电子邮件工作原理

by Simon Späti

西蒙·斯派蒂(SimonSpäti)

为什么不应该放弃电子邮件，以及我们在工作中进行交流的方式 (Why you should ditch Email, and the way we should communicate at work)

The first example of email can be found on computers at MIT in a program called MAILBOX, all the way back in 1965. Besides its advantages of sharing fast and in a direct way, there are several studies stating that average office workers receive 110 messages a day. Given the fact that every interruption takes 20 minutes to get back, this is a major distraction and also adds to the overall stress.

电子邮件的第一个示例可在麻省理工学院的计算机上找到，该程序最早可追溯到1965年，该程序称为MAILBOX 。除了具有快速共享和直接共享的优点外，还有一些研究表明，普通上班族每人每天收到110条消息。天。 考虑到每个中断都需要20分钟才能恢复，因此这是一个主要的干扰，也增加了总体压力。

I asked myself isn’t there a smarter way to communicate (discuss, argue, debate) at work? This is what I’m going through in this article.

我问自己，在工作中没有更聪明的交流方式(讨论，辩论，辩论)吗？ 这就是我在本文中要介绍的内容。

为什么电子邮件如此受欢迎 (Why email is so popular)

Let’s start with why email is so popular and still used as the number one communication in the vast majority of companies.

让我们从为什么电子邮件如此流行并在大多数公司中仍然被用作第一通信开始。

Some strengths and big advantages email has for sure is sharing fast and in a direct way to a number of people. It is location independent. A very handy feature, it keeps a record of all the communication and you can always go back to it.

电子邮件肯定具有的一些优点和主要优点是可以直接与许多人快速共享 。 它与位置无关。 这是一个非常方便的功能，它可以记录所有通信，您可以随时返回。

The costs are obviously very low. And one big benefit it’s still the best way to market your target users to make an actual sale.

成本显然很低。 一大好处是，这仍然是营销目标用户进行实际销售的最佳方法。

电子邮件的坏处 (The bad things about email)

Although one might argue email is efficient and productive communication, I’d argue against it. It’s ineffective because it’s based on old fashioned expectations. We approach email like a letter, where every email will be answered immediately the moment the letter arrives.

尽管有人可能会认为电子邮件是有效而富有成效的交流，但我还是反对。 这是无效的，因为它基于老式的期望 。 我们以电子邮件的方式处理电子邮件，每一封电子邮件都会在收到信件后立即得到答复。

A major problem that email has is distraction, which can be seen as an open to-do-list for everyone else to put a task on top of it. There are different studies ( The Cost of Interrupted Work, Disruption and Recovery of Computing Tasks), one says that workers are switching tasks every three minutes, mostly due to email. Around 36 (!!) times an hour.

电子邮件存在的一个主要问题是分心，这可以看作是其他人将任务置于其上的一个开放式任务清单。 有不同的研究( 中断工作的成本， 计算任务的中断和恢复 )，其中一项研究表明，工作人员每三分钟切换一次任务，主要是由于电子邮件。 每小时大约36(!!)次。

These interruptions are particularly bad in case you want to get tasks done. Normally every interruption needs around 20 minutes to get back on focus where you were just before the interruption. As productivity is best in bigger junks it’s even more important to block out email or have other ways of communications with uninterrupted timeslots.

如果您想完成任务，这些中断尤其严重。 通常，每次中断都需要大约20分钟的时间才能重新聚焦在中断之前的位置。 由于生产率更高，因此阻止电子邮件或采用其他不间断的通信方式更为重要。

“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” Cal Newport, author and blogger who writes about the concept of deep work.

“专业活动是在无干扰的状态下进行的，这会使您的认知能力达到极限。 这些努力创造了新的价值，提高了您的技能，并且难以复制。” Cal Newport ，作家和博客作者，他介绍了深度工作的概念。

For Newport, the benefits of deep work are continuous improvement of the value of your work output, an increase in the total quantity of valuable output you produce, and a deeper satisfaction at work.

