« Email: Now, or Tomorrow? | Main | Planning Each and Every Day »

Aug10
Email: Pandora's (In) Box
The reason not to check your email last thing at night, as LifeDev says, is the same as why you shouldn't check it first thing in the morning: because it's time consuming. Yes, it distracts you from your *real* work too.

But a big reason that it's a problem is that people think they will just do a quick scan to see what's there, so they budget 1 minute to do that. There's always time for that, right? In reality, there's almost always something in your email that, once you've seen it, you have to do something about, and that's bound to take you more than one minute.
Pandora-box-3.jpg

Now, if you could really discipline yourself merely to look at the subject lines of each email and then move on to something else, you'd be free to check often, early and late. However, if you're only going to do that, why bother checking at all? Aren't you checking to make sure there's nothing that needs your attention right now? If you don't find anything, great. But if you do, well, there goes your morning, or your bedtime.

If you change your mindset to "I need to check email because I have to handle anything important that's come in," instead of "I need to check email to make sure nothing important is in there," you'll be more realistic about how long it will take.

This rule goes for snail mail too. Don't pick up your mail if you only have time to riffle through the envelopes and chuck them on the table. Leave yourself at least enough time to separate out the trash (and actually recycle or shred it--don't let that shredding pile up!), put bills with other bills, put items you need to act on in your in box to process them later.

related entries


2 Comments/Trackbacks




once again, Claire, truer words were never spoken. I love how you summarize things that are plaguing me, you have been a true inspiration. Thank you.

Jessica Duquette

» Can't Live Without Email? These Companies Can Kill You Every Friday from ProductivityGoal
No matter how many people find it as one of the most helpful online business tools, email can also be a productive businessperson's nemesis. Aside from email spam, viruses and spyware that can be downloaded, checking email can also become... [Read More]

submit a trackback

TrackBack URL for this entry:

post a comment

Name, Email Address, and URL are not required fields.





Comment Preview

« Email: Now, or Tomorrow? | Main | Planning Each and Every Day »

Advertise

Related Resources

recent comments

    sponsored ads



    subscribe


    Prefer Email?
    Subscribe below-

    Enter your Email:


    Powered by FeedBlitz What's this?

    Current News

    Support This Blog

    blogroll


    My site was nominated for Best Business Blog!

    business social media

    Use these fast growing business social media sites to promote your business, feature your products, spotlight your business leaders, create links, and drive traffic back to your company site, all for free!

    BIZZlogos - Add your logo - free link to your site
    BIZZphotos - Add photos of your products and people
    BIZZprofiles - Submit your profile and build your online visibility
    BIZZspotlight - Spotlight your business with free links
    BIZZvideos - Videos about businesses, products and business people.
    BIZZbites - "Digg" for Business - Submit your articles and posts

    Know More Media - Self-Improvement / Professional Development

    know more media network

    View Network Map

    Network Feed List (OPML)

    Know More Media Network
    Feed


    we support unitus

    PRWeb

    Influencer



    ProductivityGoal is a member of the Know More Media network of business related blogs.

    Here are some current headlines from some of our business publications:

    ProductivityGoal

    CallCenterScript

    AdHurl

    TheBizofKnowledge

    LandingTheDeal

    CustomersAreAlways

    HealthCareVox

    BrainBasedBusiness

    TheInsurancePolicy

    MarketingBlurb