You May Be Suffering From Email Addiction

Email is just part of our lives. Most of us send and receive close to one hundred emails a day; we rely on email to conduct business, to gather information, and to stay in touch with friends. But our dependency on email can be dangerously distracting and, for many, symptomatic of addiction. Social software consultant and writer Suw Charman-Anderson discusses the unintended effects of email on our productivity through her article “Email Becomes a Dangerous Distraction,” and, I have summarized some of her points below.

If You Are Addicted To Email, You Are Not Alone

Charman-Anderson begins by discussing the surprising results from recent studies on email behavior, providing quantitative evidence for a problem many of us are all too aware of.

• 56% of email users spend more than two hours a day in their inbox;
• 64% of users claim to check their email once an hour, and 35% said they check for new messages every 15 minutes;
• It takes an average of 64 seconds just to recover your train of thought after an interruption by email;
• Most users tend to respond to email as it arrives, taking an average of only one minute and 44 seconds to act upon a new email notification;
• One study reports that 70% of email alerts get a reaction within six seconds.

Email may be an Addiction

Charman-Anderson continues by offering an interesting parallel between the compulsive behavior of gambling addicts and those of us who just can’t stop checking our inbox every 15 minutes.

According to Tom Stafford, cognitive neuroscientist and co-author of “Mind Hacks,” the same fundamental learning mechanisms that drive gambling addicts are also at work in email users. He writes:

“Both slot machines and email follow something called a ‘variable interval reinforcement schedule’ which has been established as the way to train in the strongest habits. This means that rather than reward an action every time it is performed, you reward it sometimes, but not in a predictable way. So with email, usually when I check it there is nothing interesting, but every so often there’s something wonderful - an invite out or maybe some juicy gossip - and I get a reward.”

Consequently, as Charman-Anderson writes, “this is enough to make it difficult for us to resist checking email, even when we’ve only just looked.” It is, therefore, little wonder why so many of us ignore the advice of productivity gurus like David Allen, Tim Ferriss, and  Scott Allen, who suggest that we should only check our email once or twice a day.

Suggesting to anyone that they should only check their email once or twice a day is a tough sale. I feel compelled to check my business email account at least two times every hour. I am not sure if this is symptomatic of addiction or just common business sense; but like most of you, I need to respond to my work-related emails in a timely manner.

However, their recommendation is easier to chew when applied to my personal email and social networking accounts. In contrast to work-related messages, my personal emails and Facebook wallposting do not require an immediate response. I have recently begun to limit the number of times I check my personal messaging accounts and it has really worked wonders and helped to reduce the email deluge.

If you suffer from email overload, simply cutting back the number of times you check your personal email is a relatively painless and effective solution to improving your daily productivity. To help me resist the impulse to check my personal email, I use NutshellMail.com to send email alerts to my work email account every three hours. In a single email, NutshellMail provides a quick snapshot of all my new messages so I can passively and productively access and keep track of all my personal accounts.

NutshellMail on the homepage of Forbes.com

We are very excited to announce that NutshellMail has been featured on Forbes.com. In this short video interview, I discuss the common problem many employees face when they can not access third party messaging sites while at work and how NutshellMail.com address this issue in a compliant way.

Check out the video here.

Facebook Fraud: Is This Guy Serious?

I have received several emails from disposed political leaders and wealthy business executives in Nigeria, who have honored me with the opportunity to make a cool $20K for helping them transfer money to the U.S.. And all I had to do was give them my bank account! So easy!!!!!

It doesn’t surprise me to receive scam emails like this, but it blows my mind that these criminals actually think people are dumb enough to fall for their half-baked schemes. However, I was shocked today to learn that cyber criminals are now hijacking Facebook accounts to try and scam users’ friends.

This afternoon I was thrilled to hear from a friend I haven’t spoken to since college. He contacted me through Facebook’s IM service. I didn’t take me long to figure out that it was not actually Matt reaching out to me. So I decided to have a little fun with this petty idiotic crook, and even took the responsibility to drop a little morality on him. It was very interesting, and I will admit, entertaining to play with this guy’s little mind. I have shared my excerpts from our conversation below:

Matt: Hi Mark

Me: What’s happening Matt? Its been a long time?

Matt: Is there any assistance i can get from you financially please? (Ok…this is not Matt)

Me: Certainly. What’s up?

Matt: am stuck here in Nigeria and really need some money to get the hotel bill settled due to that fact that i was attacked by some armed robbers and all my money got stole.

Me: Oh that’s right, you told me you were going to Africa with Jared (not true, there is no Jared) Are the two of you ok? Tell me how I can wire and what you need.

