How To Stop Checking Your Email All The Time
Are you one of those people who are always checking their email?
If you are, …..Stop. Stop it right now.
Wanna know why you should?
Because it is KILLING your creativity. Ever hear of the Sunday Scaries? You know, the feeling that people have when they can’t mentally prepare themselves for Monday morning? Yeah, that feeling. That dreading feeling of, ‘Oh shit, Monday is almost here!’ Yeah….if you get that…it’s probably because you’re either addicted to your work or feeling overwhelmed, which can cause you to increase that anxiety by trying to get ahead of the speeding train that can be your email inbox.
Number one….if you get that feeling, that is your subconscious telling you that something is wrong. You don’t like your work, you don’t like what you do, and you certainly don’t like where you are in life, meaning that you are living for the weekend and waiting for the next week to quickly pass by as fast as possible. Or, even worse….you LOVE your work but are feeling completely overburdened with to-do’s, FYI’s, and ‘Before I forget’ type emails.
So, what can you do about it? Work harder? Throw yourself into the fray? Work overtime to get into the next level and phase of your life? Spend those precious hours grinding and away from your family and friends responding to people that can easily wait for a response until tomorrow?
No. The key is to actually do a little bit less, and one of my favorite life hacks has actually been focused on reducing the amount of time you spend on email. The sole purpose and reason is that when you check email less frequently, you are more apt to send fewer messages.
Checking our emails can act as a trigger, and we so often get caught in the trap of using our email as our own ‘To-Do’ lists, and that can cause us to become reactive as opposed to being proactive with what we are actually trying to do on a day-to-day basis.
One of the biggest and best keys is to actually only check email at certain times, such as Tim Ferris’ tactics of checking for 15-minutes at 9 am, 1 pm, and 5 pm. Only spend 15-minutes responding to actual emails that can be solved right then and there, or actually warrant a response.
How many times have you gotten unnecessary batch emails or been copied on something that seems frivolous and not needed? Probably too many times. And if you can’t immediately fix the issue right then and there - guess what? Goodbye.
More pro tips…..set rules for having meetings. Don’t respond to big questions over email when something can be hashed out face-to-face. Creating unnecessary back and forth can be painful, and something that doesn’t need to happen. Not to mention, instead of asking more questions, you want to be offering suggestions and solutions to certain things. Have an action plan for setting up meetings, phone calls and face to face discussions instead of back and forth chains that go nowhere fast.
Lastly, are you checking your email al the time because you’re bored? Or, because it’s linked on your phone and it’s become an auto-habit that you cannot rid yourself free from?
Let your creativity flow and focus on your biggest task at hand earliest in the day and avoid using your inbox as a reactance way to get work done. You don’t owe anyone an immediate response (thus, the point of email), and if they need you, they should have your cell phone or will likely use the URGENT on your email chain.
Focus on your biggest task of the day first! Stop checking your email late at night and on the weekends….it takes you away and puts you into reactive mode and forces you to feel like you must respond to something here and now, when you actually don’t! Take control of your mind, life and be in the present. Unsubscribe, disable those notifications and make email not your priority, but an actual value added tool that enhances your life and communications. You don’t need to be on it more than you think you do.
When you go through the motions and reduce the clutter, noise, and notifications, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how much more time and effort you’ll have into being able to get things done quickly, and efficiently. You got this.
Have another email tip?
Drop me a line and let me know what you’re thinking about for other life hacks.