"I want to be luckier"

Great - then look at email as an opportunity, says author Laura Vanderkam.

Today is a great day!

My mentor, my role model, my friend Laura Vanderkam’s newest book, Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance, is out now!

(Laura also writes the amazing weekday newsletter, Vanderhacks - I never miss a day).

Today Laura is sharing advice with our Beck on Tech community on how to think about the time we spend managing email.

I love her optimistic reframe on how email can be a source of joy:

“I know email is one of the world's biggest time sucks. But handled right, email is also a big part of how wonderful, serendipitous things might come into your life. If you knew about something great, you'd already be doing it. We make our own luck by following random threads and seeing where they go.

Here's how email is critical for this: Email is how you are going to communicate with the vast majority of people on this planet who aren't in your immediate circle. Since it is asynchronous, it is a way for people to reach you without too much imposition. Since a lot of new opportunities come through weak ties, email is how these connections are going to happen. Email is also how you are going to see that news about a mutual acquaintance that turns out to be important but is buried in an email from someone discussing something else. When you bother to read that email you'll see that note, reach out, and that's how you'll find out about that cool new job or project.

It's wise to limit how often you check your inbox so email doesn't consume all your time, but you can also develop the mindset that email can bring possibilities, and it might be worth entertaining some of them. If you are managing your own email, create an "intriguing" folder of might-be-nice-to-consider messages and set a time to plow through it. Even if you have an assistant who handles much of your email logistics, don't completely outsource this form of communication. You can handle the back-and-forth with people you know and an assistant can flag random messages that might be interesting and you can set a time to look through them. See what you see.

Most messages won't lead to anything. But some might. Sometimes wonderful people reach out to you! Many years ago, Molly sent me an email out of the blue. I responded and here we are, more than a decade later, still in touch. Email can bring good things, so best to be thoughtfully accessible and see what comes.” - Laura Vanderkam

Yes Laura! Email has brought so many wonderful people into my life. Below is the very message I sent Laura 13 years ago. Email has brought me so much joy!

I’m looking forward to reading Big Time: A Simple Path to Time Abundance, which Cal Newport called “fascinating and original”, to see more of Laura’s insights.

Onward!

-Molly Beck