In my earlier post I explained how 2016 is a year of experimentation for me. Each week I will conduct a new experiment and will also write-up the result of the previous weeks experiment.
In addition to the small experiments, I am also seeking to develop new habits. Here I am focusing on one new habit per month. I am expecting some failures, so I have developed a list of only 6 new habits that I wish to develop in 2016. This allows me an 8 week window per habit!
The experiments and habits will be focused on improving my physical, mental and work performance.

Experiment #02 No TV (framing)

Purpose:

The purpose of the experiment was to see if I “removed” all TV watching from my routine? How much time can I win back and what can I do with that time. Read. Write. Who knows?

(Additional notes – read for context) I would be of the view that I don’t watch much TV. But, when I look at the cold hard facts, I probably watch 30 minutes of news most evening, and then the overflow of stuff that might come along with the TV being on – say another hour. Then add a movie per week at 2 hours. That is 7*1.5 + 2, a total of 12.5! That can be! Or can it? It seem enormous. In addition to that is the loss of the block of time between 7:30pm and 10:30pm that is interrupted. That can now be used for something better. Whatever better turns out to be!

Hypothesis:

By removing TV I open up the evening routine to a total re-engineer that will accommodate some of the new habits I wish to develop. A little suspense is good.

Experiment #01 No iPhone email – Write Up

My write up on experiments will follow the format outlined below each week. So now to the week without email on my iPhone or iPad!

Purpose:

The purpose of the experiment was to see if I “removed” Mail(all email checking) from my iPhone and iPad, what would the net benefit be to my overall productivity.

Hypothesis:

By removing two “convenient” methods of checking email (iPhone & iPad), I could wean myself down to checking email 2-3 times a day and win back valuable time.
(Additional notes – read for context) I process about 50-60 emails per day (excluding subscriptions). I have email on my iPhone, iPad and MacBook. A quick audit of my email habit indicated that I checked at least hourly. And it has the potential to suck you in. This was leading to an interruption of deep working sessions. A break at the end a 60 minute session often lead to 30 minutes of email!

Materials

I used Rescue Time to measure the frequency and amount of time in email (Gmail on Chrome with “Inbox Pause”).

Method

• Step 1: Remove all email accounts from iPhone and iPad (felt a little scary but very soon became liberating)
• Step 2: Install RescueTime – this also required tweaking of categories and association of work with these categories. A little frustrating at the beginning, but now the usefulness of information I get from the dashboard is great.
• Step 3: Decide when to check email and how. I decided that I would process email fully when I went into my Inbox. (Additional notes – read for context) I did not want to have the distraction of new emails arriving as I processed my email. The shiny new thing is just too alluring. To avoid this, I use “Inbox Pause”, a chrome extension that pauses new emails being populated into my Inbox. At the end of my email session, I “Unpause” and that’s it. Processing means getting the emails in my inbox to zero. If there is any action associated with the email, I either do it there and then, or add it to my “to-do” list. I then trash or archive the email. Archiving is a simple decision point. If I want to keep the email for reference, then I simply put it in the “Reference” or Travel folder/label. If I need to refer back to the email as part actioning it, I store it in one of 4 folders – End of Day, End of Week, End of Month, End of Quarter. I always make sure these are empty at the end of the day/week/month or quarter. The environment that I have set up is very important to keeping me on track.
• Step 4: Measure. Rescue time measures how much time I spend in Gmail. In addition, I have looked at how well I get to Zero and the number of times I check email. A total of 3 metrics, time, success (y/n) and count.
• Step 5: Make sure I process each “folder” to zero based on time interval and action any tasks in my “to-do” list.
• Step 6: Use the time won back!

Observations

• It feels a little scary removing email accounts from your phone and tablet
• Checking email has just become another task as opposed to a “fix”
• Limiting the number of times I check, means I have to get the email processed within one of those two times
• Twice a day is enough for me to check email. It does take a discipline of actioning the items, otherwise you will end up with overwhelm
• I find that I have won back a lot of time. The total time on the computer has been reduced down to about 4 hours per day.

Conclusions

Metrics
– Gmail – best days 22 minutes, worst day 54 minutes
– Zero Inbox – 6/6 (I have allowed myself the discretion to decide on whether to check email on a Sunday or not!)
– email check frequency – best – twice, worst – four time (only once)
– I had no baseline RescueTime results to compare against, but anecdotal evidence suggests that I spend about 1 hour a day less on my iPhone checking email (10-12 sessions of 3-4 minutes). I will not be putting email back on my iPhone or iPad.

I would say that it was a success and I look forward continuing to process email properly on my main computer. Your thoughts?