Matt: You can get it sent to me through western union money transfer. Can you lend me the sum of $2,500 USD?

Me: How is Jared though? He was worried about going to Africa?
(No response)
Why so much? The best I can do is $1000.

Matt: Its ok (I guess $1k doesn’t go as far as it used to in Nigeria)

Me: But i will have to charge you interest…something small

Matt: I’ll appreciate it if you can get it sent to me asap please mark

Me: Tell me what account number

Matt: There is no need for an account. All you need to do is or you to take the money to any western union money transfer outlet and get it sent to me through my personal information which i will send to you asap.

Me: Have you reached out to your brother Justin? he can probably get you the rest of what you need

Matt: Sure. Just let me know when you are ready to get the $1000 sent to me please. ok

Me: Sure? Did you talk to him or do you want me to reach out to him?
I can go to WU today, tell me how to reach you.

Matt: I will reach him asap.
Call me through the hotel manager’s cell # +234-808-867-9171

Here are the details :
Receiver’s Name : Matthew (Last Name Removed)
Address : 115 Water Harrington way,
City : Victoria Island
State : Lagos
Country : Nigeria, 23401

Me: Ok. I will get on it. So other than the whole getting held at gunpoint and getting robbed, how has Africa been? I hear Nigeria can be dangerous.

Matt: thats just out of what am into right now. i really need to get out of here asap before i can narrate any thing to anyone please

Me: I don’t understand you…I think you have been in Africa too long…your English has gotten worse

Matt: Am so frustrated and confused

Me: I bet, has Jared called his parents or are they still not talking to him

Matt: He can’t get the cell # off his head cause the address book is not with him

Me: Yeah I can never remember my parents number either

Matt: Is there any assistance coming from you please ?

Me: OK OK don’t be so short with me.  So you need to be very careful in Nigeria; there are tons of criminals there

Matt: I know that quite right

Me: I bet! So it was strange for you to reach out to me after so long. I hear there is a lot of fraud going on there. Oh I am so sorry, I have been calling your brother by the wrong name. What’s his name again?

Matt: Eric (That is actually true…this guy did his research)

Me: I just have one more question before I run off to send you the money that i earned through hard and honest work. Do you think I am dumb enough to fall for your half-baked scam? You should be ashamed of yourself, not for trying to cheat innocent people out of money, but for being so stupid as to think that anyone would fall for it. You are a moron criminal. I have contacted the authorities and your Western Union account has been reported so you can no longer use my friends identity. I advice you to find a new career.

Matt: LOL

Me: Don’t you feel bad about what you do. You know you can make a living through honest work, even in Nigeria. You should reform yourself. Stop praying on innocent people; the only ones dumb enough to fall for your scam are elderly or mentally challenged.

Matt: Listen Mark. Now you got my attention

Me: Do you feel good taking advantage of mentally handicap people?

Matt: no no. but we need to talk now

Me: Well that is what you do and that makes you are very low person, but its not too late for you to change you ways. Ok talk to me

Matt: Alright. I will be very much appreciating if you can assist me. I will stop all this scamming. I mean it. I really need help (I bet!)

Me: Ok what is your true story?

Matt: Am really in need of cash to pay up my bill. Am a graduate of computer engineering in the university here but due to the poor economy i got no job and i couldn’t meet up my daily living everybody rely on me for survival in my family have pity on me please

Me: Well I can appreciate your situation but I have no pity for criminals or beggars. Use your talents and education for honest work.

Matt: i understand you. if you can help me to travel overthere i will work a honest here (I thought about it because we need to hire a few developers…ok that’s a lie)

Me: I am sorry but you will get nothing from me other than my hopes for you to become an honest person. Money will not solve your problems if you have no respect for yourself or other people

Matt: i will if you can give me hope for survival and assistance from you

Me: Change your ways, be good to others and you will be rewarded. Continue to be a criminal and you will live a long painful sorry life without respect for yourself. That is the assistance I will offer you….a chance to be a better person. And my other advice is for you to stop using Matt’s identity. This incident has been reported and your Western Union account under Matt’s name will be terminated

Matt: ok

Me: That is as much charity as you will get from me and much more than you can expect to get from most people. Good luck to you and be sure to make the right decision…your reward for living an honest life will come in time, your punishment for not changing will destroy you …your choice.

After this incident occurred, i contacted my friend Matt to inform him of the incident and then reported the crime to the FBI. To report cyber crimes and fraud, contact the FBI or fill out a crime report at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx.