別讓郵件毀了一天：管理電郵的祕密

There are tons of books about time-management, but increasingly I hear the topic discussed in terms of energy management. Our minds, the thinking goes, only have so much capacity for any one type of activity, so we have to build that limitation into our daily routines if we want to work.effectively. Our email inbox may seem to be our highest priority, but “inbox zero” can lead to “energy zero” if you are not careful.
關於時間管理的書籍已經出了不計其數，但我越來越經常聽到大家在討論的一個話題是“精力管理”。我們的頭腦，也就是思維，對任何一類行爲都有着很大的容納能力，因此如果我們想要高效工作的話，我們不得不在我們的日常工作中做出限定。我們的電子郵件收件箱看起來可能是我們的最高優先事務，但如果你不加小心的話，“收件箱有零封未讀郵件”可能會導致“零活力”。

I just finished reading a new book by 99U called Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus & Sharpen Your Creative Mind. The recurring advice across many of the 20 experts who contributed essays to the book was simple: don’t start the day by dealing with your email. Instead, the experts overwhelmingly suggest that you start with your hardest work of the day and defer the distractions of email for later.
我剛剛讀完一本由99U出版的新書，名爲《管理你的每一天：訂立日常規劃，找到你的關注點並鍛鍊你的創造性思維》。爲這本書撰寫了文章的20位專家中，很多人反覆提及的建議非常簡單：不要將處理郵件作爲一天的開始，相反，這些專家強烈建議你從一天中最艱苦的工作着手，並推遲處理郵件的時間。

In some work environments this may seem impractical, or even impossible, but the principle can be applied to any situation. In some cases, the answer may be to get to work early in order to carve out some sustained thinking time at the start of the day. For others it is just a matter of retraining yourself to not assume that the priorities of your inbox match up with your own personal goals and responsibilities.
在一些工作環境中，這可能不太實際，或甚至不可能實施，但它的原理可能適用於任何情況。在有些情況中，解決辦法可能是早早開始工作，以便在一天開始的時候騰出固定的時間用於思考。對其他人來說，這只是重新訓練你不要將回復郵件的優先級與你自己的個人目標和責任相提並論。

We start with email is not only because we need to respond to others, some of them clients or superiors, in a timely manner, but also that re-acting is easier than pro-acting. Generally whatever is most important to do is difficult and requires skills that one uniquely possess. That is why it is your work. As much as we may revel in our individuality, expressing that individuality—especially in corporate situations—can make us feel vulnerable and exposed.
我們喜歡從郵件開始並不只是因爲我們需要及時回覆他人，其中有些人是客戶或上級，還因爲對某事進行反應比主動發起某事要容易。一般來說最重要的事情是比較難辦的，需要用到一個人獨具的技巧，這就是爲什麼要你來做這個工作的原因。正如我們可能會陶醉於我們的自我一樣，表達自我——尤其是在企業的環境中——可能會讓我們感到容易招致他人的責難，並暴露自己的弱點。

A report from McKinsey last year estimated that the average knowledge worker spent 28% of their workday on email. Tech consultant Linda Stone has coined the term “email apnea” (and the more general “screen apnea”) to describe the curious behavior that most of us display when reading email and other screen related tasks: we actually hold our breath. And like sleep apnea which is responsible for a host of maladies, email and screen apnea sap our energy and increase our body’s tension.
去年麥肯錫的一份報告估計，普通的知識工作者每個工作日有28%的時間花在處理電子郵件上。技術顧問琳達·斯通發明了“電郵呼吸暫停”（以及更流行的“屏幕呼吸暫停”）這個詞，以形容我們大多數人在閱讀電子郵件和完成其他與屏幕有關的任務時的古怪行爲：我們實際上屏住了呼吸。跟導致一系列疾病的睡眠呼吸暫停一樣，電郵和屏幕呼吸暫停吞蝕了我們的精力，提高了我們身體的緊張程度。

So beyond the suggestion to not let others shape your own priorities, starting your day with email can literally have a detrimental effect on the rest of your day. Best-selling author and founder of The Energy Project, Tony Schwartz, argues that we have to build renewal of our energy into our work day. Scott Belsky, co-founder on Behance and now VP of Community at Adobe, recommends not reaching for your smartphone in the interstices between meetings, but rather to allow for some unstructured time for your mind to both recharge and also absorb what just happened.
因此，除了不要讓其他人設定你自己的優先級外，你的一天從回覆郵件開始實際上會對你這一天剩下的時間造成不利影響。暢銷書作者、The Energy Project公司的創始人託尼·施瓦茨認爲，我們需要在我們每天的工作中重新恢復我們的活力。Behance公司聯合創始人、現Adobe公司的社區副總裁斯科特·貝爾斯基就建議，在會議間隙不要掏手機，而是留出一段空閒時間，讓你的大腦重新充電，並好好消化剛剛發生的情況。

Taken as a whole, the suggestions in Manage Your Day-to-Day urge us to take responsibility for our own time and energy by not letting email or other forms of reactivity blunt our focus. It is, of course, important to be responsive to other people, but as James Victore writes, “we are losing the distinction between urgent and important—now everything gets heaped in the urgent pile.” As hard as it may seem to buck the trend and not answer every message immediately, your assertion of priorities will make it easier for your co-workers to assert theirs.
總體來說，《管理你的每一天》這本書中的建議敦促我們爲我們自己的時間和精力負責，不要讓郵件或其他形式的反應型工作消磨掉我們的關注點。當然，對其他人做出快速回復是很重要的，但正如詹姆斯·維克托寫的：“我們正在模糊緊急和重要之間的差別——現在每件事都堆在緊急處理事項列表上。”對抗這一趨勢並且不去立刻回覆每條信息可能很難做到，但你對優先級的設定會讓你的同事比較容易設定他們的優先級。

The more people in an organization who take this approach, I think, the less superfluous emails will get sent. If you don’t assume an immediate response you will often just figure it out yourself. Voilà, one less email exchange! Taming email is a group endeavor, but it starts with you.
我認爲，一個組織中採取這種策略的人越多，發過來的不必要的郵件就會越少。如果你不即刻進行回覆，你自己就能弄清楚情況會怎樣。瞧，少發來一封郵件！馴服電子郵件需要一組人做出努力，但這個任務從你開始！