Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and Inc. all provide advice columns about how to avoid meeting and email overload. The articles are helpful. They often contain relevant ideas that can be easily implemented.
However, my suggestions for avoiding email overload might be the easiest to use. None require using a timer or special technique. They won’t focus on getting to inbox zero. (I get there anyway. I have a thing about notifications. A problem, I know.) My methods rely on tools and practices already in hand rather than downloading yet another application.
Close Out The Web Browser
I get more done every day by closing out the web browser. At the very least, I close the email tab. Out of sight, out of mind—something like that. Regardless, checking out of my email lets me focus entirely on the work ahead, which I need when writing about tech and specs or SaaS. Other times, I simply need to close my email so that I can enjoy writing. I find that the fewer distractions I have, the more I fall into the writing rhythm.
Not that I’m not responsive. I am. I just decline to be obsessive, no longer requiring that I respond to an email within ten minutes flat. (Most emails aren’t emergencies. If the situation is an emergency, my clients know how to reach me.) A person can wait an hour or so. Plus, I check email at set hours throughout the day, applying a sort of schedule or checking into it when I need to send an article or white paper to a client.
Decrease the Notifications
The next tactic is due to upgrading my phone. My current email settings require that I manually open the application before new messages appear. When I first got the phone, I initially pondered changing the settings to their usual, automated state.
I then experienced two days of unadulterated freedom from notifications, and that was that. Again, I open the app regularly, every few hours or so. I don’t, however, let the app and its notifications control me. I control it.
Since making those alterations, I don’t know that I win more at work. I’m self-employed. What do I know about winning at work in the traditional workplace? I think I’m winning, though. It certainly feels that way.
Image: ThoroughlyReviewed (Creative Commons)