Why I read e-mails once a week

I read e-mails once a week if they are shorter than 333 words and smaller than 1 MB.

Lukas Gawenda

For more extensive matters, please select and make an appointment for a meeting/phone call:

If it’s urgent, please call.

Please send files as link (e.g. via send.tresorit.com, drive.google.com) – not as attachment.

Why only once a week?

The greatest wealth is health.

Virgil

In 2018 I started to analyze how much time per month I spend on e-mails (up to 20 hours with 400 e-mails). Since I am aware of this, I have been questioning, rethinking and changing my digital habits experimentally.

Distraction-free time, in which creativity, contemplation and concentration can unfold naturally, are more important to me than short-term dopamine releases and permanent reachability.

Lukas Gawenda

E-mails and similar technologies are neither cause nor “problem” – it is rather questionable how we react to them?

The wealth of information means a dearth of something else … a poverty of attention.

Herbert A. Simon

I value time – especially when we share it in person and free of distractions (quality time). That is why I read e-mails in blocks, on a certain weekday and within a fixed time window.

Thank you for your understanding.

For their inspiring and motivating works I thank the following authors:

Benjamin Zander, Brendon Burchard, Clara Maria Bagus, Daniel Kahneman, Henry David Thoreau, Herbert A. Simon, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Nir Eyal, Noah Rasheta, Rolf Dobelli, Rosamund Stone, Seneca, Stephen R. Covey, Susan Cain, Timothy Ferriss, Viktor E. Frankl, Virgil, Wayne Dyer, Wouter J. Hanegraaff.

PS: On average (June 2018 – June 2023):

  • I receive 265 e-mails from 117 senders per month (tendency remains the same)
  • I send 64 e-mails to 49 recipients per month (tendency remains the same)
  • I spend 5 hours per month with e-mails (tendency decreasing)
  • I reply to e-mails that require a reply within 8 days

PPS: This article is shorter than 333 words ;-)