对于Newport而言，深入工作的好处是不断提高工作产出的价值，增加您产生的有价值产出的总量以及对工作的更高满意度。

Besides hindering your ability to accomplish the essential aspects of your workday, email also contributes to the overall stress. I’d even go so far to say that relationships at work are hindered through email. A study of the University of California Irvine confirms that and says: “Without email, our informants focused longer on their tasks, multitasked less, and had lower stress.”

电子邮件除了妨碍您完成工作中的基本方面的能力外，还增加了整体压力 。 我什至可以说，通过电子邮件阻碍了工作中的关系。 加州大学尔湾分校的一项研究证实了这一点，并说：“没有电子邮件，我们的线人就将精力集中在任务上，少做多任务，并且压力较小。”

Above all these disadvantages, maybe one of the biggest is the lack of structure. If you have emails, everything goes down one rabbit hole. Every person needs to organise their emails themselves. Only these tasks can take a lot of time which could be spent much more wisely on project tasks.

最重要的是，最不利的因素之一就是缺乏结构 。 如果您有电子邮件，一切都会陷入困境。 每个人都需要自己整理电子邮件。 只有这些任务会花费大量时间，因此可以更明智地将其用于项目任务。

On top of the missing structure is the lost history if an employee is leaving the company. Many very helpful and informative emails, and the work in organising them, are lost.

如果员工离开公司，那么丢失的历史记录就是丢失的历史记录。 许多非常有用和有用的电子邮件以及组织它们的工作都丢失了。

在电子邮件上花费更少的时间 (Spending less time on email)

Measuring your time is a good way to change how you use email. I did exactly that with a tool called RescueTime. This way you can clearly see how much time you spent on each and every app. Overall I used 24% of my time for communications — this included WhatsApp, Facebook, my friends. However, only at work, I found myself using 1 hour and more every day on my email client. Sure some of it is necessary, and some are even for scheduling meetings. But still it was too much, and I’ve tried to keep it less and use email more efficiently since then.

衡量时间是改变电子邮件使用方式的好方法。 我正是使用名为RescueTime的工具做到了这一点 。 这样，您可以清楚地看到您在每个应用程序上花费了多少时间。 总体而言，我将24％的时间用于交流-其中包括WhatsApp，Facebook和我的朋友。 但是，只有在工作时，我发现自己每天在电子邮件客户端上使用1小时或更长时间。 当然，其中有些是必要的，有些甚至用于安排会议。 但是仍然太多了，从那时起，我一直在努力减少它并更有效地使用电子邮件。

However, some of the time spent is not due to my behaviour. It is the company and it depends on how your team or company communicates. Some studies say the average office workers receive 110 messages a day and spend 28 percentage of their time handling email. That translates into 13 hours a week or 650 hours a year of e-mail checking. Imagine how powerful it would be for your organisation to reclaim that lost time!

但是，有些时间不是我的行为引起的。 这是公司，它取决于您的团队或公司的沟通方式。 一些研究表明，普通上班族每天平均会收到110条消息，并花费28％的时间来处理电子邮件。 这意味着每周检查13个小时，或者每年检查650个小时。 想象一下，您的组织收回丢失的时间将有多么强大！

There are jobs where emailing is your primary work, like working in a call centre. In that case, you cannot change that or benefit immediately. But what about managers who spend between five and 20 hours a week reading and writing emails, as this article in Forbes says. Or even more for people in tech, where their main purpose is to develop new features, solve problems and be creative? In these cases, email is just not what they should do to be successful in their work.

在某些工作中，电子邮件是您的主要工作，例如在呼叫中心工作。 在这种情况下，您将无法更改或立即受益。 但是，如《福布斯》 ( Forbes)上的这篇文章所述，每周花5至20个小时阅读和撰写电子邮件的经理们呢？ 甚至对于技术人员来说，他们的主要目的是开发新功能，解决问题和发挥创意，甚至更多？ 在这种情况下，电子邮件并不是他们要成功完成工作所要做的。

今天的通讯需要什么？ (What is the need of today’s communications?)

Let’s find out what are our requirements for emailing, or more generally, communication. Besides knowing which users are using which communications, often it’s not only a technical adjustment but more a change in culture.

