Back in June, I wrote a post called Email Mercy. I talked about how giving over huge chunks of my day to email means that I have almost no time to think and create things that will last much longer than the short-term firedrills that email creates. And I lamented that I really don’t like living a life where the most meaningful interactions are the ones that happen the least frequently.
At the end of the post I said I was going to do something to start tackling the issue, but I wasn’t sure what it was yet. Two months later, I’m still not sure, but after having many more freakouts about how email is causing slow death, I’m finally going to start experimenting to see if I can figure out any solutions that will bring a little peace to my inbox and help me get back to the important stuff.
So here we go with Day 1. For the next few days I’m going to experiment with one of the most common suggestions I’ve read for dealing with you inbox: don’t check your email until noon. But I’m going to tweak it just a bit, because for those of us who work from home and may end up working until 3 or 4 in the morning sometimes, noon would be the equivalent of 9 am, which would basically mean we would still be getting out of bed and practically jumping right into email.
So instead, I’m going to call this the 3-Hour Head Start: no reading email until I have at least three hours of work on projects each day. If I have meetings during that period, those count as “work other than email.” Most of my meetings and conference calls have a specific purpose and allow me a chance to connect with someone, so I’m going to let them exist in that 3-Hour Head Start space for now.
Approaching my day this way makes a lot of sense for a couple of reasons:
- From a neuroscience perspective, I’ll be taking care of the most important thinking tasks (projects that require my full attention) when my brain is fresh and energized, not when it is drained from staring at email.
- I’ll be able to concentrate on actually getting key projects done because I won’t be responding to the firedrills email creates, pulling me in a million different directions.
Love this! Bravo! I’m all in!
Cool! : )
I think it would be better if you’ll have 2 accounts: 1 for personal and 1 for professional use.In that way, you know that you won’t get distracted by other emails. It would also work to unsubscribe from emails that are not really important (e.g. facebook notifications) and lastly, to check your emails first thing in the morning by devoting, say, 30 minutes because if you don’t you’ll just be tempted for the rest of the day to do so. Good luck
Thanks Cathy! I actually already have four email accounts I monitor: one personal, one for online shopping/newsletters/memberships, one personal one for work and one general one for work. I do love having everything split up this way so that I can keep tabs on what’s happening in different areas of my life in an easy way. Checking email for even 30 minutes sucks me in way too much. So far, so good this morning. I’ve gotten a lot more done then I would on a typical morning, which is awesome.
At first I thought whoa! Four e-mail accounts! No wonder checking them takes all day. Then I realized I have that many too! Two are old college accounts though, so they don’t get much attention.
Good idea and good luck! =) The first 3 weeks are the hardest. Once you get past that, it should be easy
Thanks for the encouragement! I’m already loving making this change. I think I might just keep working for a few more hours. Getting soooooo much done! : )
Yah, like smoking or any other addiction?!
I am so impressed that you’re even attempting this! I check my email first thing in the morning…without even thinking about it! It’s rather sad, really…haha.
Perhaps I ought to try this too?
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed, by the way!
Thanks! : )
Give it a try – even just for one day. I think you might like it, although it takes a bit of getting used to.
HELLO….
Hi back!
I think I’d have to adjust this to specifically separate “reading” emails from “scanning” emails… I’d hate to show up in a meeting in the morning and discover that the email I won’t be reading until Hour+3 was pertinent for the meeting at Hour+1. Is that allowed? Scanning senders and subjects and only opening what seems directly (no, seriously… DIRECTLY) pertinent to the morning work?
Yup, good point. I’m kind of finding that. I was good for the first hour or two without even looking in my inbox, but some of my projects require some interaction with my inbox and there are sometimes things that are pressing that I need to look at. I’ll keep tweaking as I experiment! : )
Good luck! I can’t resist checking my email when the annoying little notification noise comes.
Susie xx
Thanks Susie! I turned any pop up or noise notifications off long ago – they were making me completely crazy! : )
OK, I love it: The day you decide to undertake this challenge is the day you’re Freshly Pressed. What are the odds?
I’m assuming you broke your 3-hour head start to approve comments and respond…right?
Regardless, congrats — great idea…
Haha – I know, right? And I forgot that I have my WordPress preferences set to email me everything time someone posts a comment or likes my post.
Posting on my blog and responding to comments was actually part of of my 3-hours of work I wanted to get done this morning before reading any emails, so I didn’t quite hve to break it. : )
Serendipitous that I actually came across this post today. I’ve been struggling with this annoying element in my life (and yes, work from home, and often til wee hours of the morning too) and out to find a solution for a few weeks now. So far, I’ve come up with ZILCH, other than to just not respond for “too long” by most standards (aka: when I feel like getting to it) and and surely annoying all those peeps who wonder if I’ve fallen in a hole….again.
