I believe most of us have seen the movie “You’ve Got Mail.” We’ve
all experienced the donk sound of incoming e-mail or instant messaging.
What do we do when we hear that little sound?
I know what I do. I can’t resist stopping whatever I’m in the
middle of doing. I have to check on my messages. It’s probably the nosy side of
me, but I’m like a kid with a present. I’ve got to see what’s there in that
little in-box. Who sent what? And of course, I just know it’s important. You
know life or death situations, Chatty Cathy news, the latest Viagra sales
notice. . .
It
doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or if you’re on a job working, e-mail can be
one of the most time consuming, time wasting events of your day. It will eek
away minutes turned into hours. Priceless time you will never see again. As a
writer or a person in the work-field all progress stops for e-mail. I have four
helpful suggestions to keep you on track and become more efficient with your
time.
1. Set
a specific time of day to read and answer e-mail. Maybe you have so much e-mail
you need to set two times in a day to do this task, then do it.
2. Now
set a specific amount of time that you will spend on this same task of e-mail.
Use this time to take care of all business issues, questions, and correspond.
However, make sure you stay within your allotted time limit. Do not allow e-mail
to seep into the time of what’s really important.
3.
When going through your e-mail, ask yourself, is this important, can it wait,
does it need immediate attention or is it junk mail? Then delete all unnecessary
messages. By doing this and asking these questions, you will eliminate many
pointless time-wasting e-mails and thereby same precious time.
4. And
this is really the most important of all. Shut the e-mail program
and/or instant messaging off after you have dealt with your e-mail. (Yes, you
read it correctly, I do mean shut down the program). Don’t leave it open to
alert you that you’ve got mail or an instant message. The whole purpose
of setting a time of day and time limit is to keep from being interrupted during
your working (productive) hours.
By
practicing these four simple steps, you will find you are able to devote more
time to your writing or job. Now the wasted hours can now become productive
hours of accomplishments.
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