Limit E-mail Interruptions, Get More Done

Limit E-mail Interruptions, Get More Done –

To clean out that inbox, you need to get to it in an effective way. Minimizing interruptions is a great strategy for accomplishing more…

As healthy as it is to maintain a clean inbox, it is also important that you make your inbox operate on your schedule- not the other way around. E-mail messages have become one of the world’s most prolific interrupters. They show up at all times during your workday, and threaten to interrupt your train of thought every time that ding, flash, or vibrate occurs.

Interruptions are costly. The time it takes to “recover” from every interruption saps productivity from each of us. It is estimated that it takes the average worker an average of four minutes to recover from any interruption. If you are interrupted by e-mail arriving just twice per hour at work, that will cost you over an hour of wasted time a day.

So, as you work to clean out that inbox, do it intentionally, and in chunks of time. Go into your inbox at times that you choose, rather than each time a new message arrives. You will be amazed at how much more good work you get done and how much “free” time you seem to have.

Today’s Tip: Check and clean your inbox at a limited number of specific times- not continuously throughout the day. By limiting the number of times you check e-mail, you won’t have to recover your thought process as often and you will be more productive.