day. The majority of those emails dealt with issues that I was delegating - meaning that I was forwarding them on rather than being able to action them myself. I was becoming the filter system for the entire company's external communications.

I was also uncomfortably aware that pressures of time meant that I was failing to respond to people's answerphone messages on my mobile phone and office landline.

These issues combined to result in a situation where a quotation for a client, that should have taken me 10 minutes, was taking three hours because of the interruptions. I was then taking my laptop home in a frantic attempt to finally get on top of everything.

I decided that, in my situation, being constantly accessible was working against me, and that I needed to reduce the choice of communication options through which I made myself available. My first action was to let my staff know I would no longer have an email address or a laptop, and that my mobile phone would not accept messages. My number and email addresses were also removed from my business card.

As nobody could email me personally, salespeople and those with queries rang the main switchboard and were given the email address of the person for whom their enquiry was most relevant. My PA received emails that I needed to see and printed them out - I then marked them up with action points.

I used paper sales order pads, and quotations took five minutes to complete. Every issue was dealt with verbally or delegated elsewhere. I was no longer having to send endless "thank you for sending this through to me" emails before forwarding them to the correct staff member.

The change was cultural as well as practical. Everything became simpler to action and initiate, and I had not realised how much time I wasted, reluctant to begin a new task, waiting for information I needed to complete the previous task.

I am fully aware of the irony of someone at the forefront of virtual communication reverting back to paper and pen, but I have found that my day is at least five times more productive than it was. I am now able to go to the gym before nine every day, and leave the office at six every night.

In meetings with clients and suppliers my approach is discussed, usually incredulously and then thoughtfully, and I am noticing that the backlash against constant availability is beginning. Products like Xerox's XAPA, which automatically prints off emails in chronological order, are reflecting this trend.

There is no doubt that email benefits the company as a whole, but there are certain individuals to whom it can be a hindrance. I'm now able to actually run my business, rather than just communicate endlessly about it.

Spencer Gallagher, director, Blue Halo New Media