What Happened When I Deleted Email From My Phone
After 17 years of checking it every, single, day...
The year was 2008. Fresh out of college I got my first job, in New York City. Soon after I was hired, I was given something that would change the trajectory of my career (and my life). I got a company phone, the BlackBerry (RIP).
Back in 2008, having a smartphone was a pretty big deal, especially a company phone. I took my newfound smartphone ownership very seriously. I was connected. And despite the fact that I was a mere minion in the consulting firm I worked for, having a smartphone meant I could prove myself by being available, all the time.
You might know where this is going, but after 5 years of doing this, I crashed and burned. Almost weekly migraines and severe burnout led me to quit, and start a new career as something most people knew little about, influencing.
Quitting the corporate job to go out on my own as an influencer ended up being financially lucrative, but my obsession with being connected only got worse.
Over the last few years I’ve walked away from influencing and my life as an extremely online person. I’ve deleted most social media or scaled back my time on them and I’ve reduced my screen time (though not enough). But there’s one thing I didn’t change until recently, having email on my phone.
For the last 17 years, I’ve been checking email on my phone every day, multiple times a day. I have 3 email accounts, a personal, business, and “partnerships” email (the latter existed for my influencing days). On a daily basis I get a lot of emails, and until recently I had no idea just how many.
I’m not alone. The average office worker (as of 2015) receives approximately 121 emails a day, we can assume 10 years later this number is probably higher. According to one study, 99% of email users check their inbox every day (with some checking 20 times a day). Over 50% check email first thing, even before social media.
When you check your email multiple times a day on your phone, you delete a bunch as you go (or at least I did), so the true scale of your overflowing inbox is hard to recognize. That is of course, until you stop doing that.
After 17 years, I deleted email from my phone. It was both shocking and illuminating. Here’s what I observed.
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