Recently I taught a class conquering underearning to a group of women in small businesses. We were talking about all the common ways women sometimes undersell themselves. Several of the women brought up time management. I’ve really pondered this, because time management wasn’t on my original list of “12 ways self-employed women undersell themselves.” However, if we can’t manage our time effectively and efficiently, we will underearn without a doubt! You simply can’t make the type of money you are truly worth if you fritter your time away on endless tasks that don’t really move your business foreword. My current favorite culprit: email.
We seem to treat our email like a giant slot machine. We are constantly checking it. Did something important or really cool pop into our in-box? Usually not. But sometimes! We are training ourselves just like those dogs we read about in our college psychology 101 courses. (Pavlov? Help me out here. That was a while ago!) We can’t seem to stop checking it!
Of course the darker side of email is that when we don’t check it, we feel like we fall behind. There will simply be more to sort through. I’m starting to read more and more articles on the time-sucking and energy sapping vortex that is email. I’ll share more answers with you as I play with various solutions. But there is one constant answer that really seems to work. Are you ready? Check your email only twice a day. And the most important thing of all- don’t check it first thing in the morning. Get something more important done first.
I hear the gasp. Many of us are trained to grab that cup of coffee and turn on the slot machine. But then we are thrown into reactive mode. We are immediately reacting to what comes in, letting our in-box dictate the most productive hours of our day. What if you were in charge of your time and not your in-box?
Case in point. The last thing I do each work day is create a fresh to-do list for the following day. I pick one task to work on in the morning. It is usually something that requires thought and uninterrupted time. (Neither of these works well in email land.) When I come in in the morning, this is the task that occupies my time while I drink my coffee. THEN I check my email. Right now it is 9am. I have been thinking about my blog and writing this post for about 30 minutes. I have not checked my email. I will dig through it at 10am and again at about 2pm. Now, I am not seeing clients today, so my schedule is different than client days. I have to adjust accordingly. But you get the point.
Most experts now say to turn your email off when you are not checking it. Stop grazing. And definitely turn off that pop-up window that shows you new email has arrived with the first alluring sentence. Turn off your email alerts. It will be there when you next check it.
Get something meaningful done. Stop letting the slot machine dictate your day.
For Outlook users, you can adjust how often the program checks for emails. Here’s how:
With Outlook open, click on Tools> Options> then select the Mail Setup tab.
Click the “Send/Receive” button in the middle of the screen.
Under “Setting for group “All Accounts” change the time in the ‘Schedule an auto send/receive every __ minutes.”
Plug in the minutes you want then save the settings.
I’m up to 60 minutes – hoping to extend it some more BUT if I really have the need to check for new emails, I just click the “Send/Receive” button.
Hope that helps!
WOW. Not check email in the am with my coffee. Who would have thought this would be a radical comment!
I agree that when I write first, check email second I do get more done. Thanks for you and the women in your workshop I am going to give this a serious try starting this week.
I will let you know how it goes – or not – as I won’t be able to email in the am!
kbk
Delegating the time-sucking, energy zapping vortex of email to your VA is another practical solution, as Mikelann and I recently learned when she was uninterrupted by all the ‘out of office’ automatic replies.
Here Here, Mikelann!
I just read “The 4 hour work week”, and this was the number one thing I took away from that book (checking email only twice a day). I still slip up (this a.m. for example) sometimes, by checking it before I do my more important task, but limiting it to a couple or even a few times a day allows for a much more un-interrupted aday, and the ability to keep a train of thought and be more productive and focused. Looking forward to the next tip like this! : )
Mimi
I agree email can eat up the day, and sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint what productive steps occurred. On the flip side if I’m having fast productive exchanges with a client via email projects can race to the finish line while clients who answer once a day or less tend to have projects that drag.
I happen to love the thingy that pops up when an email is received & lets me know who & what the email concerns. However I just spotted this article in slashdot that indicates even this is a mind interrupting waste of time. Mikelann the article even uses your vernacular of ’email as slot machine.’
One step I try to take is regarding communications of complex topics in emails. Too often I have found myself typing away on complex issues & after waaay too long decide email is the wrong venue. So as much as I can in this case I like to pick up the old phone & call the person. Usually the subject can be resolved in a fraction of the time.
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
Great post! I’ll subscribe right now wth my feedreader software!