The instantaneous aspect of email has created a reaction in many of us that would be preposterous if we applied it to regular old "snail mail". Trying to break away from reacting this way to email is difficult because it's not just your own habits that need to be broken, but the habits of those who are sending you the messages. Trying to explain to them that you are going to be less reactionary when your inbox signals a new message has arrived is a challenge, and it will be a very tough pill for many to swallow.

But it has to be done.

Email is one of the greatest time sucks that we have coming at us every day of the week. That's why many people consider email to be problematic for their personal productivity.

When the problem with email comes up, what people often discuss are the problems that email has created (as well as the problems email has solved). There also has been more talk online about how we must work to "tame" email in order to fix the problems that it creates.

But the problem isn't email. Email doesn't need to be tamed.

The problem, quite simply, is how we treat email.

Individuals and companies treat email in ways that go against the grain of what email should be used for: to communicate in long form without using the phone. It's not a replacement for the phone, it's not a means to get in touch with someone immediately. Yet the expectation is that it is-or should be.

People seem to think that since you receive the email almost instantly that you should reply in kind. But for most people (there are some jobs where the work is email management) managing email is merely one aspect of their job-and a small one at that. Yet it is almost one of the first things we mention that we do during our day.

Think about this: do you wait for the postal worker for all hours, opening and closing the door to check the mail nonstop every day? Of course you don't. That would be a waste of time and energy. You know when the postal worker arrives (approximately), so if you're expecting something then you have a general idea of when it will arrive. Because of that, you don't sit by the door all day waiting. You go about your day, doing the actual work you have on tap rather than let the possibility of an important delivery get in your way.

Do you do the same thing with email? Likely not.

Instead, you keep your email application open, waiting for that imminent notification alert to come so you can check and see what new thing just got delivered to your inbox.

Perhaps you don't do this. Perhaps you check email 2-3 times per day, and that's it. Perhaps you treat email in a way that it allows you to treat your other work better.

Perhaps.

No matter what email app or service you use-unless you put the discipline and boundaries in place when it comes to using this valuable communication tool-you're doing it wrong.

So what's the email problem?

It's not the technology; it's the people using the technology.

And until we fix that, email will always appear broken.