As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Be not the slave of your ownpast—plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so youshall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with anadvanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old."

If Emerson lived today, he'd find out that society is a littlemessed up right now. Human interactions have been replaced bydevice interactions. In essence, we've become slaves to technology.It's time to take a step back and ask ourselves, after all theseyears of instant communication, are we better off than we werebefore? I'm convinced that we've stopped managing technology andallowed technology to begin managing us.

This blog might change your life. Then again, it might not. Iwant you to read this with an open mind. Instead of thinking "thiswouldn't work for me," understand that "this" works for me, andit's been working for me for about two years.

The "this" I'm referring to is unplugging, that is, simplychanging how you manage your e-mail. "This" is working differentlythan you do now, but by working differently, you can become muchmore efficient.  

Taking a Step Back

I'm an owner of a small insurance agency located in Indiana. Ihave 17 employees and we're a small, but profitable company. We'rea generalist agency working with various industries. I have apartner in my company, and she also is my partner outside theoffice although we're not married. Our agency runs Applied SystemsEPIC system, we've made extensive investments in technology andwe're always looking for ways to make our company moreefficient.

Industry leaders have acknowledged our aggressive approach totechnology, but as an owner, I have slowly begun to see the errorof my ways, opting to go "old school" in many areas of my life. Thelast two years have been some of the least stressful of my 45 yearson earth. These words are my plea to you, to take a step back andrethink your addiction or slavery to all things e-mail.

Early in my career, I was always on the leading edge oftechnology. I still have all the toys and tools, but I no longer amplugged in as I once was.

I do not have e-mail come to my phone. I check e-mailtwice a day, usually in the morning and at night. I stick to thismost days, but on occasion, I have been known to pop into aStarbucks and open my iPad for a quick check of the day's mail.This is the exception, not the norm. I try not to check my e-mailunless I'm sitting down, clear-minded, and am able to understandthe message that has been sent, but more importantly, to reply witha message that addresses the true request or question of thee-mail.

I stole this idea from Tim Ferriss after I read his book "The4-Hour Work Week" two and a half years ago. I was blown away by theconcepts and ideas from Ferris and immediately set out to implementhis ideas into my life. If you haven't read the book, I can'trecommend it enough. It was a game changer and helped shape thebest two years of my life.

A Quality Response Is Better Than a QuickResponse

How do you go from being connected 24/7 to getting your lifeback? It starts with a simple auto response from your e-mail. Ifyou send me an e-mail you will get an e-mail back that states, "Inan effort to be more efficient with my time, I only check e-mailtwice a day. If this is an emergency, please call my cell at765-744-3518. If this is not an emergency, I'll respond with aclear and quality response to your request."

In the two years that I've been using this response, I've hadthree clients comment. One is no longer a client and the other twoare not fans of my approach, but they understand why I do what Ido. 

Your clients really don't need you to respond to theire-mails within one minute. Society has contorted and confusedmessage response to favor speed and not quality. Taking time twicea day, and reading and thinking about what the true question orrequest is allows you to send a quality response.  

Most of my peers have their e-mail come to their phone. Scratchthat: All of my peers have their e-mail come to theirphone. They're constantly checking it and shaking their heads atthe message they just received from their staff, client, wife orsignificant other. Many an e-mail has ruined the quality time oneis spending with a loved one, family member or friend. If you don'tget it, it won't ruin your day, morning or afternoon. There isalways time to get bad news or for that matter, good news.

The quality of the message you send from your phone is usuallyembarrassing. The point or two that you glean from the e-mail youjust received when driving, running or eating is not the truemessage. There are words within words that we miss when rushing toanswer a question or respond to a dilemma. There are tones thatneed to be felt when reading an e-mail and, for the most part,reading a message on a two-inch screen limits your ability toconsume the entirety of the message.

"Speeeling errorors" are rampant when responding from your phonewith some people asking for forgiveness in their signature stating,"This was sent from my phone, please excuse any spellingerrors."  Here's an idea: don't respond from yourphone.

The biggest pushback from my detractors is, "I could never dothat; my clients demand 24/7 access to me. If I did that, I'd loseclients." If you lose a client because you don't respond to ane-mail within a minute or an hour, you might be a lucky person.Demanding clients are a pain; let them go and replace them withclients that respect and appreciate your time and qualityresponse.

Talk to Me, Don't E-Mail

My agency offers 24/7 customer service. If someone calls mycompany at 2:20 on a Sunday morning, a cell phone is answeredby…me. I want to talk to my clients when they are in need. Myclients appreciate that approach far more than an immediate answerto an e-mail.

Are you the person reading this that thinks, "My company demandsI answer my e-mail." I hear this excuse as well. "My company wantsme to be available all the time." "I'm required to answer e-mailall the time."

OK, let's do a quick check of labor laws and compare yourcompensation with that of a 24-hour work day. I'm sure you're notcompensated for a 24-hour work day so you might want to discussyour current arrangement with your human resources department.

If you're an owner, requiring your employees to be availablealso is a slippery slope. If I need to chat with an employee afterhours, I call the employee's cell, I don't e-mail. This is a rareoccurrence, but it does happen.

Give it a shot. Do a little life management and see whetherchanging the way you manage your e-mail changes your life—for thebetter.

Anson Ross Thompson, CIC, CRM, is an insurance agency owner,producer, sales manager and sales trainer at the Thompson Group inParker City, Ind.