Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to cope with a high
Speaker 1: volume of email when you still need to get other
Speaker 1: stuff done. With the number of messages that many of
Speaker 1: us receive, we could spend our work days doing nothing
Speaker 1: but replying to emails. In a recent episode, we covered
Speaker 1: a hiers survey finding that people on average received about
Speaker 1: a hundred eighty messages a day and spent one third
Speaker 1: of their work time processing email. That episode featured tips
Speaker 1: on being a better email sender. Today's episode is about
Speaker 1: how you can become a wiser email recipient, getting the
Speaker 1: benefits of email while still getting the rest of your
Speaker 1: work done. The first strategy turn off those notifications already.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've heard this advice a million times, yet
Speaker 1: many people still work to the soundtrack of pings and swooshes.
Speaker 1: This does not help anyone's productivity, So today, do something
Speaker 1: about it. When you get to work, adjust the settings
Speaker 1: on your computer and phone so that when you receive
Speaker 1: an email, you don't hear it. Even better, close the
Speaker 1: email window on your computer and move your email icons
Speaker 1: somewhere other than the home screen of your phone. That way,
Speaker 1: you won't see the increasing number of new messages. Email
Speaker 1: can wait until you're ready to handle it. The second
Speaker 1: strategy designate a few times a day for email instead
Speaker 1: of checking email continually. In an article for the Harvard
Speaker 1: Business Review, Ron Friedman compares reading email as soon as
Speaker 1: you receive it to going to the grocery store every
Speaker 1: time you notice you're low on something in your kitchen. Sure,
Speaker 1: you could run to the grocery store as soon as
Speaker 1: you see you're on the last half box of cereal,
Speaker 1: But wouldn't you be better off putting cereal on the
Speaker 1: grocery list and continuing with what you were doing. You
Speaker 1: can go to the grocery store later and get everything
Speaker 1: on your list at once. We gain similar efficiencies by
Speaker 1: handling all our email at specific times every time we
Speaker 1: switch activities. There's a cost. When you pause your work
Speaker 1: to read an email. You're losing not just the time
Speaker 1: it takes to read the email, but also the time
Speaker 1: it takes to regain focus. According to research, Freedman sites,
Speaker 1: it can take a full twenty minutes before you're back
Speaker 1: in the zone. And while that might be worth it
Speaker 1: for an email from your biggest client asking for a
Speaker 1: new proposal. It's not worth it when what's in your
Speaker 1: inbox is a message reminding people about office fridge policies.
Speaker 1: So when should you check email, You should avoid your
Speaker 1: best most focus hours. Reserve that time for work on
Speaker 1: important projects. Try processing email when you're a little sharp,
Speaker 1: like in the half hour before lunch or during a
Speaker 1: short break between meetings. Some experts discourage dealing with your
Speaker 1: inbox at the beginning of your day at all. That's
Speaker 1: because it's so easy to get caught up in what's
Speaker 1: in there that you crowd out other priorities. Indeed, time
Speaker 1: management guru Julie Morgenstern called her best known book never
Speaker 1: check email in the morning. And if you can follow
Speaker 1: that advice, you might be surprised at just how much
Speaker 1: you get done. But if your workplace is such that
Speaker 1: people expect email responses quickly, consider handling email once an hour.
Speaker 1: Even spending fifteen minutes in your inbox and then forty
Speaker 1: five minutes out allows for concentration on the high value
Speaker 1: work you were hired for. If someone can't wait forty
Speaker 1: five minutes for a response, well then they need to
Speaker 1: rediscover the calling function on their phone. My last tip
Speaker 1: during your designated email times, process email rather than just
Speaker 1: checking it. Many people look at email as soon as
Speaker 1: they see it, and then glance at the same messages
Speaker 1: again and again every time they return to their inboxes.
Speaker 1: This is inefficient. Instead, once you've decided to sit down
Speaker 1: and deal with email, get yourself as close to current
Speaker 1: as makes sense. If a quick response or action is required,
Speaker 1: do it. If a conversation or lengthier project is called for,
Speaker 1: make a plan for accomplishing it, either by creating a
Speaker 1: calendar item or adding it to your task list. Email
Speaker 1: can easily expand to fill all available space, so if
Speaker 1: you want to spend less time on email, you have
Speaker 1: to commit to giving it less space. If you do,
Speaker 1: you'll be more efficient, you'll create more time for deep work,
Speaker 1: and you'll feel calmer while getting more done in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Okay, Hey, everybody, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's b The number
Speaker 1: four then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot
Speaker 1: me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart
Speaker 1: media dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out with
Speaker 1: all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward to
Speaker 1: staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of I
Speaker 1: heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
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