Daniele Fiandaca collects the best bits from Jocelyn K. Glei's book on how to repair your relationship with email, transforming it from a constant source of stress and distraction into a productive tool again.

1. Unsubscribe:
How to Kill Email
Anxiety, Avoid
Distractions, and Get
Real Work Done
The Best Bits
#bookbestbits

2. “A very easy read. Extremely actionable. Has
already inspired me to make changes in my
own habits. A very effective guide to hacking
productivity by not letting e-mail run your life.
Overview from our reviewer:
Daniele Fiandaca, Co-founder, Utopia

3. Some context

4. 90%The percentage of people who answer I’m busy to
the question “How are you?”

5. "We are busy doing stuff in a futile attempt to
have more time.”
Andy Puddicombe, Headspace

6. The Stats

7. On average office workers dip into their
inbox 74 times a day
Source: Gloria Mark

8. On average office workers spend roughly
28% of their total workday on the task of
reading and responding to email
Source: McKinsey Global Institute

9. The average inbox contains only 38%
important, relevant emails
Source: SaneBox

10. It takes 64 seconds to recover from an email
Source: Danwood Group

11. Workers feel lost in e-mail about
23% of the time
Source: Lost in Email: Pulling Users Down a Path of
Interaction

12. The problems with e-mails

13. The Dopamine Effect
When you recognise a task as complete, your brain releases
the neurotransmitter dopamine, which makes you feel good
and makes you want to repeat the behaviour again to feel
more pleasure…..
Email taps into this urge completion concept as well.

14. The Rule of Reciprocity
Numerous experiments have shown that humans tend to
adhere to the rule of reciprocity in social interactions. At its
most basic level this means that we want to respond to a
positive action with another positive action.

15. Askers vs Guessers
In ask culture you are taught that asking for whatever you
need is fine, with the understanding that the person you’re
asking can always decline. In a guess culture you are taught
that you should ask for something if you think you are very
likely to get a yes.

16. The opportunity

17. “The longer daily time spent on email, the
lower was perceived productivity and the
higher the measured stress.”
Source: E-mail Duration, Batching and Self
Interruption

18. Checking e-mail less frequently reduces
stress
Source: Computers in Human Behaviour 43

19. Exercises

20. Write down all the people who regularly e-mail you
Segment them into 3 groups:
VIP
Key collaborators
Fun People

21. Conduct an e-mail audit for one week, noting down
and recurring anxieties, distractions, or inbox
roadblocks as they surface
Think about what you can hack

22. “It helps to ask, “what’s the worst thing that
happens if I don’t answer the e-mail?”
Tavi Gevinson, Editor of Rookie Magazine

23. Tips

24. Jot down tomorrow’s to-do-list before you leave the office every
night
Take 5 minutes at the end of each day to write down “small
wins” - invent progress hacks
Behaviours
Devote the first 60-90 minutes each day to a task that advances
your meaningful work goals
Don’t check your e-mail more than two to three times a day (and
avoid leaving it open in the background)

25. The 2 minute rule
Behaviours (cont.)
Move to bcc
Develop a system for keeping track of your pending items
outside of your inbox

26. Use Emoticons
Style
Write your subject line like headlines
Don’t use the imperative
Be Positive

27. "Distraction is the enemy of creativity. It
deadens our ability to accomplish anything of
import. And worse, it lulls us into a feeling of
engagement, of busyness, that feels
productive even as it destroys any possibility
of meaningful productivity.”
Jocelyn K. Glei, Author of Unsubscribe

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29. REWIRING BUSINESS FOR THE AGE OF CREATIVITY