Addicted to Email?
August 29th, 2010 by jumpinjackflash | Comments Off | Filed in Organizing, Time ManagementDo you check your email when you arrive each day and then let it dictate what you achieve that day? At the end of the day do you feel like you haven’t completed as much as you’d like? Does your email control what takes priority?
An average email takes 2.75 minutes to process. Obviously some will be deleted right away and others will have time taken for a reply or other action. So if you’re receiving 42 emails each day (which is the average), that’s about 2 hours a day spent on email alone. Go ahead and work out your average email habit per day.
Let’s bust some myths about email :
- Emails aren’t urgent. When things are urgent, people will call you.
- Email breeds email. The more you email, the more email you will receive.
If you use the techniques I’m about to share with you, you’ll be able to cut your email habit by a minimum of 50% per day. That’s an hour of time saved per day for the average user. But, if you do nothing it’s probable your email habit will grow and you’ll have even less time to spend on the activities that actually make a profit .
Here are 5 steps to reduce time spent on email by HALF and reclaim time to work ‘on’ your business, and the profit generating activities you should be focussing on :
- Move emails that require action from your inbox to a new folder, so you can start with a clean slate . Delete or archive the rest.
- Try not to send any emails that are longer than 4 sentences.
- Reduce incoming emails by telling people if you don’t require a response.
- Make sure you complete your most important job by 11am. Do not check your email first thing in the morning.
- Here’s the big one…..only check your email 3 times per day. Once at 11am, after you’ve completed your most important task, again at 1pm to action any replies from your 11am messages, and lastly at 4pm.
Check email only three times a day? Are you crazy , I hear you say. In order to manage the outcry resulting from only replying to emails 3 times a day just set up an auto-response email to advise your clients and co-workers that you have implemented a new email policy in a move to improved effectiveness, as it helps you accomplish more and serve them better.
Here’s what you can do straight away to cut your email habit by 50% and reclaim your time so you can spend it on making money . Don’t wait until tomorrow to start. Take action NOW; draft your auto-responder email and set it up to send to reply to any new emails you receive. Let your colleagues know in person, so it doesn’t come as a complete shock to them.
Click here for more time saving tips and free Microsoft Office Online Training including Outlook Video Tutorials.