My best hope at this point is that I just earn a new reputation as a “bad email responder” and everyone just comes to accept that “oh, she’ll get back to you eventually, she’s just one of those people that takes forever.”
Surely I can find a better solution though! I’ll be interested to see how your progress goes with your new plan. Good to know I’m not alone in the meantime
Definitely not alone! Email and I have been doing battle for months (if not years) and email unfortunately seems to win most of the time. I hate the idea of having a reputation as a bad email responder, but sometimes it just seems inevitable. I’m going to try experimenting with other tactics as well and will post whatever I try on my blog – I know that people are getting desperate to figure out how to deal with the email influx!
I should use the same rule for checking out other peoples blogs!…lol! Fab blog by the way!
)
Thanks! Sometimes falling down a rabbit hole to explore is good thing! : )
Nice post!
Thanks so much! : )
I like the idea! My phone being stolen has given me lots of non electronic interaction time, but also lots of not knowing I need to do something until it’s almost too late,so I don’t think I’d recommend that path. I’ve also read of someone setting up a 25 second delay on email and social networking sites so constantly checking them wouldn’t take time away form their day. I kind of feel like I’m rambling right now… Back to the original comment: I really like the idea, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out.
Yup, I do think there has to be some balance, depending on a person’s line of work, there can be things that are truly urgent. But the truth is that most things actually aren’t that urgent and waiting a few hours to respond usually won’t cause a significant problem. We’ll see how it goes!
Oooh, it is scary how much I relate to this!! I’m in exactly the same predicament — working and writing from home but addicted to the distractions of email (and FB) which can masquerade as part of work but really AREN’T!
Totally agree! We get sucked into email/FB etc because it is such an easy distraction and it tricks us into making us feel like we’re working.
Also, forgot to mention, if you’re anything like me you’ll be particularly distracted in the next 24 hours by feverishly watching your stats go through the roof! It felt to me like I was part of some video game when i managed to make it onto Freshly Pressed! Congrats though.
Yup! It’s been kind of crazy, but I appreciate having so many people get to see my site and interact with me.
very cool. And i love your look!
http://www.foundobjectbeachart.wordpress.com
Thanks so much! Love the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads on your site. : )
great post – I’m so bad at constantly checking e-mail when my blackberry dings! good luck!
Totally know what you mean! I turned off email notifications on my iPhone – now I have to actively open my inbox on my phone in order for it to download any new emails. It’s so much better that way! : )
Ha! I wonder if wordpress was testing your resolve today. Day one and if you have your ‘notify me by email’ box checked, then chances are you’ve had a hard day!
Well done on the fp!! And good luck on your challenge
Thanks! lol. Yup, my inbox has been flooded! But I actually don’t mind those emails since I don’t really respond to them from my inbox, I respond to them via my blog and feel that they are more of a conversation with whoever is reading what I post.
Oh wow… I tried this a long time ago and it did not work because the lure of email is so strong. Is there hope?
-Peregrine
So far, so good on day one, but we’ll see. I don’t think there is one perfect solution that works for everyone, so I’m going to experiment with a few.
It’s so simple it’s brilliant! I will try this myself too. I hope getting all this recognition here won’t fill up your inbox :S
Congratulations for having such a nice blog!
Thanks so much! I have been getting a lot of emails, but I don’t mind – it’s nice to interact with people who are reading my blog. I think the trick is setting aside some specific time to get work done so that I’m not constantly having my attention split between my inbox and whatever else I’m working on.
If I had a job where I could neglect my e-mail for three hours, I would so do this. As it is, my boss would probably kill me, and then resurrect me so I could make up all the missed work. But kudos to you for taking steps to eliminate a little mental clutter in your life. I’ve been doing the same, and I respect how hard it can be.
Thanks Jesse! There are definitely jobs out there that are largely driven by email and sometimes responding to email is a key part of the actual job (as it is for many customer service reps for instance). I think when it really becomes a problem is when email keeps you from doing your actual job.
Pretty sure my job would be in jeopardy if I didn’t check my email for the first three hours I came in. I think this is a cool idea, but doesn’t work for many…
Yup, being able to do this I think depends a lot on the type of job. However, I think there are also lot of jobs (and bosses) out there who make all emails out to be emergencies and urgent situations even when they aren’t.
There are a few dinosaurs out here who worked most of our lives without email. Actually, email-less is a much simpler, and, debatably, a more productive a way to live. At least it kept most of the BS at bay. Good luck.
Totally! I think if someone actually went through and calculated how much time email saves us vs. how much time it ends up wasting, the wasted time would come out winning.
I think this is an awesome thing to do. It’s funny how technology has basically taken over our lives but we can’t live without it now. It’s almost like a drug! I find myself checking my email as soon as I open my eyes in the morning. I only have two email accounts but I like your idea of multiple accounts so everything is sorted. Good luck!!!!