让我们找出对电子邮件或更一般地说对通信的要求。 除了知道哪些用户正在使用哪种通信之外，这通常不仅是技术上的调整，更是文化的变化 。

As Millennials are now the largest group (in the U.S. labour force), we should also make sure we use ways and tools that suit them. Millennials have grown up with technology and are more familiar with newer communications styles in Social Media. And as email was first used in 1965, I would say it’s not the best fit for today’s needs anymore.

由于千禧一代现在是(美国劳动力中)人数最多的群体，因此我们还应确保使用适合他们的方式和工具。 千禧一代随着技术的发展而成长，并且对社交媒体中更新的通信方式更加熟悉。 随着电子邮件于1965年首次使用，我想说它不再是当今最适合的电子邮件。

千禧一代的特征 (Characteristics of Millennials)

Let’s dig a little deeper into what the attributes of a millennial are. They like to be in a community and to be part of something, given a real purpose. They use their mobile phones all the time. They are not so severe all the time, they appreciate honesty, and they want to be heard. They want to engage with top-level leaders, give feedback and constructive criticism, and they want success for everyone involved, short and to the point. Also, they are into new tools and prefer written communication.

让我们更深入地了解千禧一代的属性是什么。 给他们一个真正的目标，他们喜欢融入社区并成为事物的一部分。 他们一直在使用手机。 他们一直都没有那么认真，他们欣赏诚实，并且希望被别人听到。 他们希望与高层领导交往，提供反馈和建设性的批评，他们希望参与其中的每个人都能取得成功，无论是简短的还是切题的。 此外，他们正在使用新工具，并且更喜欢书面交流。

Managing an important project or handling complex tasks can be overwhelming. Most millennials would rather leave the telephone untouched and streamline their workload using written communication methods. Sending out a message via instant messaging is a quick, effective way to get in touch with someone. Written communication through a social network also enables millennials to assign a project without losing any details — and all of the information can be recalled later. This helps when keeping track of project updates because everyone involved is accountable. See more about how to work with millennials here and how to do that effectively.

管理一个重要的项目或处理复杂的任务可能是压倒性的。 大多数千禧一代宁愿不打扰电话，而是使用书面沟通方法来简化工作量。 通过即时消息发送消息是与某人联系的一种快速有效的方法。 通过社交网络进行的书面交流还使千禧一代可以在不丢失任何细节的情况下分配项目，并且所有信息都可以在以后调用。 这在跟踪项目更新时会有所帮助，因为涉及的每个人都要负责。 在此处详细了解如何与千禧一代合作以及如何有效地做到这一点。

如何扭转沟通？ 我们可以做什么 (How to turn around communication? What can we do)

To fit the new generations, we should use tools that help achieve their goals.

为了适应新一代，我们应该使用有助于实现其目标的工具。

工具和工作方式 (Tools and the way of working)

One of the most important is the tool or platform you are using. If you’re still using a waterfall methodology and Microsoft Word for specifications, only one person at a time can edit it and it makes it hard to share. That way you don’t allow feedback and changes to your ideas. On the other hand, in methodologies that support a feedback culture e.g. like Scrum or similar, you want to have improvements and feedback every two weeks (or as long as your Sprint is).

最重要的之一是您正在使用的工具或平台 。 如果您仍在使用瀑布方法和Microsoft Word作为规范，则一次只能编辑一个人，并且很难共享。 这样一来，您就不允许反馈和更改想法。 另一方面，在支持反馈文化的方法(例如Scrum或类似方法)中，您希望每两周(或与Sprint一样长)获得改进和反馈。

One feature of this platform or tool you want to use must be that everything is in the same place. Discussions, Meeting Calendar, new idea proposal, status updates, file-share, chats, even client-access. Maybe email forwards and uploads important emails coming in on the side. But reports, search, notifications and most important, the ToDos/Defect/Stories should all be in one single place.

您要使用的该平台或工具的功能之一必须是所有内容都在同一位置 。 讨论，会议日历，新提议，状态更新，文件共享，聊天，甚至客户访问。 也许电子邮件转发并上载了重要的电子邮件。 但是报告，搜索，通知和最重要的ToDos / Defect / Stories应该都放在一个地方。

Or if not available, use the powerful integration that most tools have. As the tools chain is rising every day, it’s important to integrate certain important tools in your communication and management platform as well. If you have a git-repository or any file-share you can add extensions that integrate into your tool.

