Checking email is addictive. A tiny voice on the side of your mind says, “Someone may have sent you something. I wonder what it could be.” That tiny voice is as insistent and persistent as a ringing telephone. Who can resist answering it?
You can.
This miniscule nugget of advice will multiply your productivity if you’ll only take it seriously. It’s so simple and so liberating to set aside two times a day for scanning it (and deleting most of it anyway) and taking care of replies. To inform your friends and colleagues about your new habit, simply set up the vacation autoresponder on your email program with a message that goes something like this: I’m trying to streamline my time in the office to increase my productivity and try to conquer the growing stack on my desk. In order to do this I’m only checking my email at _________ o’clock and ______ o’clock. If you have a true emergency, give me a call. Sorry for any inconvenience. Thanks for understanding, etc.” Those who know you will have your number already, and those who don’t know you probably won’t have an emergency anyway.
Never, never, never check email first thing in the morning!
Checking email before diving into the day’s work creates a mental energy drain right off the bat. Sorting through the unwelcome reports and lengthy newsletters takes more time than we realize. We send out replies and grin at cute forwards instead of focusing, organizing, and using those most productive moments to make real progress. Seriously, this tip should be stickied to every office cubicle in the nation.
If you don’t think you’re addicted to checking email, try this and see how your mind likes it. Try it for just one day. You’ll be amazed at the results.
Set email checking times for mid-day and shortly before you finish work, say at noon or 1:00 and an hour before you leave the office. This allows you to have your mornings uninterrupted and you can also to take care of details as you close up shop for the day.
I challenge you. Check your email only twice a day for the next work week and marvel at how much you can get accomplished without it. What a relief! That niggling little voice has a button on its lip at last!
My husband is a rural mail carrier. Since we’re so close to Christmas he has been helping his co-workers deliver packages when he has time. Today he had a package to deliver in a very rural area and had to get special directions to find the place. The regular carrier told him that the house was down a long lane. About halfway down the lane a large sign said, “If you’re this far, you’re too far. Turn around.” Then a couple of hundred yards later, another sign said, “This is your last chance.” If he had been driving his mail truck, he would have had more confidence but he was driving his personal vehicle with no MAIL signs on it. He eased the car up to the porch, left the package and hightailed it out of there with images of an old geezer with a shotgun coming out behind him. So much for goodwill toward men! 
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