Just like Pavlov’s dog, your email account has you trained incredibly well.The rate at which most people check their email is astonishing – it’s practically become a nervous twitch. The worst thing you can do while working on a project is responding to emails at the same time. You are destroying your focus, effectiveness, clarity, and efficiency by not concentrating on the task at hand. Some productivity experts have stated it takes your brain 15 minutes to refocus after an interruption.
The average person checks their email about 15 times per day. But, a recent study from researchers at the University of British Columbia, found that when people were limited to checking their email just three times per day, their stress levels decreased significantly. The folks who limited their email checking also felt that they were able to complete their most important work more efficiently … and they felt a greater sense of accomplishment at work.
Unfortunately, based on a recent study of over 5,000 business leaders, 78% of people check their email frequently throughout the day … and 66% say that the first two things they do in the morning are check emails and voicemails. They let their emails and voicemails sabotage the plan they set-up for their day, before even getting one task done. NOT GOOD!
SO, what should you do? Respond to your emails in batches and tell everyone you work with to remove you from the “RESPOND TO ALL” list; those are totally overused … having to read unnecessary emails is an enormous waste of your time. If it is CRITICAL for you to know, then they should send you an individual email or … if it’s SO IMPORTANT … call you.
You may want to consider taking a 2-hour break from checking emails; then, in those 2-hours, crank out your 1-2 most important projects. Shut your office door, put a “Do-Not-Disturb” sign on your door … do whatever you have to do in order to have the most productive 2 hours of your day. What most people typically find is that there are only one, two or three things that we truly need to accomplish for the day to be successful. Sure, we’ll do hundreds of things throughout the day, but the vast majority of them will not affect whether you consider your day to have been successful. As I said in the beginning …
Quit letting your INBOX
destroy your OUTPUT