或者，如果不可用，请使用大多数工具具有的强大集成。 随着工具链每天都在增加，将某些重要工具集成到您的通信和管理平台中也很重要。 如果您有git存储库或任何文件共享，则可以添加集成到工具中的扩展名。

This way you minimise additional communications and coordination as you don’t need to synchronise tasks, statuses, open discussions etc., and everyone sees it all in one place. You get immediate feedback and everyone can contribute. The feedback is specific to a task, idea, defect etc. and right where it belongs.

这样，您就无需同步任务，状态，公开讨论等，并且所有人都可以一眼看到所有内容，从而最大程度地减少了 额外的沟通和协调 。 您会立即获得反馈，每个人都可以做出贡献。 反馈特定于任务，构想，缺陷等以及它所属的位置。

收件人，抄送和密件抄送字段 (The To, CC, and BCC fields)

Targeting a large group in email is a mess, especially as you need to decide up front who to put in the “To”, “CC” (carbon copy) and “BCC” (blind carbon copy) fields. It’s easy to forget someone, or even worse, you add everyone who comes to mind. Try to target only the people needed.

在电子邮件中针对一大群人是一团糟，尤其是当您需要预先决定在“收件人”，“抄送”(抄送)和“密件抄送”(抄送)字段中输入谁时。 忘记某人很容易，甚至更糟的是，您添加了所有想到的人。 尝试仅针对需要的人员。

Start with a small group and only expand when the idea or the story gets more mature. If you want everyone to see it, you add just the core team and keep the access-rights open for everyone. That way, nobody is left out but they don’t get a ton of unnecessary notifications. Plus they can only have a look when you have time or want to see it.

从一个小组开始，直到想法或故事变得更成熟时才扩大。 如果您希望每个人都能看到它，则只需添加核心团队，并保持所有人的访问权限即可。 这样，没有人会被遗漏，但是他们不会收到很多不必要的通知。 另外，只有在您有时间或想看的时候，他们才能看看。

As you can create email rules for every topic and sender, it’s somewhat cumbersome. Especially in the above-mentioned tools, you can specify notification for each project, each discussion, each task. That way you decide when and how you get notified. Where in email, you get random email notifications, unstructured.

由于您可以为每个主题和发件人创建电子邮件规则，因此有些麻烦。 特别是在上述工具中，您可以为每个项目，每个讨论，每个任务指定通知。 这样，您可以决定何时以及如何获得通知。 在电子邮件中，您会收到随机的，非结构化的电子邮件通知。

办公室及其噪音水平 (Offices and their noise-level)

Besides the platform and tool, it’s critical to have a productive working environment. As more companies are changing to an open office, as it’s helpful to have everyone in one room, it is contradictory to productive, deep work. As you get interrupted every time someone is on the phone, having an important discussion that does not include you, etc. Your brain is wired to listen to it, even though you don’t want to — you will always find yourself listen to it.

除了平台和工具之外，拥有高效的工作环境也至关重要。 随着越来越多的公司改用开放式办公室，将每个人都放在一个房间中会有所帮助，这与高效的深度工作矛盾。 每次有人打来电话时您都会被打扰，进行不包含您在内的重要讨论，依此类推。即使您不愿意 ， 您的大脑也会听着它的声音，您会发现自己总是在听。

You can use headphones with noise cancelling and music to focus, which makes working way more productive, but you still would be more productive in a quiet environment. I like the definition of your office as a library like J. Fried and D. H. Hansson describe in their book It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work. Because if you go to a library you expect everyone to be quiet and work productively. Shouldn’t that also be the way an office is?

