I agree that email is a tool and that the way it's used is most of the battle. But I feel, more and more these days, that email is a heavy chain around my neck throughout the day.
Actually, email is really only a delivery method, just as facebook message or skype IM is just a delivery method. I think the solution to this problem is what the client does on receiving that message (or probably what my mail server does).
If my boss sends me a job he wants doing, then that message should go into a to-do bucket, with a due date and reminders. If that message is telling me that a domain name was auto-renewed for £x, it should ping my online accounts software and reconcile it with the bank transaction.
Doing this would eliminate the need for me to have an inbox, all of these things would go somewhere useful and actionable.
Stopping emails will not stop people sending me blocks of text that I need to read and process.
Actually, email is really only a delivery method, just as facebook message or skype IM is just a delivery method. I think the solution to this problem is what the client does on receiving that message (or probably what my mail server does).
If my boss sends me a job he wants doing, then that message should go into a to-do bucket, with a due date and reminders. If that message is telling me that a domain name was auto-renewed for £x, it should ping my online accounts software and reconcile it with the bank transaction.
Doing this would eliminate the need for me to have an inbox, all of these things would go somewhere useful and actionable.
Stopping emails will not stop people sending me blocks of text that I need to read and process.