Not Letting Email Run You-Overcoming the Inbox
Technology is supposed to help us, not drag us down the rabbit hole. Unfortunately, that’s now the exception.
A few years ago, I met with an organizational expert whose advice changed my life. She gave me a bunch of tips and tricks, but only one changed the way I work: limiting how often I check my email.
Why Email Is Ruining Your Life
Let’s see if you can relate to this: you have a project that you really don’t want to do. Maybe you’re finally doing your accounting, taxes, or similar dreadful project (a.k.a. my entire job). After psyching yourself up for what will undoubtedly be a grueling session, you sit down and start working.
Then you get a pop up notification. On your computer, phone, whatever.
Of course you have to check it. Then you reply. Then you waste some more time looking through your feed.
Finally, you get back to work…only for another notification to mess things up.
Before you know it, you’re out of time and the project isn’t done.
Unfortunately, this is the normal of our world today. We get distracted, and it takes time to get back into that “work zone.” Up to 23 minutes according to the latest studies making their rounds.
That means that five minutes to read and craft the perfect reply to that email actually cost you nearly a half hour of good work.
How To Set It Right
In our always connected world, digital boundaries aren’t fun. Our phones are designed to get us information as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s what we like!
But we have to shut it down.
The organizational specialist I noted at the beginning told me that I should limit reading emails to twice a day. The exact times was up to me, but I found the beginning and ending of the day worked out pretty well.
For others, she said they start the day and purposefully don’t check emails until they’ve had a good work sprint. That way they don’t get caught up in the “emergency” of the day.
This concept can easily be expanded past emails. Use it for any distracting time wasters. Do you really need to look at Facebook? Turn off notifications and schedule a time you’re going to do that. Do you feel like you have to keep up with the news? Great…just keep it to a scheduled.
Now, your phone really, really doesn’t want you do stop looking at it. All the defaults are designed to get you to constantly stare at it. If you’re looking for a good guide on how to make your phone work for you, check out this article at Make Time where it discusses specific steps to turn off the bad parts of your phone.
Setting Expectations
Getting into this habit is a struggle. It is even harder when others have an expectation that YOU ANSWER RIGHT NOW OR YOU MUST HATE ME!
Fighting against this can be like running into a wall over and over again.
As a personal example, I had some great staff working for me at my last public accounting job. But it was super common for them to send and email, then instant message me if I didn’t respond in 30 minutes or less…then even pop into my office when that went into the notification graveyard.
“Have you seen my email yet?” they’d ask, over and over.
Of course not! I was focusing on something else. Once I was done with my current task, I would then give the appropriate focus on the email.
It didn’t help that my boss was an instant emailer. And, unsurprisingly, he also wasn’t very good at managing his big projects, instead always focusing on the small email fires everyday and letting the big ones pile up until the last minute.
Part of setting expectations is not responding to emails except for at certain times. Most people will be okay with this. If you want to take it to the next level, one of the people in my networking group actually set up an Auto-reply saying he would ONLY check email at two set times every day.
Going One Step Further with Email
I love this article on The Atlantic for setting email expectations on vacation. His out of office tells everyone that any emails sent while he’s on vacation will be automatically deleted.
It’s genius. Rather than getting back from vacation and having to work double time to catch up, you can actually come back relaxed. If only these kinds of responses were the norm rather than the exception.
Balancing Technology Rather Than Being Subjugated by it
I had a partner had my first accounting firm mention how he dragged his feet with the firm first mandated Blackberries. He knew that this would be the start of a digital leach, and he was absolutely right.
Years later, we let ourselves be run by the chirps and beeps. And the more we do, the more people expect instantaneous responses to everything.
We need to put our foot down and figure out ways to make technology work for us, rather than the other way around.
Main takeaways:
- Schedule when you check emails & other notifications
- Maybe wait until after a good word sprint
- Set expectations for others that responses will not be instantaneous
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