Control Your Email Problem, Take Back Your Life

Email is Not an Interruption, it’s a Distraction

It’s important to understand the difference.

Interruptions are out of your control, like when someone calls you or knocks on your door.

Distractions are different. We let in distractions. If your phone buzzes when you get a new message, it is you and only you that has let that distraction into your life. It’s not an email problem, it’s a process problem.

Accept that you are in control of what distractions you let in.

Turn Off All Notifications

For the love of technology, please turn off all alerts and popup notifications on your computer and mobile device.

This includes all social, email and other update related notifications.

We justify notifications because some messages might be important and must be seen immediately, but this can be easily remedied.

If you have important clients or other important people you are working with, use a service like AwayFind. AwayFind is a service where you tell it who is important and then it will push you alerts only when those people have emailed you. The service supports all kinds of other email workflow scenarios. (You can get a quick overview here.)

There is no excuse. If you want a happier and more productive day, turn off 90% of your notifications right this minute.

Time-Blocking

I hate to say it, but this is even harder than turning off notifications.

Time-blocking email is setting aside specific times each day to process your email. Every other hour of the day, email is out of sight and out of mind.

Last week I tested this policy. I was strict about it and I must admit, it’s a difficult thing to do.

I picked 12pm and 3pm as my time-blocked email sessions. During those hours all I did is read, reply to and archive emails. Every other minute of the day, my email was closed. It was uncomfortable at first, but the positive impact on my day was immediately clear.

ONE: It is hard to go until 12pm without checking email. It took me a few days to realize it, but subconsciously it’s the way I avoid doing any important and hard work in the morning. “Oh, better check my email” didn’t fly anymore. I had to find something else to pass the morning hours.

TWO: When it was “email time” I was able to process my inbox with an efficiency and speed I have never experienced before. If I didn’t reply to emails right at that moment and tie up as many loose ends as possible, it would have to wait until my next time-block. I became focused on the email at hand.

 THREE: I had to take the tasks assigned to me out of my email. I had no other choice! I committed to only 1.5 hours a day in my email, so I had to get in and out. (A super handy trick for Gmail users – every email has its own unique URL. You can copy email content into a task, linked it to the unique email URL, set a due date/time and archived the email. This way you can empty your inbox without having to search for future tasks.)

In the last week, I’ve been more prompt in my responses and quicker in completing tasks than ever before.

Move Tasks Out of Your Inbox

Your email inbox is the worst project management system and a terrible task list.

It doesn’t matter which project or task management system you prefer–Basecamp, Podio, Trello, Wunderlist, and my personal favorite OmniFocus–they are all better equipped to handle your daily to-do’s.

Your inbox is never ending, constantly updating and unable to control stream of possible to-do’s.

Take the tasks assigned to you via email and put them somewhere else.

With a dedicated to-do list app, you can put all your tasks in their proper place by assigning due date, priority and details. My #1 piece of advice is to close your inbox and tackle your tasks in a clean and controlled environment.

Taking Back Control

We have let our inbox control our day.

It has become a socially acceptable addiction. We expect that others have their email open all day long. It’s encouraged, accepted and even praised in the workplace.

It’s time that we put email in its proper place, I’m taking back control and decided to use an email validator, this way I don’t waste time checking on emails that are just spam. Find out what the guidelines are to keep the workplace safe from workplace health & safety advisors.

We are in control of our email, it does not control us. Click here if you wish to know more on how you can manage your email.

It’s all about Expectations

My rigid (yet respectable) email process is now a permanent addition to my email signature. 

It tells everyone what my email process is, why it is important and what to do if their email needs my immediate attention.

It demands that people respect my time and reminds me (and the people I work with) that I take my time and attention seriously.

What expectations should you set?

What’s holding you back from taking control of your day?