"If I just had a few more hours in each day...!"

I hear this from my coaching clients all the time. And even though each of us has only 24 hours in each day, there is a way. This issue is devoted to helping you find more hours in each day. It IS possible!

The opportunity lies, believe it or not, in your inbox.

I am continually amazed at how much time is wasted by individuals, and by workgroups, because of less than efficient email practices. These are habits that people have evolved, over time, and without intention of being inefficient. But the fact remains that there are many small tweaks that can allow you to reclaim an hour or two each day, which translates to 5 to 10 hours per week, which can translate to hundreds and hundreds of hours each year.

So why not start out this New Year working on new habits that will give you that extra hour or two?

And in the next few weeks, we will release three complementary 10 to 15 minute videos, each populated with lots of amazing tips that will help you reclaim the hours you are losing because of email. Then, in the last week of January, be on the lookout for the launch of a compilation of many of these tips that will get you out of your inbox and into what is truly important in your life.

Two Times is Enough (10 second read)

Don't Even Think of Email mailing after Midnight. Really. (15 second read)

Emailing while on the Phone – Not Smart! (10 second read)

• Each email you open takes time. Each email you send to others takes their time. Each email you send to a lot of people takes a lot of their time. Email is a collective time suck.
• Every time you check your email, you have chosen that action as your top priority of the moment. Is it really?
• The more email you send, the more email you will get. Email should not always be your default communication tool, consider the best form of communication before you start typing.

Seven Tips to Streamline the Handling of Your E-mail (20 second read)

Little Things You Can Do to Greatly Reduce the Amount of E-mail You Receive (20 second read)

Here are three motivators for the month:

• Challenge yourself to send 10% fewer emails. You will not only reduce the workload of the recipients, but you will most likely receive fewer back.
• Resist using "reply all." Only the most important people to receive your response.
• Get on the international Clean Out You are Inbox Week bandwagon, the last full week of January, and commit to having an empty inbox by the end of that week!

Our best deal this month is the series of email productivity videos that will be released on January 12, 16, and 19. These are complementary, and will go straight to your reclamation of hours that you can use to do what's truly important in your life, so please look for those announcements.

If you received this newsletter as a forward, please click here to make sure you are on our mailing list to receive those videos.