A World Without Email

this idea that tools can sometimes drive human behavior became known as technological determinism.

locus of control theory, a subfield of personality psychology that argues that motivation is closely connected to whether people feel like they have control over their ultimate success in an endeavor. When you have a say in what you’re doing (placing the locus of control toward the internal end of the spectrum), you’re much more motivated than when

The second step is to obtain buy-in on new workflow processes from those who will actually have to execute them. To accomplish this goal, these ideas should emerge from discussion. There should be general agreement that trying the new workflow is a worthwhile experiment,

By reducing the number of different obligations you’re required to tackle, you’ll gain the breathing room needed to then optimize the workflows you deploy to handle what remains—creating a one-two punch of productivity gains that can completely transform your effectiveness or that of your organization.

in workplaces without well-defined processes, energy minimization becomes prioritized. This is fundamental human nature: if there’s no structure surrounding how hard efforts are coordinated, we default to our instinct to not expend any more energy than is necessary.

Personal Kanban,

Scrum breaks work down into sprints, where a team dedicates itself completely to delivering a particular update before moving on to the next.

The idea of strictly limiting email length is more than a gimmick. It instead represents a step that too few take in our current digital age: the placing of clear constraints around what email should and should not be used to accomplish.

Always keeping emails short is a simple rule, but the effects can be profound. Once you no longer think of email as a general-purpose tool for talking about anything at any time, its stranglehold on your attention will diminish.