You would think that something seemingly simple like answering emails would not be a great source for increasing your productivity, but just think about the following:
- How many times a day is your attention diverted away from what you’re doing because an email arrives?
- How much time do you spend every day sorting and deleting junk emails?
- How much time do you spend reading and answering emails every day?
- Do you prioritise emails by importance or do you just try to get everything answered as quickly as possible?
- How large a percentage of the emails you receive from colleagues, clients or business partners are relevant to your company’s, your personal objectives and/or job tasks?
Chances are that you will quickly realise that you are easily wasting away 2 – 3 hours every single day doing things that are completely irrelevant in terms of reaching your goals and aspirations. Does this mean that you’re only doing a 5 – 6 hour working day or does it mean that you end up spending 2 – 3 hours extra in the office in order to do your job? Does this, in turn, mean that you’re one of those stressed out individuals who never has time for his/her friends and family and are always tired because you’re working a 12 hour day? Why not start by dealing with the biggest time waster of all in your daily life… your email?
Over the next few months you will see a number of articles on how better to handle your emails in order to improve productivity, but here are a few quick tips to get you started:
- Allocate two or three short periods a day (e.g. 15 – 20 minutes each) to read and respond to email – and DON’T let it interrupt you for the rest of the day. Personally, I read my emails at the start of the working day, just after lunch and again as the last thing I do before leaving the office, which leads me onto rule no. 2.
- Always clear your inbox at the end of the day. A cluttered inbox is like a cluttered desk. It stresses you out and means that you feel behind before even leaving the office. This is a vicious circle that is to be avoided.
- Use “Folders” to organise your emails
- Set up rules for handling newsletters so that they automatically go into folders where you can then allocate time to read them on a daily or weekly basis.
- When scanning your emails quickly determine the IMPORTANCE and URGENCY of each email. If it’s important AND urgent, make sure you respond to it right away.

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