您可以使用带有降噪和音乐的 耳机 来聚焦 ，这可以使工作效率更高，但是在安静的环境中您仍然可以提高工作效率。 我喜欢像J. Fried和DH Hansson这样的图书馆在他们的书“工作中不必疯狂”中所描述的办公室的定义。 因为如果您去图书馆，您希望每个人都安静下来并富有成效地工作。 那不应该也是办公室的样子吗？

Same goes for meetings. When the office is a quiet place, then you need to have many discussions and workshops in meeting-rooms. But I would distinguish between meetings and productive working together. As productive one-on-one workshops to solve problems certainly increase productivity (a lot!), long status updates or unproductive discussions, if they’re not solution driven, can go the other direction.

会议也是如此。 如果办公室是一个安静的地方，那么您需要在会议室进行许多讨论和研讨会。 但是我要区分会议和富有成效的合作。 解决问题的富有成效的一对一研讨会肯定会提高生产力(很多！)，如果不是由解决方案驱动的话，长时间的状态更新或无用的讨论也可以朝着另一个方向发展 。

Think of meetings as if they cost you something, as Seth Goldin said in his article about Making meetings more expensive. You would probably think twice if and how to have your meeting:

就像塞思·戈尔丁(Seth Goldin)在他的文章“ 使会议变得更加昂贵”中所说的那样，将会议视为花费了您一些东西。 如果以及如何召开会议，您可能会三思而后行：

1. whom to invite邀请谁
2. making meetings start right on time使会议按时开始
3. ensuring that every meeting has a clearly defined purpose确保每次会议都有明确的目的
4. managing the flow of information, including agendas and coordinating the discussion管理信息流，包括议程和协调讨论
5. issuing a follow-up memo to everyone who attended the meeting向参加会议的所有人发布后续备忘录

敏捷和远程工作 (Agile and remote work)

As mentioned earlier, I would argue that you should work in an agile way. It works hand-in-hand with most of the points covered above. If you work agile, you use scrum or similar methods with well-defined user-stories that make them easy to discuss with your stakeholders.

如前所述，我认为您应该以敏捷的方式工作。 它与上面提到的大多数要点并存。 如果您敏捷地工作，则可以使用Scrum或类似的方法以及定义明确的用户故事，使他们易于与利益相关者讨论。

Define tasks for your developers. This way you need less synchronisation as tools allow you to move a user-story if needed easily. Additionally, you see what everyone is doing, where they might get stuck, and you can plan your sprints with ease and also make remote work easy.

为开发人员定义任务。 这样，您就不需要同步，因为工具允许您轻松移动用户故事。 此外，您还可以看到每个人都在做什么，可能会卡在哪里，并且可以轻松地计划sprint并简化远程工作。

有哪些工具可以做到这一点？ (What are the tools to do that?)

There are many tools out there. Here are some, but of course this list is not complete:

有很多工具。 这里有一些，但是这个列表当然是不完整的：

• Basecamp — maybe the most completed

  大本营 -也许是最完整的

  Managing projects, working with clients, coordinating with contractors, and communicating with your team

  管理项目，与客户合作，与承包商协调以及与团队沟通

• Slack — very good for a one-to-one replacement for email in projects or teams

  松弛 -非常适合项目或团队中的电子邮件的一对一替换

  A powerful tool for making team communication fast and easy.

  一个功能强大的工具，可让团队沟通快速便捷。

• Gitlab — best option very well working with git commits

  Gitlab- 与git commit一起很好地工作的最佳选择

  Single application for the entire software development lifecycle. From project planning and source code management to CI/CD, monitoring, and security.

  整个软件开发生命周期中的单个应用程序。 从项目计划和源代码管理到CI / CD，监视和安全。

• Asana — maybe best free option

  体式 -也许是最好的免费选项

  Work management platform teams use to stay focused on the goals, projects, and daily tasks

  工作管理平台团队用来专注于目标，项目和日常任务

• JIRA — especially good for development with project, bugs and tracking

  JIRA —特别适合带有项目，错误和跟踪的开发

  Issue tracking product that allows bug tracking and agile project management

  问题跟踪产品，允许进行错误跟踪和敏捷项目管理

• Trello — for small projects and small amount of people, very lean

  Trello- 对于小型项目和少量人员，非常精益

  Boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible, and rewarding way.

