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Very interesting!! I know I check my email constantly throughout the day. It’s hard not to…. In addition, I’m checking @ replies through Twitter & Facebook comments!
I have read the whole “check email twice a day” stuff from time management ‘experts’ as well, but I think that’s a load of crap. I think that doing that can actually do more harm than good… What if a reporter wanted to interview you ASAP? If they emailed you at 10am and you didn’t check your email until 4pm, you would have lost out on that interview.
Not every email requires immediate attention, of course, but there are some that do! I think that your plan of keeping email open in a new tab, so that you can easily access it, but not get totally distracted by it is the way to go!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Crissy Herron. Crissy Herron said: Are you making the "20 Minute Mistake" with your business? http://bit.ly/28fome [...]
I work with Realtors so checking my email only 2 or 3 times a day is not an option. I think keeping it open in a separate tab means it only takes 10 seconds to see if there’s anything new, and if you have a program like Microsoft Outlook Webmail, you get a pop-up notifier that something new has come in.
The trick is training yourself to either check your email when you see the notifier or at a reasonable interval – in my case about every 15 minutes.
What’s worse? Having your email also come in on your blackberry/mobile so you have that to check too!
“They” say the notifications turn us into Pavlov’s dogs but there isn’t really an ideal situation is there? You either get interrupted or you may miss a very important email (like your realtors). For me interruption is the lesser of the two evils, but I really do need to keep a handle on my obsessive email checking habit
That is very true Crissy, missing important emails could be much worse for your business than being “productive”. My grandma is very sick in the hospital and not checking email at least every 30 minutes is not an option. We all hve to find a happy medium for what works best for us and our biz.
I would be out of business as a Virtual Assistant if I didn’t constantly check my emails but I use MailWasher Pro (they have a fanstastic free version too), and I check ALL my email accounts, as well as my clients’, in one fell swoop and can delete spam before I open Outlook.
I would be out of business as a Virtual Assistant if I didn’t constantly check my emails but I use MailWasher Pro (they have a fanstastic free version too), and I check ALL my email accounts, as well as my clients’, in one fell swoop and can delete spam before I open Outlook and see if there’s something I have to answer immediately.
Christie- love your stats on how you check email!
Enjoyed reading comments on the topic of checking email and wanted to share as well…Unless you are getting paid specifically to check email constantly, then it is impeding your productivity- period.
1. Work to remove the ‘urgent’ expectation from email- Communicate with your colleagues about how they can reach you in an emergency and manage urgent matters outside of email. A great tool for assisting with this is http://www.awayfind.com. It will allow you to get out of the inbox and be more productive.
2. For some, it is unrealistic to check email twice a day…but it’s also unrealistic to check it every time you hear a ding. So, try to reach some middle ground. If you’re currently checking every five minutes or less, set a timer for 30 minutes to focus on a project outside your email inbox. Progress, not perfection.
3. Consider also the costs of checking email constantly. Try being fully present and engaged in the conversation or meeting. How does it make you feel when you meet with someone who is constantly checking email?
4. It’s about having a system you trust- when you cherry pick through email, important but not urgent messages can get lost in the shuffle and you get in the mode of ‘putting out fires’. Create a system that helps you identify the task related to the message, order your priorities and allows you to concentrate on what truly should have your focus.