email

The Danger of Perpetual Availability and The Value of Being Unavailable

by Marissa on 22 January 2010

Far and away, the biggest mistake I made starting out in business was making myself too available and responding to email way too often. I wanted to seem competent and trustworthy, and the easiest way I knew to do that was to be perpetually available. I tried to be unavailable as little as possible (bordering [...]

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The truth about emergencies (it’s probably not one)

by Marissa on 20 January 2010

On some days, I check email all day long. Other days, I may only check it a couple of times, especially if I’ve got several client appointments or am working on intensive projects. When I mention that I sometimes only check email once or twice a day, people say, “What about emergencies?!” The answer is [...]

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Two reasons email has become ineffective (And how checking it once a day addresses them)

by Marissa on 18 January 2010

Email, for many of us, has reached a point where it feels burdensome and out of control on more days than not. Some folks are ditching email entirely–an impulse I can’t claim is unfamiliar, though I’m not prepared to go to that extreme for business reasons. I’m not alone. Leo declared independence from email. Gwen [...]

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