Okay, I admit it. I'm an inbox junkie. And, If I have to look in more than one electronic inbox, it drives me crazy. Historically, nothing drove me crazier than voice mail... it just refused to behave. So the journey began: first it was eliminating all but one voice mail box; then I began forwarding everything -- business, mobile, and home -- to that one (voicemail) inbox. But even that wasn't enough -- I still couldn't manage to remember to dial in for the messages. I tried asking people to e-mail me instead of leaving a voice mail, but that was short-lived. Then I hit on the magic dust: a voice mail transcription service.

It all started with an exploration of Jott. Jott is a service that provides "mobile note taking" -- basically, I could call Jott and it would transcribe what I was saying and send it to me, or to you, or to anybody that was in my address book. So, for example, I could call in and say "Hey Mark, I'm going to be late for coffee," and then tell Jott to send it to Mark. I kind of liked the idea of mobile note taking -- just think: I could send notes to my inbox! -- but the reality was that I didn't use it.

Then I stumbled on Simulscribe. It was like Jott, only in reverse.

Basically, when someone calls me I forward that call (when it's not answered) to Simulscribe. Simulscribe takes the call, records it to a digital audio file, transcribes it, and then sends it to me. And, for extra points, it can even send the transcribed message as an SMS to my mobile phone. How cool is that?

Now, in reality, that's not quite how I have things set up. In fact, our phone system at the Centre for Social Innovation was already set up to send me voice mail as an audio file. The audio file, however, wasn't much use when I was on the road and trying to access my e-mail from my Blackberry ... so I simply forward that file to Simulscribe and they do the rest.

Don't believe me? Here's a quick example:

Hi there. People are always asking about how I do this. So, I thought (Of a?) really quick example. Basically, a year or so ago I signed up for Simulscribe. Probably one of the most fantastic services that I've ever signed up for. And it has made my life dealing with voicemail an absolute treat. So there you have it an example of how Simulscribe works and how great the quality of the transcription is. And (I'm?) probably gonna make it into a blog post right about now.

And here's the audio file. (Be sure to read the transcribed text above while listening.)

I can't tell you how much I enjoy replying to voice mail via e-mail. Talk about being e-mail-centric. ;-)

The funny thing is, when I signed up for Jott, I took efforts to determine how they did the transcription. Jott used to be very upfront about this -- they simply send the audio file somewhere to be manually transcribed. I thought that was quite ingenious, but not 100% cool in my books. So, when I signed up for Simulscribe, I was a bit anxious to find out how their service worked.

However, according to their site: "SimulScribe utilizes cutting-edge voice recognition technology to convert your voicemail messages into text."

Funny thing is, the transcription takes about 10 minutes (the same as Jott), and the occasional spelling error makes me wonder...

Anyway, for all intents and purposes, Simulscribe has saved my life. Sign up and free yourself from the tyranny of voice mail.

What would happen if you took the concepts of the slow food movement and applied them to the chronic cognitive overload lifestyle that many of us lead? Well, you'd get the slow e-mail movement of course. What's the slow e-mail movement? Well, if I were to put it in my own words: it's a 2-step program for teaching yourself, and your peers, to take it a bit easier on the send & receive and reply buttons (achieving instant karmic balance points in the process!)

To that IBM manager that supposedly appends "Read your mail just twice each day. Recapture your life's time and relearn to dream. Join the slow email movement!" I say: not enough!

My recipe:

• Read your e-mail just once a day.
• More importantly, respond to your e-mail only once a day.

I've been a member of my self-prescribed slow e-mail movement for six months now. I was always a bit slow on the e-mail, but the guideline to respond less, in addition to checking it less, is what made all the difference. Now, I'm usually able to glide through a day without worrying too much about the inbox, and mostly focused on the work that my clients are paying me for.

Why do it? Well, for me, it's all about the promise I've made to my clients to go above-and-beyond -- and this is the program that helps me deliver that commitment. I needed a way to clear my mental space for "real work^TM," which is usually activities involving at least 3-hours of distraction-free application of my mental energy and full attention. This is the secret for how I can consistently get into the "[flow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)."

There are some other great side benefits of the slow e-mail movement:

• Pace: After a while, the natural rhythm takes over and other people start to think "hey, if Phillip can ignore his e-mail for a whole day, I bet that I can too!"

• Consistency: If you've ever e-mailed me, you've probably noticed I always get back to you within 48 hours (and probably less than 24 on most occasions); and your e-mail never sits un-answered for a week or more.

• Attention: While I'm ignoring your e-mails, rest assured that I'm applying that attention to solve your most pressing problems!

• Sanity: let's face it, between project notifications, SVN commit messages, Facebook updates and invitations (I've never been so popular!), and the usual deluge of e-mail-based conversations, there is just way too much information to distract me during the day (from doing "real work^TM").

So, in summary, what I do is: get my inbox emptied once -- in the morning (both reading and responding) -- and then forget about it until the next day. I also apply a "Before today" filter to my inbox, so that I'm only seeing messages from yesterday or before, which helps me to be consistent with always replying a day later.

Do I cheat? Sure I do. At lunch or when I'm searching for e-mail on a project, etc. There are always exceptions. But, what I try not to do is answer those e-mails. As far as your experience of my committment to slow e-mail goes: I'm a saint.

Still need convincing? How about these selling points:

• It's easy: all you have to do is be consistent (and what's easier than that?)

• It's fun: there's nothing like making your friends, family, or better yet -- clients! -- wait

• It's simple: just sit back and relax and remember that the world turned before you and I were addicted to e-mail

That's it folks, it's that easy. You too can join the slow e-mail movement! Pledge your e-mail chastity in the comments below.

(P.S. I haven't read the book "In praise of slowness" linked above -- so, if you have, please let me know)