Email and Productivity

If you want to be efficient, do not open your email until at least 10am. Do not peek. Do not IM. Do not check Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, or Twitter, or anyplace else on the web.

Productive people get up and get on with doing the things they have decided are important. Reacting to someone else is not productive, nor is it efficient or effective. It is difficult to read an email without reacting and you are reacting to someone's priority, not yours.

Next, decide the clock time and a certain amount of action time to read and react to email. Quickly scan your inbox and prioritize, file, or delete as necessary. This should take no longer than ten minutes. Then go back and react to the priority items and attack them. When one hour has elapsed, go back to your priorities.

You might need to get into your email to finish some of your most important to-dos, but can you get 80 or 90 percent done before you go into email and waste your time on other people's priorities

Research shows email: Creates stress, can be more addictive than alcohol and tobacco, and checking email frequently is the equivalent of dropping your IQ ten points. It also interrupts your progress. Happiness is also important, so after you have finished your high priority projects, reward yourself by reading my Friday Thoughts.