Enjoyed reading Fast Company‘s “Inside the Company that got rid of email”, a report on Cristian Rennella and his company El Mejor Trado (a South American travel site) by Rebecca Greenfield. Cristian and company created their own internal communications system (ala Asana) which favors pull over push. As Cristian explains via Rebecca:

“We want to change from push methodology to pull methodology,” Rennella explained to [Rebecca]. By “push” he means the way notifications force us into doing tasks. When someone asks for “one quick thing” or “can you take a look at this?” we feel compelled to act right away. Distractions–even short ones–lead to more mistakes, research has found. It also takes a full 23 minutes to get back to the original task after an email interruption.

It seems so simple. Make technology to do the right thing for your company. The only problem is that your company grows, spreads geographically, or in sadder cases contracts. In any case, contractors and customers also need to be brought along. Nonetheless even in this test case, the savings for the company and quality of work-life improvement for the employees are indisputable.

Emma Featherstone of Guardian Smarter Working Hub asks “Have emails had their day in the modern office?” There are a number of great things about this article; not the least of which are the final paragraphs dedicated to #noemail co-conspirator Paul Lancaster and his No Email Day project.

I recommend reading Emma Featherstone’s article which covers the state of email resistance briefly and well, but I also take this opportunity to repost Paul Lancaster’s No Email Day Manifesto below.