Could you go a workday without checking your email? I’d like to think I could, but I’m not apt to try it anytime soon. 

I attempted it once -- on a Saturday. But the stress I felt from not knowing who was trying to tell me what was unbearable. I made it through the day, but I was fussy.

I’m addicted to email and I can admit it. Still, I understand the belief that email takes the personal touch out of business transactions. You don’t get a handshake or a smiling face from email. It’s hard to gauge tone and you can’t read body language.

Anyway, NPR’s David Schaper offers up a great piece about the benefits of corporate cultures that embrace Email-Free Fridays. Here’s a sample: 

Coyle says that one Friday, he was about to send an e-mail to a colleague in the finance department whom he had never met. But he called him instead.

That's when the two realized they had similar phone numbers — meaning that not only were they in the same town, but in the same building.

"I'm like, 'Oh, really, where?' He said, 'On the fourth floor,' " Coyle remembers. "And I said, 'I'm on the fourth floor.' "

After more details were exchanged, "I literally got up, walked around the corner and there he was. I had no idea."