by Erika Cannon
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Technology giant Adobe recently reported that almost half of you are checking your email in the bathroom.
Seriously?
The bathroom comes in fourth, behind watching TV, bed and vacation. In fact, the survey of 1000 white-collar workers found that you are spending 17% more time checking email this year than last.
I guess that’s why you’re checking email on the potty.
What the report doesn’t say, and what I as an email marketer wonder, is what you are doing with those emails that you read during the creepy parts of Law & Order, to avoid pillow talk, waiting on your kids at the theme park, or (I’m just going to say it) while taking a poop? Those aren’t really situations in which you are focusing on the work issue or opportunity at hand. I suspect you are triaging emails: deleting unimportant messages, sending short answers to the easy questions, and leaving emails that require lengthy responses until you return. Or at least I hope so.
I’m not going to flatter myself to think that my messages are important enough for you to address from remote locations, so I’m going to assume mine is in the delete stack. Maybe I’ve given you something to think about (admit it, don’t your best ideas develop in the bathroom?), and, since you didn’t unsubscribe, I’ll remind you later what you were thinking about while…well, you know.
In the meantime, watch a more interesting show, pay your spouse a little attention, and ride the roller coaster with your kids. But if a good evacuation helps you develop new ideas, keep triaging emails in the bathroom.
