UNC professor tries to go email free

"Email is creaky and old," Jones said. 

Jones said sorting through spam and unimportant email bogs down the workday. 

"Email is the worst, the biggest time sink, the least efficient way to do almost anything," Jones said. 

Last month, Jones started an experiment by giving up email in favor of other methods of communication, such as social networking, cloud-based collaboration and face-to-face conversations.

Jones' colleague Barbara Wildemuth said she isn't giving up email. 

"Right now, everybody, except Paul, who I need to communicate with is on email," Wildemuth said. 

He's ready to see email become an endangered species.

"I'm not running away from technology, I'm running toward appropriate technologies," Jones said. 

 The recently unveiled Google Plus sharing service makes it even easier to avoid using email, Jones said.