Fünf Fragen an Caron Beaton-Wells
Prof. Caron Beaton-Wells
G’day, Caron! When I sent you an e-mail it struck me that your out-of-office reply refers to the reduced productivity related to answering e-mails. Can I read a more general statement from that? The gains of the digital age eaten up by its side effects?
My email auto-response is inspired by Tim Ferriss’s best seller, The 4 Hour Work Week. I hasten to add I am not aspiring to work only 4 hours per week! But I am a strong believer in the book‘s sage advice that there is a difference between busy and being productive, being effective as distinct from being efficient. If one is to be productive and effective, then one needs to interrupt interruptions and aggressively safeguard one’s limited time and energy. Email, or more accurately, our addiction to it, has to be one of the worst offenders in this regard.
As for the more general question about living in a digital age, I am not telling readers anything they don’t know when I point out that the