Email Ninja Moves: Challenging Email Expectations

This is Part 3 of the eSoup series about establishing healthy email habits and taming your rambunctious inbox.

Let's see a show of hands:

*Do you feel like you need to respond to emails within minutes of their arrival in your inbox?

*Do you find yourself compulsively hitting the "check mail" button every few minutes, expectantly waiting for the adrenaline rush of getting new mail?

*Do you feel like you're always checking, checking, checking, but not actually getting anything done?

If so, then you're not alone.

I don't know what the deal is, but I think whoever invented email may have unwittingly unleashed everyone on earth’s latent obsessive/compulsive tendencies.

It's like email is specially constructed as the perfect interruption machine, and it takes some serious strategy on our part to overcome its hypnotic powers.

So, how often should we check it?

It really depends on your job--for example, I check email twice a day most work days, once in the morning and once towards the end of the day.

This works for me, but if you're an agent for your government's counter terrorism unit, and you're awaiting important info about how to save the world and such, you're going to want to check it more frequently.

(Little known fact-- Jack Bauer checks his email at least every couple of minutes, 24/7, and to my knowledge this is the most exciting photo ever taken of anyone checking email.)

For folks like Jack, it’s a necessity to always be on call with emails, but I think most of us don’t have to be that radical about things. The idea is to check email as often as you need to and as infrequently as you can get away with.

Challenging Email Expectations

The first thing to do is decide how often you need to check email, then schedule email check times in your day.

That's right--do not leave your email open all day long and check continuously throughout the day and night.

Remember--You are not Jack Bauer.

I feel pretty safe in saying that the security of your country will not be in jeopardy just because you aren't on call with email all the livelong day. (This is just a guess though--I'm not entirely sure of the occupations of everyone who reads this blog!)

At all other times outside your designated email checking times, you might want to consider completely closing your email program so that you're not tempted to fiddle around with it and take a quick look-see. At the very least, you could disable your auto-check (this is what I've done with mine) so that you're in complete control of when your email grabs your attention.

Here's something to meditate on--When we stake ourselves out in our inbox, we’re being seduced by the immediacy of email, and we’re giving many tasks an elevated priority simply because they’re new.

Let’s all say this out loud: “The newest information we receive is not necessarily the most important (unless you're a counter terrorism agent)."

Whew--that feels good!

Believe me, the sooner you get out of hypnotic trance of your email and put an end to the check, check, checking, the weight of the world will be lifted off your shoulders, and you'll actually be able to concentrate on getting your work done. (Photo of Jack's Palm via)

This is Part 3 of the eSoup series about establishing healthy email habits and taming your rambunctious inbox. You can find Part 1, Zeroing Out Your Inbox here and Part 2, Filters To The Rescue! here.

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Comments

[Anne Ferguson]

I am not sure I could go so far as to close down my e-mail; however, I have long since "terminated" the alert systems that tell me I have new e-mails. Also, I have lots of rules, so very few arrive in my actual InBox -- they go directly into designated folders.

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hey Anne,

Thanks for chiming in! Yes, you're so right--turning off that auto-alert beep is a lifesaver. I also really thing that using the "rules" or filtering to direct incoming emails is a major time-saver. I don't know where I'd be without it either!

Cheers,
Sharon