If you get an email from me these days there’s a pretty good chance that I didn’t send it to you from my phone.  The reason is because I’ve taken email off my phone.

{{{GASP!  The HORROR!!!}}}

Here’s how it all started…

A few months ago when I was preparing for my maternity leave (for bebe #2 who was born in early May) I decided I wasn’t going to make the same mistakes I made last time.  I committed to taking 2 full months off from work: no email, no phonecalls, no work.  PERIOD.  I knew that the biggest challenge would be my phone.  I’m addicted to it.  I love social media.  And, frankly, I really like email.  (I’ve always been a sucker for correspondence of all sorts.)

I decided I had to cut email cold turkey.  Email is usually a work trigger for me. I can’t read an email without wanting to act in some way.  It would be one thing to avoid my computer for a couple months.  The challenge would lie in not tapping that little app on my phone and thumbing thru my email.

So, I had to part with my email for a couple months.

It’s EASY to turn email off on your iPhone…

What I didn’t realize is how genius the iPhone is to make this possible.  I thought I’d have to delete the whole thing from my phone.  I was hesitant to do this because of the hassle of having to reprogram the ip information and web details.  It seemed like a hassle.

But, no. Once again, Steve Jobs and his people did a brilliant thing here.  In the general settings of the phone, you can simply just slide the email OFF.  None of your email is lost.  There is no reprogramming or resetting to get your email back.  You can just turn it back ON.  VOILA!

Here’s a screen shot:

Truth be told, it was so easy to take email off the phone that I knew it would be as easy to slide ON.  I still had to resist the temptation to slide it back on (also easy).  But, I did it.  I didn’t check email for 2 months.  (That’s a whole other post for another day.)

Keeping email OFF my phone…

So after going without email for 2 months on my phone, there’s something that I asked myself after returning to work:

{{{{WHY DO I NEED TO HAVE EMAIL ON MY PHONE AT ALL?}}}

Let’s be honest with ourselves… There are very few times that we NEED to have email active on our cellphones.  I’m not usually out of my office for more than a couple hours during my “office/work hours” of 9 to 6.  If I’m going to be out of the office for more than 4 hours, then I will turn my email on.  When I’m traveling to do workshops or speak at conferences I turn on my email.  Being able to reply to email while I’m ‘in transit’ is very helpful.  AND – if I’m expecting something important or waiting to hear back from someone urgently, I will have my email ON.  Knowing the difference between urgent/important versus not-urgent/less-important matters!

But – truth be told – so often I was checking email at night (after shutting down my computer) or on the weekends.  WHY?  This is MY time.  This is time that I had set as a boundary between work and my personal life.  And, I was spending this time clicking on that little temptation of a phone app.

Not missing anything important…

I love not having email on my phone.  While I’m at my desk, I take care of my email.  DONE.  While I’m away from my desk, I take care of whatever I’m supposed to be doing: a networking lunch if I’m “working” or being with my kids if I’m “playing”.  But, I’m definitely NOT checking email anymore!

SO… I challenge YOU!  Do you dare to take email off your phone?

PS – I’m sorry this is a bit biased to the iPhone users.  If anyone wants to share how to do this on the Android, Blackberry, or other phone, please share in a comment below. THANKS!