From New York Times bestselling  author Cal Newport comes a bold vision for liberating workers from the  tyranny of the inbox--and unleashing a new era of productivity.

Modern  knowledge workers communicate constantly. Their days are defined by a  relentless barrage of incoming messages and back-and-forth digital  conversations--a state of constant, anxious chatter in which nobody can  disconnect, and so nobody has the cognitive bandwidth to perform  substantive work. There was a time when tools like email felt cutting  edge, but a thorough review of current evidence reveals that the  "hyperactive hive mind" workflow they helped create has become a  productivity disaster, reducing profitability and perhaps even slowing  overall economic growth. Equally worrisome, it makes us miserable.  Humans are simply not wired for constant digital communication.

We  have become so used to an inbox-driven workday that it's hard to  imagine alternatives. But they do exist. Drawing on years of  investigative reporting, author and computer science professor Cal  Newport makes the case that our current approach to work is broken, then  lays out a series of principles and concrete instructions for fixing  it. In A World without Email,  he argues for a workplace in which clear processes--not haphazard  messaging--define how tasks are identified, assigned and reviewed. Each  person works on fewer things (but does them better), and aggressive  investment in support reduces the ever-increasing burden of  administrative tasks. Above all else, important communication is  streamlined, and inboxes and chat channels are no longer central to how  work unfolds.

The knowledge sector's evolution beyond the  hyperactive hive mind is inevitable. The question is not whether a world  without email is coming (it is), but whether you'll be ahead of this  trend. If you're a CEO seeking a competitive edge, an entrepreneur  convinced your productivity could be higher, or an employee exhausted by  your inbox, A World Without Email will convince you that the time has come for bold changes, and will walk you through exactly how to make them happen.