Manage Your Mailbox

Emails can be a great time waster and provide a constant source of distraction throughout the day. It’s a constant theme when I’m talking to clients and often one of the first habits that they need to change.

How often have you found that you start checking your emails and as you work your way through them, you find yourself taken off in any number of different directions as you respond to an email, follow a link to read a report, check some information on the internet, pick the phone to make a call, get reminded of something and go off to do that before coming back to your email.

If you're going to make the most of your day then one way to increase your productivity is to manage the amount of time you spend on emails. Keep this to a minimum. At least minimise the time you spend ‘checking’. Only check two or three times a day and this is just to review what’s come in and decide what action you need to take. Read, Action, Dump, File - much the same as with paperwork. A quick scan will tell you what’s important and what’s not, what needs a response now and what can be dealt with (read or responded to) later. Set aside time specifically to deal with emails. Set a time limit and stick to it.

And if you haven’t already switched off those automatic alerts, do it NOW.