Are you aware of how much time you spend each day responding to e-mails?
Based on the work I have done with individuals it is a lot more than you think!
Most people respond to email first thing in the morning and then keep on responding to email throughout the day. Think about the number of emails you receive each day and how long it takes you on average to respond to each – you could be spending more than half your productive day responding to email!
Unless you have a very time sensitive business, try not to open your emails until you have spent at least one or two hours in the morning getting on and doing the work that you have identified as important and urgent. Have set times to respond to emails. You should have this time scheduled in your diary.
Turn off your email notifications and only check your email at set times.
When checking your email use the four D’s:
- Delete – if it’s a junk email, spam or something that you know you are never going to act on, delete it immediately. If it is a newsletter that you subscribed to and you no longer read, then unsubscribe from it.
- Delegate – who else can deal with the email? If you can, pass it on.
- Deal with – you have allocated time in your Default Diary to go through your emails, so if you have already read through the email, deal with it if it is going to take you less than five minutes.
- Defer – to an allocated time in your diary that you have set aside for focusing on specific activities likes customer relations, ordering, sales and marketing.
I would love to hear from you on how this information has helped you or if you have other tactics or strategies that help you get stuff done.