WEBVTT - Don't just check email 

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is to get out of the habit of

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<v Speaker 1>just checking email. Open your inbox when you've got the

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<v Speaker 1>time and resources to deal with a reasonable chunk of

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<v Speaker 1>your messages. Otherwise do something else. Many of us have

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<v Speaker 1>a complex relationship with our inboxes. Email is an incredibly

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<v Speaker 1>useful tool, but in cal Newport's recent book A World

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<v Speaker 1>Without Email, he makes a good argument that email in

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<v Speaker 1>fact makes us less productive. That's because people flit in

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<v Speaker 1>and out of their inboxes every six minutes on average

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<v Speaker 1>during the work day. If deep work gets done during

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<v Speaker 1>the work day, it is pretty much by accident. He

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<v Speaker 1>also argues that email makes us miserable. We can ignore

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<v Speaker 1>emails from strangers, but ignoring emails from close colleagues or

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<v Speaker 1>our supervisors feels to our caveman brains like we are

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<v Speaker 1>snubbing a member of our tribe, something we would never

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<v Speaker 1>do in person, and which makes us feel incredibly anxious.

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<v Speaker 1>So we check every six minutes and get burned out.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure we can really reach a world without email,

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<v Speaker 1>because well, email is still pretty cool. I love hearing

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<v Speaker 1>from listeners. You can reach me at Laura at Laura

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<v Speaker 1>Vanderkam dot com. I began my career as a journalist

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<v Speaker 1>and I am old enough to remember learning to report

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<v Speaker 1>without email. You could play phone tag with people all

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<v Speaker 1>day long, but for many people, email is a huge

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<v Speaker 1>time to ring. The goal is to minimize the time

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<v Speaker 1>spent on email without becoming a bottleneck for others. Fortunately,

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<v Speaker 1>it is possible to be responsive without checking nearly as

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<v Speaker 1>often as you are probably doing right now. Key to

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<v Speaker 1>this is to adopt a simple rule don't just check email.

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<v Speaker 1>In other words, don't open up your inbox unless you

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<v Speaker 1>plan to deal with a reasonable proportion of your messages.

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<v Speaker 1>Checking email typically entails looking to see what's there, maybe

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<v Speaker 1>handling anything pseudo urgent. Maybe I mean, maybe you just

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<v Speaker 1>read it and move on, looking at one or two

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<v Speaker 1>things that look fun or interesting, deleting an item or

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<v Speaker 1>two so we feel productive, and then getting out of

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<v Speaker 1>our inbox and saving the rest for later. Processing email,

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<v Speaker 1>on the other hand, means actually doing something with our messages.

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<v Speaker 1>That is, reading them, acting on them, responding to them,

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<v Speaker 1>deferring them to later by setting the emails to come

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<v Speaker 1>back or making a note in a planner calendar to

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<v Speaker 1>attend to them, or deleting them. Now, you might think

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<v Speaker 1>that checking email only when you can process them will

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<v Speaker 1>make you less responsive, but my guess is not really

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<v Speaker 1>observe yourself as you interact with your inbox over the

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<v Speaker 1>next few days. Many times when we check, maybe even

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<v Speaker 1>most times when we check, there is nothing of real

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<v Speaker 1>substance there. Now we might delete a few newsletters or

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<v Speaker 1>spam emails or irrelevant stuff, but absolutely nothing was gained

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<v Speaker 1>by this check other than interrupting what could have been

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<v Speaker 1>focused worktime. Other times we read messages but then don't

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<v Speaker 1>do anything about them, and unless the messages answered some

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<v Speaker 1>burning question of yours, again, this was pretty pointless. You

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<v Speaker 1>could have learned about this topic later when you were

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<v Speaker 1>breaking from your other work. Reading and then not dealing

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<v Speaker 1>with the messages can also mess with your workflow because

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<v Speaker 1>when you see the message again later, it looks opened

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<v Speaker 1>and you'll be trying to remember if anything happened with it.

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<v Speaker 1>Hence all those emails that began sorry I thought I

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<v Speaker 1>had responded. Don't do this to yourself. If you read

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<v Speaker 1>a message, either deal with it or come up with

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<v Speaker 1>an official method for deferring it till later. Often what's

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<v Speaker 1>happening with quick email checks is that we tell ourselves

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<v Speaker 1>we're being responsive, but really we are just bored. We

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<v Speaker 1>reach a little impassed with work and don't want to

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<v Speaker 1>push through. So hey, let me see what's in my inbox.

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<v Speaker 1>That's productive, right, it's still work. I'm not staring at

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<v Speaker 1>the clouds. But you know, you might come up with

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<v Speaker 1>some cool ideas staring at the clouds when you take breaks.

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<v Speaker 1>And as for challenging work, far better to push through,

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<v Speaker 1>get to a natural stopping point, and then process emails

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<v Speaker 1>more fully. Now you may be thinking, I have to

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<v Speaker 1>check email in case I get an urgent message. And

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<v Speaker 1>if you are in a role where you do get

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<v Speaker 1>truly urgent messages by email, well you may not have

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<v Speaker 1>the power to force people to call you instead. But

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<v Speaker 1>if you are in this position, you can still reap

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<v Speaker 1>some efficiency gains by processing email in discrete chunks rather

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<v Speaker 1>than flitting in and out all day. Try checking every

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<v Speaker 1>half hour for those truly urgent messages and then shutting

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<v Speaker 1>your inbox for the rest of the time. You can

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<v Speaker 1>do a longer check every few hours or maybe even

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<v Speaker 1>once a day. Half an hour is not too long

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<v Speaker 1>for anyone to wait. There are a million reasons you

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<v Speaker 1>might be out of your inbox for half an hour,

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<v Speaker 1>but getting that uninterrupted time back is priceless. When we

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<v Speaker 1>can loosen the hold that email has on us, we

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<v Speaker 1>can get a lot more important work done and feel

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<v Speaker 1>less frazzled and distracted. So stop checking email here and

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<v Speaker 1>there when you are bored. Do something else, like read

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<v Speaker 1>a poem, count your blessings, write in a journal, listen

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<v Speaker 1>to this podcast. You'll probably feel a lot better in

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<v Speaker 1>the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

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<v Speaker 1>to making the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd

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<v Speaker 1>love to hear from you. You can send me your tips,

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<v Speaker 1>your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,

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<v Speaker 1>Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's b E

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<v Speaker 1>the number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can

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<v Speaker 1>also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at

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<v Speaker 1>i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled

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<v Speaker 1>out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look

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<v Speaker 1>forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

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<v Speaker 1>of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,

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<v Speaker 1>visit the i heart Radio app Apple podcasts, or wherever

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