A World Without Email: Find Focus and Transform the Way You Work Forever (from the NYT bestselling productivity expert)
Book by Cal Newport
DETAILS
Publisher : Portfolio Penguin (March 4, 2021) Language : English ISBN-10 : 0241341418 ISBN-13 : 978-0241341414 Item Weight : 13.7 ounces Dimensions : 6.02 x 0.91 x 9.21 inches Best Sellers Rank: #806,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #493 in College & University Student Life (Books) #594 in Social Aspects of Technology #13,676 in Motivational Self-Help (Books) #493 in College & University Student Life (Books) , ***NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** Feel like you're always drowning in email? How much more would you achieve without them - and how much happier would you be? ' A World Without Email crystallizes what so many of us feel intuitively but haven't been able to explain: the way we're working isn't working.' Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox ________________ Emails are an integral part of work today. But the 'kind regards', forwards and attachments we check every 5.4 minutes are making us unproductive, stressed and costing businesses millions in untapped potential. Bestselling author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism , Cal Newport, is here to offer a radical new vision - a world without email. Drawing on sociology, behavioural economics and fascinating case studies of thriving email-free companies, Newport explains how this modern tool doesn't work for our ancient brains and provides solutions you can implement today to transform your workday into one without constant, distracting pings. Revolutionary and practical, A World Without Email will liberate you to do your most profound, fulfilling and creative work - and be happier too. ________________ 'If you are currently drowning in endless email and not sure where to start: read this book' Emma Gannon, author of The Multi-Hyphen Method 'Read this superb book. It might just change your life; it's changing mine' Tim Harford, author of How To Make The World Add Up 'This is a bold, visionary, almost prophetic book that challenges the status quo' Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism Read more
REVIEW
I have bought this book on impulse, seeing the eponymous phrase “World without email” which seems to suggest that email is a menace worthy of nothing short of eradication. Not feeling particularly oppressed myself, I was wondering what exactly is the problem Cal Newport attributes to emails and what the “reimagining” is about. While the book turned out to be highly enjoyable, full of good insights and not that much anti-technology, I am not sold on the author’s belief that electronic communication is stifling the effectiveness of work. Our habits are. It is true that you can spend the whole day in your inbox. You can feel productive - so many messages sent! So many people can see how responsive you are! - without actually delivering much in the whole day. You can offload work to other people just by clicking “reply”. You can FYI everyone in the team (and beyond) in a pretense that their silence means agreement. All of that is easy with email, and all of that is oftentimes unnecessary. We are inundated with excessive messages. Cal - in the first part of the book - traces the reasons to the fundamental property of email being vastly quicker and cheaper than paper letters or phone calls. Couple that with our innate tendency to respond to social cues, the reasoning goes, and no wonder the inbox became the place we visit every couple minutes. The author claims this reinforcing relation between the electronic communication and human psychology to be so strong that he uses the argument of “technological determinism”. Back in the nineties, the offices switching from paper to email expected reductions of time spent on communication, but it turned out the volume of messaging increased dramatically, kept growing ever since and became the new normal in the office work. But, I dare to say, we are not losing precious time and attention on corporate spam because email - as a technology - destined us to do so. I believe the whole situation is just convenient to many employees, who would not have that much to do if emails stopped flowing in. Moreover, many organisations are toxic, with people fearing of being judged as slackers without email trail justifying their efforts. Last, but not least - engaging in email threads is easier than actual knowledge work. I believe that rather than the effortlessness of the technology, it is the prevalent office conformism and minimisation of mental effort that lead to excessive time spent on emails. As Cal notices, “the underlying value of the constant electronic communication that defines modern work is never questioned”. This value is low - but it’s part of the common landscape, and it is rather a minority of people who tend to question how their companies work. On the other hand, there are some people who do value uninterrupted time - mainly in the knowledge-based jobs (where quality suffers greatly from interruptions); the second part of the publication is devoted to existing communication/collaboration techniques used in IT, engineering and scientific organisations. While I have some doubts about the reasoning shown in the “why email hurts us” part of the book, it was more enjoyable to read than the “solutions” part, which is perfectly in order but felt just a bit dull. Moreover, I don’t feel there is anything radical or visionary to warrant the “reimagination” of work promised in the title. Setting up processes for repeatable work, using task boards, reducing people synchronisation by giving them autonomy - none of that is new or cutting-edge. It’s common sense applied to motivated people. It is a good book, it highlights an important problem, it is well written - but I am not sure if it can spark a revolution. Still, food for thought. Recommended.
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