1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:06,199 Speaker 1: Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,280 Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to spend less time on email. 3 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 1: Email is an incredibly useful tool. I started my career 4 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:18,120 Speaker 1: working as a journalist, and I learned to report before 5 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: a lot of people had access to email. It was 6 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: a very different experience. Trying to get people on the 7 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:26,960 Speaker 1: phone was often tough. Sources would call you back while 8 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: you were on the phone with someone else, so there's 9 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,480 Speaker 1: a lot of phone tag and since you often had 10 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 1: to go through gatekeepers to get people on the phone, 11 00:00:34,280 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: it was tempting to keep calling the same people you 12 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:40,680 Speaker 1: knew would talk with you. Email has opened this all up. 13 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:45,920 Speaker 1: Everyone is more accessible. This is awesome in some ways, 14 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:50,199 Speaker 1: and it's also a problem in some other ways. Accessibility 15 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: means anyone can email anyone anywhere in the world at 16 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 1: any time, and so we do. I don't have to 17 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:00,520 Speaker 1: tell you that email overload is the cause of an 18 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:05,760 Speaker 1: incredible amount of workplace stress. People feel constantly behind. In 19 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:09,760 Speaker 1: My time management fable Juliette's School of Possibilities, In one scene, 20 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,520 Speaker 1: Riley notes that the number of unread messages in her 21 00:01:12,520 --> 00:01:16,320 Speaker 1: inbox appears to be rising like seconds on a Stopwatch. 22 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:19,680 Speaker 1: People have told me that reading that scene has made 23 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: them feel incredibly anxious. So I wanted to share a 24 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,040 Speaker 1: strategy that one before Breakfast listener wrote in to tell 25 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,520 Speaker 1: me was working for her. She's a project management consultant 26 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,720 Speaker 1: working for global clients. That means that I can receive 27 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: emails at all hours of the day. She writes, I 28 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: often wake up in the morning to a full day's 29 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:41,320 Speaker 1: worth of emails from Asia and a good chunk from 30 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: Europe as well. Usually by the time I get through 31 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:46,960 Speaker 1: my responses, the American emails are starting to roll in, 32 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,560 Speaker 1: with Eastern time emails through my workday and Pacific time 33 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: emails after I've left the office. When I first took 34 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: on this position, she writes, I'd be answering emails at 35 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,320 Speaker 1: five am, nine am to five pm, and then into 36 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: my evening. This not only led to burnout, but also 37 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,720 Speaker 1: my responses were less detailed than they should be, and 38 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: I was being distracted from my other tasks and my 39 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: personal life. So she writes, she discovered email batching. Here's 40 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:19,400 Speaker 1: what she did. I turned off email notifications entirely and 41 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: set two one hour long blocks into my calendar. One 42 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:25,680 Speaker 1: in the early morning for Asia and Europe, and one 43 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: in the afternoon for the Americas. I then stopped responding 44 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:32,520 Speaker 1: to any emails not labeled urgent outside of this time. 45 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:35,359 Speaker 1: So now, if you're listening to this, you may be 46 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,360 Speaker 1: wondering if all our listeners clients got angry and decided 47 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:41,840 Speaker 1: to find other consultants who would respond instantly. The answer 48 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: is no. It was amazing how quickly, without saying anything, 49 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: clients responded to the shift, she writes. If anything urgent 50 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 1: came up, they used their phones, which is something we 51 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 1: too often avoid. It allowed me to stay on task 52 00:02:57,280 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: during the rest of my workday while also giving thought 53 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,960 Speaker 1: responses to emails during my designated time blocks. Sometimes I 54 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: need more than an hour, she writes, and sometimes I 55 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 1: need less, but setting the time in advance allows me 56 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: to be more productive. I can be productive not just 57 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,919 Speaker 1: with email time, but all my time. She calls this 58 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:21,959 Speaker 1: a significant win. I agree. What this consultant realized is that, yes, 59 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: clients want her to be responsive, but the reason they're 60 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:28,440 Speaker 1: emailing her is that they think she has great ideas. 61 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:31,640 Speaker 1: They think she can come up with genius solutions to 62 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:35,600 Speaker 1: their problems. If she's constantly on email and constantly moving 63 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:38,440 Speaker 1: back and forth between email and other things. She can't 64 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: do that, plus her responses are going to be less 65 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: well thought through than they might be. The hard truth 66 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: here is that sometimes you need to disappoint someone's immediate expectation, 67 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,920 Speaker 1: such as that they will receive an immediate response, in 68 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:56,400 Speaker 1: order to meet the bigger expectation, which is an actual 69 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,760 Speaker 1: solution to their challenges. So i'd encourage you to try 70 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 1: back your email responses now. Don't worry. I'm not one 71 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: of those people who says you should never check email 72 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: in the morning or only once per day. For most people, 73 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: that's really just not workable. You'll notice that our project 74 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: management consultant said she would answer stuff marked urgent, and 75 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 1: if she's doing that, that means she's looking at her 76 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:20,440 Speaker 1: inbox more frequently than twice a day. It makes sense 77 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:23,600 Speaker 1: if someone emails you that your one thirty meeting is canceled, 78 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,719 Speaker 1: you'd probably like to know that. If you're not getting 79 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,159 Speaker 1: a whole lot of email from overseas, so you don't 80 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:31,120 Speaker 1: need to make sure you respond before the end of 81 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:34,320 Speaker 1: another continence workday, then maybe your response blocks can be 82 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: at different times, say ten thirty to eleven thirty in 83 00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: the morning rather than really early like six or seven am, 84 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:42,040 Speaker 1: and then three thirty to four to thirty in the 85 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: afternoon to get the stuff from the day. But setting 86 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:47,520 Speaker 1: two blocks of time to respond to emails and then 87 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:50,280 Speaker 1: maybe two other times to quickly check in for urgent 88 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:53,799 Speaker 1: questions means that you're never more than about two hours 89 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:56,720 Speaker 1: from seeing someone's email at least during your workday, and 90 00:04:56,760 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: that's pretty good. It also guarantees that you're spending about 91 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:03,120 Speaker 1: two and a half hours per workday on email instead 92 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:05,840 Speaker 1: of feeling like you're spending ten hours a day on email. 93 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:09,720 Speaker 1: You could possibly even work fewer hours and make more 94 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:12,160 Speaker 1: progress on your big projects if you're not in your 95 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:15,040 Speaker 1: inbox all the time. And hey, I am all in 96 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 1: favor of anything that helps people feel less busy while 97 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 1: getting more done. So think about your schedule and whether 98 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,359 Speaker 1: you could schedule two email response blocks and maybe a 99 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:28,359 Speaker 1: few more scheduled quick checks during the day. If you 100 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:32,719 Speaker 1: try it, let me know. And thanks to our project 101 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,440 Speaker 1: management consultant for sending in her schedule strategy. I'd love 102 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:38,479 Speaker 1: to hear from listeners, so if you have a question 103 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,400 Speaker 1: or a tip, please let me know. You can email 104 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:46,160 Speaker 1: me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. I'll 105 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: probably be responding, but not more than twice a day. 106 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and 107 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:55,560 Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time.