Haha – yep, I used to do the “roll over and grab my iPhone and check my email” thing first thing in the morning (or even in the middle of the night), but then I realized it was making it so that I never had a chance to actually relax. Stopped doing that a while ago and it made a huge difference! And yes, the multiple accounts is really helpful because I can concentrate on one thing at a time.
I’m going to give this a try…3 hours of no computer time in the morning does sounds like a great challenge. thanks!
Your welcome! Good luck!
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed! That little mail icon is sooo tempting though. But I definitely agree on how just 5 mins of reading and you’re sucked in to them all. Or how one small email from a client will take an hour to deal with because of having to look at/deal with any correspondence/material/contact regarding said email.
Good luck! Thanks for the great post!
Thanks and your welcome! One thing I found yesterday was that time moved much more slowly when I was just concentrating on one thing. In the past, it felt like five hours would fly by and I hadn’t gotten anything done.
It was a fluke that this happened today, but I didn’t check my email until around 1pm. I’d otten so much work done today. When I turned on my computer, I’d quickly determined that bein too lazy to power up my laptop was why. Good luck; I’ll be checking in.
Timothy Ferris has a great way…served me well midst the e-mail shit storm that is academia
~AR
I have to say that I genuinely share the same relationship with my e-mail!
you have this relationship with e-mail, I have it with my Facebook account.
Sad to say each resolve goes down the drain.
Hi there! nice post and very timely. I’m going to give it a try. Thanks for the inspiration
Hmmm, I must a Luddite or just abit ..fine.
I don’t have a cellphone. So no distractions at work. I used to subscribe to 2-3 work-related listservs but not at this time.
Really email doesn’t need to rule your life. Outdoors I’m cycling for awhile. Do I need to check my email??? What for? Emails is usually are not an emergency. Unless it’s one’s own child trying to communicate or a partner.
But it isn’t email, it’s just seeing incoming traffic activity on one’s own blog, right?
It’s amazing how we didn’t used to have these tools to communicate and now we act like we’re going to die without them. And, yes the past two days the inbox has been full of people connecting about my blog – but I do see that as little bit different than typical email. They generate more real conversation and connection than email often does.
I have three email accounts and almost no meaningless messages anymore. Because I ignored them. LOL. Now I say what I want, answer what I must and nothing more. Your strategy will likely lead to further strategies for minimizing email or other time consuming, non-productive online. At least that’s what happened to me. As I went along, I began to enjoy “off” a lot more. Best of luck with your plan
Totally – I can already see that “off” feels really, really good. : )
I tend to believe that if I get up early and get all of my emailing out of the way first thing in the morning, then I can concentrate on other things fully. NOT TRUE!! This would work if I wouldn’t keep going back to check…..and recheck……and recheck……
Your method would probably work much better for me. Good luck!
My significant other maintains that we are only truly productive 3 hours a day. I tend to agree. Sure we can function, and get things done but in terms of really utilizing our brain to it’s full/kinda full capacity? I think that you are on the right track by putting the thinking before the ritualistic act of checking email first thing in the morning.
In the times, when your world goes round with emails and online updates, I am sure there are more calmness tips and methods coming along the way
. It was good reading through, how horrible it is when you have an inbox full of mails and in order to not let it happen, we keep checking every email and responding to the same. I mean, the whole time goes away and the end result is-not so productive. In such a scenario, I admire your effort to think and then post on the same. But yes, fixing up a time or duration for checking emails is a good idea to save some time for productive tasks as well. As they say, “it’s always we keep doing the urgent, while important is more important.” 
good job
good job
I’m with you all the way. Zen Habits does say simplify your inbox. Do the important things first. Leave the email to downtime. I am most looking forward to your next few days!
Love it. I am thinking that I might try a small tweak on it for myself, though: when I finish work for the day, flag what MUST be done before I unleash the email beast. That might be a couple of hours of creative time, or it might be something else.
Email is a beast, that is for sure. Thank you for the suggestion on a way to tame it. Good luck with your experiment!
Really like this blog and try like hell to do it every day. But it is difficult for me. The other thing that has helped are creating rules or manage everything that comes into my inbox. That way, those things that I like to read, but don’t really NEED to read end up in a read file. When I get really busy, I can just go in and delete everything in the read file. Best of luck with your email dilemma.
Wonderful post. I have a similar problem of letting my computer take up way too much time in my life (reading news, emails, blogs, work related articles, writing), perhaps preventing me from having more time with flesh and blood individuals rather than virtual ones. Your post inspires me to have “Computer/Blackberry” blackout periods in my day. Will experiment. Thank you for your insightful analysis. And good luck !
You’ve probably heard this one, too, I’ll share it anyway.
