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Backlog Blues
Backlog is usually a good thing. In its usual connotation, backlog are orders that are yet to be filled. They mean revenue in the future. More is better.
But as this great post outlines, backlog in our personal communications is a really bad thing.
We all face unanswered emails, voice mails, IMs, text messages, unread feeds, unwatched tivo'd TV shows, and unread books and magazines.
I am going to take some advice from the person who wrote this post.
As of now, my fancy-pants, community-generated, emergent-behavior data-sorting heuristic is: a calendar. If I haven't gotten to something in a week, it dies. Stick that in your attention economy and smoke it. I'm re-booting. Feed list: empty. In-box: empty.
Sorry if I haven't returned an email or a phone call in the past week. If it's gone that long, there is a really good chance I'll never get to it. Send it again please.
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Posted May 17, 2006 in Venture Capital and TechnologyComments
Sounds like a great post. I wish I had not just deleted your blog from my feedburner list :)
Posted by: howard lindzon | May 17, 2006 6:46:17 PM
I cannot agree more. As an entrepreneur, I published an epicurean lifestyle magazine for about three years and I have to say it was the worst three years of my life. Why?
It wasn’t because I had accrued a depressing amount of debt, my business was staggering at best, or I was only 21 and I was watching my social life die, it was because I felt so overwhelmed by the amount of communication I had to partake in on a daily basis.
I knew it was in my best interest to respond to “x” publicist or follow up with “y” sales lead, but I was paralyzed! There was just too much communication.
I am now an entrepreneur in the tech industry. I don’t know if it’s because the tech industry isn’t as diverse as publishing or the individuals in the industry are just more antisocial, but with the absence of “backlog,” I have never been more productive and as a result happier.
Posted by: Ari Mir | May 17, 2006 8:51:28 PM
What a load of B.S.! If you are too busy to get back to people then that means you have either bitten off more than you can chew, are bad at organizing, or are simply too accessible? I mean do you really need 4 different voicemails? Ever heard of call forwarding? Do you really need ten email accounts? How about simply cutting back to a more manageable amount on information consumption!?!?
It is when we become "too important" that we start missing out on good opportunities.
Posted by: James | May 18, 2006 6:06:06 AM
I have the exact same issue on a much smaller scale -- lots of meetings, emails, people wanting to get together. Then people get insulted when you don't get back to them right away. The answer is, give it a week or two, and assume they missed, and send a nice follow up note forwarding your original message. Generally, if you assume most people are trying to build something, they are contacting people who have something they want, like dollars, advice, contacts or all of the above. Those people with those scarce assets are being bombarded at varying degrees from many many many other people just like you. So understand that, try to figure out a way to break through the radar, be persistent, and be empathetic.
Posted by: Al From Chicago | May 18, 2006 11:26:40 AM
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