电子邮件如何毁掉你的创造力？

你是否记得，上一次当你盯着电子邮件看，突然想到一个极妙的点子，是什么时候的事了？当你看着一排整齐堆放，每一封都需要你即刻付出同等精力去处理的电子邮件时，你很难产生一个完整的想法，更遑论一个伟大的创意。都怪iPhone让电子邮件变得如此便携，如此移动化，如此具有侵略性。但电子邮件对人们精力的“绑架”却并不是什么新鲜事。

早在1938年，布兰达•尤兰就在《如果你想写作》（If You Want to Write）一书中指出，想象“是需要氛围的——长时间，低效率，快乐无事，懒散，拖拉。那些像仓鼠一样总是忙忙碌碌的人，只有小聪明和碎片化的点子……但他们无法慢慢酝酿出伟大的创意。”换句话说，最好的创意，是在你休息的时候得来的。

然而，我们每天要查看74次电子邮件，同时还要处理一大堆其他事务。多线程的工作方式绝对不是培养创造力的理想方法，而是我们面临的最大的绊脚石之一。就像心理学家、作家丹尼尔•戈尔曼在他的书中所写的那样，所谓的“多线程工作”其实是个神话。实际上，多线程工作会在相当程度上降低我们的深度思考能力。斯坦福大学教授克里福德•纳斯的研究也表明，多线程工作浪费的时间要超过其节省的时间。

如果我们把占用了大量时间的那些电子设备都扔到垃圾桶，或者对任何人发来的邮件都置之不理，那显然是矫枉过正了。但是我们可以建立一种职场文化，为大家的心灵保留一定的空间，用来思考所谓的“大点子”。如果我们想建立一支聪明、友善、具有创造力的员工队伍，我们就应该鼓励他们采用一种能够激发创造性的工作方式，给予他们创新的自由。以下是一些在InkHouse公司行之有效的措施：

电子邮件并不是你的同事。如果你走进我的办公室，你会注意到我的电脑被放在桌子的一边，这是为了方便面对面的交流。我们在寻找办公场所时也相当注意这一点。如果你今天到我们的办公室来逛逛，你会发现这是一个开放式格局，充满了协作的氛围。一些最成功、最有创造性的活动，就是在这种即兴的脑力风暴中诞生的。

不把工作带回家。为了让员工拥有不被打扰的私生活，InkHouse公司要求晚7点至早7点不收发电子邮件。当然也会有例外，但是我们依然制定了一些规定，以确保一旦这些意外情况结束，员工能够立即回到正常生活的节奏。一回到家，我就会把手机放在一个固定的地方，而不会动不动就去翻手机，在周末就会彻底关掉电子邮件。这么说吧：如果连《赫芬顿邮报》的创始人阿里安娜 •赫芬顿都能“拔掉充电器”，那么你也能做到。

为员工制定旅游计划。为了给员工“充电”，InkHouse公司制定了一项“无限期休假”的政策，并且鼓励他们在休假的时候关掉电子邮箱。我们之所以需要队友，不就是需要他们在这种时候顶上嘛！我们聘用的都是聪明和负责的人，而且我们相信人人都有良好的判断力。我们还相信，你的闲暇时间是怎样度过的，对你工作期间的表现将有很大的影响。如果你能暂时抽身脱离繁琐的工作，你就可以给你的大脑和身体充充电，所有这一切都有利你在事业上取得成功。

留出时间给自己：把自己绑在办公桌前8个小时，并不意味着这一天必然过得很有意义。因此，你必须要从堆积如山的电子邮件中抽出一些时间留给自己，舒展你的大脑。我自己经常比孩子们早一个小时起床，这样就能放松自己的思维，也为我留下了一个小时的写作时间。哪怕只是简简单单地坐在那里，喝上十分钟的茶，或者到外边散一会儿步，也能给我短暂的独处感，使我能够不受打扰地得到一些发自内心的想法。（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

审校：任文科

When’s the last time you had a great idea while you were staring at your email? It’s tough to complete a thought, never mind a great thought, amid all that noise while you’re watching all those emails stack up in a neat row, begging for an equal amount of attention right NOW. We could blame the iPhone for making email so mobile and so accessible and so invasive, but attention grab isn’t new.

Take 1938, the year Brenda Ueland wrote the book, If You Want to Write. She noted that the imagination “needs moodling — long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering. These people who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp staccato ideas…..But they have no slow, big ideas.” In other words, your best ideas come when you’re rested.

Yet, we check our email 74 times per day — all while trying to tackle the dozens of other projects thrown our way. This multitasking is not ideal for creativity – in fact, it’s one of the biggest roadblocks we face. Multitasking is a myth, as psychologist and author Daniel Goleman wrote in his book. In fact, multitasking pretty much eliminates our ability to think deeply. And as Stanford professor Clifford Nass’s research shows, multitasking wastes more time than it saves.

It’s not reasonable to say that we should get rid of the devices that take up so much of our time, or the need to respond to every real human being who sends you an email (it’s the human thing to do), but we can create a workplace culture that fosters the mental space required for big ideas. If we want to create a workforce full of intelligent, kind and creative people, it’s our job to empower them to work in ways that fuel their creativity, allowing them the flexibility to create. Here are some measures that have worked at my firm, InkHouse.

Your email is not your work colleague: When you step into my office, you’ll notice that my computer is situated at the side of my desk in order to facilitate human connections. We also kept this in mind when searching for an office space. If you visit today, you’ll find an open layout full of collaboration. This impromptu brainstorming has birthed some of our most successful and creative campaigns.

End after hours: To encourage employees to have a personal life, InkHouse initiated a no email rule between the hours of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. Of course there are exceptions, but we try to create rules that help people come back to a place of balance once those exceptions are over. At home, I have a designated spot for my phone so that I’m not constantly checking it, and I turn off email on the weekend. Let me put it this way: if Arianna Huffington is able to unplug, so can you.

Plan that trip: In order to allow employees to recharge, InkHouse initiated an unlimited vacation policy. And we encourage them to turn off email while they’re gone. That’s what team members are for! We hired smart, responsible people, and we trust everyone to use good judgment. We believe that what you do with your free time can have a big impact on how you perform at your job. When you take time away from work, you’re taking time to recharge your mind and body, which all works to aid in your professional success.

Block off time to center yourself: Being chained to your desk for eight hours a day does not equate to a day well spent. It’s important to always set aside some “me” time away from our inboxes in order to tend to our minds. For me that means waking up to meditate before my kids are up, which frees my mind in a way that allows for an hour of writing. Simply sitting quietly and drinking tea for 10 minutes or stepping outside often gives me brief moments of distance that allow an unprompted and unfiltered idea to jolt through the chaos.