This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "A World Without Email" by Cal Newport. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What does Cal Newport have to say about emails? Why does he warn against constantly checking your email?
In A World Without Email, Cal Newport argues that email makes workers less happy and productive. He further explains why this is, and the downsides of the distracted mindset emails create.
Read below for a better understanding of Cal Newport’s email warnings.
Our Current Approach to Work: The Hyperactive Hive Mind Workflow
Cal Newport’s email argument says that most knowledge workers structure their work days around responding to unscheduled emails and instant messages rather than around the knowledge work they were hired to do. A 2019 study showed that the average employee sent and received 126 emails a day, and another study showed that employees check their instant messenger app once a minute on average and their inboxes 77 times a day. A third study indicated that many knowledge workers can only perform about an hour of uninterrupted knowledge work a day. The rest of their day is spent responding to a barrage of incoming emails and messages.
Newport coined a term to describe this state of work that revolves around responding to impromptu messages: the hyperactive hive mind workflow (we’ll refer to this as HHMW).
(Shortform note: Let’s parse Newport’s term, as it’s multilayered: Hyperactive means excessively or abnormally active—implying more communication than necessary. The “hive mind” is a mode of thinking that makes your individual actions and decisions subservient to your group’s: If the rest of your group communicates more than necessary, you will, too. A workflow is the sequence of steps that move a task from beginning to completion. Newport may be using “workflow” in a tongue-in-cheek way: His point about the hyperactive hive mind is that there isn’t a workflow. Communication and tasks get done chaotically and without a governing structure.)
What Feeds the Hyperactive Hive Mind Workflow?
What factors create and drive the HHMW? Newport points to four catalysts:
Hive Mind Catalyst #1: Fear of Alienation From Your Group
Because social connection is evolutionarily critical to human survival, failing to maintain it—even via email—feels terrible. This sense that you’re neglecting someone keeps you glued to your inbox in an effort to not alienate yourself from others.
Hive Mind Catalyst #2: The Misconception That Asynchronous Communication Is Easier
Additionally, Newport writes that most workers think asynchronous communication (communication that doesn’t require both parties to respond in the moment) is easier and more efficient than synchronous (talking in person, for instance), but it’s not: Asynchronous communication extends the time a conversation takes because it requires many more messages to be exchanged. For instance, setting up a meeting verbally might take two minutes, while setting up a meeting via email could require a dozen emails. This reliance on asynchronous communication makes the HHMW almost unavoidable.
Hive Mind Catalyst #3: Pressure to Be Increasingly Responsive
When time-saving technology becomes available, there’s increased pressure for you to use it to respond more quickly and at all hours of the day, thus perpetuating the HHMW, writes Newport. Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow calls this phenomenon the cycle of responsiveness: When the technology to deliver more is available, clients and co-workers expect more of you, and you work more to meet those expectations.
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Here's what you'll find in our full A World Without Email summary:
- How email makes knowledge workers less productive and more unhappy
- How to improve the channels through which people communicate
- Why you should implement protocols to reduce unnecessary work