  木板，清单和卡片使您能够以有趣，灵活且有益的方式组织和确定项目的优先级。

• Taiga — open-source basecamp

  大雅 -开源大本营

  Project management platform for agile developers & designers and project managers

  面向敏捷开发人员，设计师和项目经理的项目管理平台

Some less famous email replacement tools (in alphabetic order):

一些不太著名的电子邮件替换工具(按字母顺序)：

• activecollab.com

  activecollab.com

• clickup.com

  clickup.com

• copperproject.com

  copperproject.com

• freedcamp.com

  freedcamp.com

• glip.com

  glip.com

• huddle.com

  huddle.com

• mavenlink.com

  mavenlink.com

• monday.com

  monday.com

• nostromo.io

  Nostromo.io

• nozbe.com

  nozbe.com

• php-collab.org

  php-collab.org

• proofhub.com

  proofhub.com

• proworkflow.com

  proworkflow.com

• teamwork.com

  teamwork.com

• wrike.com

  wrike.com

It also comes down to how your company communicates: journalists, for example, tend to constantly ping each other with ideas and very short questions, and thus Slack might be the best fit.

这还取决于您公司的沟通方式：例如，记者往往会不断相互交流想法和非常简短的问题，因此Slack可能是最合适的选择。

There are also even more radical tools where all communication and processes are based on business workflows. An example is Tigerconnect.

还有更激进的工具，其中所有通信和流程都基于业务工作流。 一个例子是Tigerconnect 。

结论 (Conclusion)

Whatever you decide, whether you still using email or a new, more modern communication method, keep in mind the time spend on communication. Make it efficient and not distracting. Also, write with a cause. Don’t try to be the first one to answer. Better think about it thoroughly and reply only if it adds value to the conversation. Moreover, use if-then-else in your answer to foresee where the conversation might go to avoid back and forth communication.

无论您是决定使用哪种电子邮件，还是仍然使用电子邮件还是采用一种新的，更现代的通信方式，都请记住在通信上花费的时间。 使它高效而不分散注意力。 另外，请写出原因。 不要试图成为第一个回答的人。 最好彻底考虑一下，只有在对话增加了价值时才进行答复。 此外，在回答中使用if-then-else可以预见对话可能去向，从而避免来回交流。

Define clearly when to use which communication channel and what you want to achieve in order to avoid too many channels.

明确定义何时使用哪个通信渠道以及要实现的目标，以避免过多的渠道。

Lastly, with the right tool, it’s actually fun to communicate in an efficient way, solving issues and user-stories together and reducing weekly meetings to a bare minimum. No more missing deadlines, no more confusion about “I thought so and so was responsible for that”, and being productive as never before.

最后，使用正确的工具，以一种有效的方式进行交流实际上很有趣，可以一起解决问题和用户故事，并将每周会议减少到最低限度。 不再缺少最后期限，不再对“我以为如此负有责任”感到困惑，并且前所未有地富有成效。

Related Links:

相关链接：

• How and why to use discussion threads instead of chats, emails or meetings — Basecamp

  如何以及为什么使用讨论线程来代替聊天，电子邮件或会议— Basecamp

• Eight reasons why you should replace email with management software

  您应使用管理软件替换电子邮件的八个原因

• Scientific Reasons Why Email Is the Absolute Worst

  电子邮件绝对糟糕的科学原因

• Replacing boring status meetings or status updates — Basecamp

  替换无聊的状态会议或状态更新-Basecamp

• How quitting email helped my company communicate better

  退出电子邮件如何帮助我的公司更好地沟通

• The key to better work? E-mail less, flow more

  更好地工作的关键？ 电子邮件更少，流量更多

• 10 Straightforward Ways to Improve Communication at Work

  改善工作中沟通的10种简单方法

• As an example of importance, Facebook even bought a whole platform recently: Facebook acquired Redkix (unified communication)

  举一个重要的例子，Facebook最近甚至购买了整个平台： Facebook收购了Redkix(统一通信)

Originally published at https://www.sspaeti.com on April 25, 2019.

最初于2019年4月25日发布在https://www.sspaeti.com 。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/why-you-should-ditch-email-and-the-way-we-should-communicate-at-work-afd5d02652ce/

电子邮件工作原理