Rethinking Email: How Remote Work Changed Everything

What does email apnea, Slack culture, and flow state protection have in common? They’re all part of how our digital communication habits have shifted since the pandemic—and how those shifts are reshaping productivity.

In this episode, Moah and Alex unpack what’s changed about email, chat, and meetings in the past five years. From the days of “batching email twice a day” to today’s blurred boundaries of hybrid work, they dig into surprising research on responsiveness, burnout, and the hidden costs of interruptions.

You’ll hear stories from their own remote team and insights from studies out of Microsoft and the University of Mannheim. Along the way, they explore how to balance synchronicity with deep work, why self-interruptions might be less harmful than external ones, and practical ways to protect your off-hours while staying connected to your team.

Tune in for practical tips, surprising science, and the kind of candid conversation that will help you get more done while feeling less busy.

Links from the show!

Media Synchronicity Theory — Multilingual Virtual Teams https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331209896_Language_Proficiency_and_Media_Synchronicity_Theory_The_Impact_of_Media_Capabilities_on_Satisfaction_and_Inclusion_in_Multilingual_Virtual_Teams

Email apnea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_apnea

Positive feelings when we're more responsive https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.2239

Email patterns and self-interruption https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2858036.2858262

Microsoft research on interruptions at work https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Modeling-Opportune-Moments-for-Transitions-and-Breaks-at-Work.pdf

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