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Email/Scheduling

David Sherry
1 min read

I have a confession to make.

I have been scheduling some of these emails in advance, sometimes weeks in advance. This has occurred for two reasons.

The first is that I am often writing multiple letters per day, and I schedule them so as to not overload you.

The second is that I wanted to take advantage of the personal leverage and opportunity that technology affords us.

I am no longer going to do that, which I will explain in a minute.

Exploring this further, this time and space shift, the synchronous and asynchronous nature of the internet, is an incredible bed for innovation and change.

The telephone let us connect outside of geographic location.

The internet has allowed us to connect outside of geographic time.

Simply put: Stories now more easily move across space and time.

And stories are the foundation of our culture.

And so we can connect with one another, personally, across time and geography. (Shout out to those reading in Australia, Morocco, and Thailand).

We select tools which are synchronous or asynchronous based on the advantages they provide.

So, in examining email, I recognize that it is an invention of asynchrony. But it's also a medium for discussion.

We each do, and should, read and reply on our own time.

So why is it that I will no longer schedule things weeks/months in advance?

Because, what I have realized is that this particular series of letters, responses, and community is a discussion.

And a discussion is something that develops. It is ongoing. It needs attention, it needs response, and therefore it needs to be sensitive and tuned into what is occurring right now.

The letters are what's top of mind.

By scheduling emails far in advance, to me, and very possibly to you, this shifts the dynamic ever-so-much to reduce that particular quality that we seek when we seek a discussion.

Therefore, to continue on the same page, and moving forward together in this moment, I will shift to send these letters only on a more current schedule. So, if you see something I write here, you can be sure it was written recently.

Forgoing the opportunity of leverage, in service of quality of the discussion.

See you soon, and let me know if I can help.

xx David