Try to reply to any email in 100 words or less. If you cannot (for myriad reasons), file it into a folder to be responded to later and then schedule time into your calendar for dealing with that particular e-mail. Essentially, treat it like a “client” or “customer” – schedule an appointment!
Great idea! I think I might adapt this to my own habits and leave Facebook alone for the first few hours each day. I’m so badly into the habit of checking the overnight “news” it’s dominating my headspace from the second I wake up. Bad bad habit.
Good luck with your trial
maybe the problem is that you have too many email accounts.
have them all forwarded to one & create filters… that way work goes to a work folder, shopping goes to a shopping one etc.
i had the same problem, i would check it all hours of the day & night. then i started using 2 & would only check the persoinal one. now i use one & use filters. its great. try it.
Unless I’m expecting something really important I never check my email until after lunch and it is very liberating. There is nothing so important that can’t wait for a few hours.
That’s an awesome idea! I totally have an “email monkey” on my back that I need to get rid of.
I can only use work email at my office but I tend to use even that as a procrastination tool.
Great idea! I have long been a fan of getting onto Gchat when I check my email in the morning and I have, as of late, been keeping myself invisible so I can get actual work done before I allow myself an opportunity to chat with friends. It’s such a great time killer but also kills productivity.
Hope your three-hour head start is successful! Congrats on being Freshly Pressed
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
You should check out Tim Ferris’ blog: he has some great tips on how to deal with email, great stuff.
The saying, “All things in Moderation,” easily applies to this subject. As a sixty-nine year old, I am just as techy as the next person, in some ways. My e-mail exchanges are now limited to a half dozen individuals in my life that are important to me. I never want to get to the place that I forget my skills in one-to-one communication with others. My greatest pleasure comes from fellow/ladies that do WordPress, as I do with my own peotry blog of many years. Recently, I came to the decision, that I do not do Facebook….period. If it requires a Facebook account to read up on a subject, service or product….I just pass on it. Addiction comes in many forms. These so called social networkss drain us from the greatest opportunity before all of us, and that is to meet new people every day, in the routine of our daily life. To me, it is the only way to fly in true communication, and connecting with others in a real way.
love the idea! smart! And I also like your style of writing. good job!
Awesome – thanks so much!
Really enjoyed reading your post. I thought it was ironic that just beneath it there was a link to share by…email
Ha – well, not all email is bad. : )
I enjoyed your post, too. Although I am not sure the 3-hour head start would work for me in my job exactly, your inspiration has gotten me thinking about ways that I could free some time from the email fires in a way that WOULD work in my setting.
Good luck, and congrats on being FP.
Great! Glad I could inspire thinking about that – good luck!
Congratulations! It will make your life easier
Now sometimes I don’t check the email for the whole day (especially on weekend or holiday) It feels good!
Been there, done that
Yup – totally. Thinking I might start shutting down completely on weekends. : )
Similar to this concept is abandoning Facebook. There are a million other ways to communicate and I never really liked “status updates” anyway. So I announced a 1-year hiatus on my FB page and locked everything down so people can’t write on my wall. (Instead, they can call or email.) I thought it would be hard to quit, but you know what? I don’t miss it at all. You’ll enjoy the break from email if it is your Achilles Heel…
Definitely enjoying it so far! And I feel a lot better now that rarely use Facebook too. Facebook just emailed me to remind me that I hadn’t be there for a while…no kidding.
An awesome solution to a lager growing problem. A am rooting for you all the way. I can relate to the itching for the inbox because I do the same thing, just on my phone. Thank you for your incite
Thanks so much! : )
When I have critical timelines on projects I often ignore email until the last two hours that I’ll be at the office. If someone needs my attention, they usually knock on my non-existant door.
Exactly! : )
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Thank you for sharing that. I was waiting for someone with the correct perspective and background to post something.
You’re welcome – glad you enjoyed it!
Wow–I wish I could leave my email alone until noon!
I have recently started categorizing emails in folders so my inbox stays empty, and it has helped with the e-stress a lot.
Sometimes it is unavoidable depending on your job, but you could try even just a 30 minute or 1 hour head start before checking your email. Good luck!
Great Article. Really love the idea! Awsome!
Thanks so much!
Holy crap, this will make response number 100! It’s so nice seeing awesome people get attention on the interwebs…congrats Jessica.
This is beautiful and practical idea. I love it and I think Seth would be proud.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/01/misjudging-risk-and-bad-decisions.html
Thanks Ryan!!!! Love the connection to Seth’s blog – that’s exactly what people think: what are they going to miss, what thing is going to go wrong because they didn’t respond within a millisecond? I have loved, loved, loved experimenting with this – I haven’t been able to do it perfectly every day, but it has helped tremendously.
good idea. how has this 3 hour head start been working for you?
It’s been amazing! I haven’t always been able to make it exactly three hours, but I’ve strangely both been able to get more actual work done and keep my inboxes at close zero almost every day.
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