Some musings about email

I have started to have a different mindset around dealing with email. While I originally tried to avoid as much as possible spending time in my mailbox, I’ve come to understand that replying messages is part of my job. It’s not part of the job description, but the actions are related to part of my job – for example, replying student emails can be considered a task related to my teaching.

While I still think boundaries around email are important, proper sorting is key, and anything that can be done to avoid unnecessary back and forth is great, I have given up the mental battle against it.

Here are the tweets I sent out in my musings recently:

We complain a lot about our email load in academia, but also acknowledge that in these pandemic times, virtually all student queries come in through email.
Here’s a small thread with some musings from me.

— Dr Eva Lantsoght (@evalantsoght) September 17, 2021

First of all, all that email load can be overwhelming because it different types of demands come all together into one big bucket.

— Dr Eva Lantsoght (@evalantsoght) September 17, 2021

Then, there are also methods to streamline work process so they require less email back and forth. I use tracking sheets in MS Teams, for example.

— Dr Eva Lantsoght (@evalantsoght) September 17, 2021

My students all have my Calendly link to have a quick meeting when necessary. It’s often easier to look along on the screen with a student than to try and figure out the problem from a lengthy email.

— Dr Eva Lantsoght (@evalantsoght) September 17, 2021

So, the way I have resigned to this fact is that now I consider answering teaching-related emails as time spent on teaching. Until better systems are in place, it is part of the job, I guess.

— Dr Eva Lantsoght (@evalantsoght) September 17, 2021