Do you check E-mails in the Morning?

Checking E-mails in the Morning?

Most “Time Management Experts” say to not check e-mail in the mornings when you first wake up. But, why do they say this?

·         There may be something upsetting in your e-mails

·         Your e-mails should not dictate what you are doing for the day

·         You will get off track early in the day

·         People will expect you to look at your e-mails in the morning

·         Reading e-mails provide a false sense of accomplishment

·         To train yourself to have willpower

I am sure there are other reasons…but let’s get REAL! Don’t most people check their e-mails in the morning?

When I was in high-school some 35 years ago, my driver’s Ed teacher told us that he wanted us to have the radio on to what we normally would listen to, at the volume we would normally listen to it. Why? Because he said, “There is no sense teaching you in a false environment. When you start driving on your own listening to the radio, you will have no idea how to concentrate, drive, and listen to the radio at the same time!”  I remember that lesson and I think it applies here.

No matter what people tell you you are going to look at your e-mails in the morning…aren’t you? Of course you are! Perhaps it is lack of willpower, curiosity, forgetting that you weren’t going to check, whatever the reason is who cares? You are going to check your e-mails in the morning. I get it! So let me give you advice on how to do so without it causing all the forewarned drama above.

Go to your in-box, set your timer for five minutes, if you find you need more time then reset it for another five minutes. You want to be mindful of the amount of time you spend each morning just to glance over your e-mails to ascertain which of them are important. Don’t open them yet, just make a mental note that you need to deal with whichever of them you feel could be important. Delete as many as you possibly can, junk or advertisements, so you don’t spend time glancing at them. If you can’t delete it without opening it then pass and go to the next.

Have one inspirational e-mail sent to your inbox each day. Whomever you chose makes no difference to me. Then read that e-mail first, ask for a productive/great/inspirational whatever makes you happy kind of day and then open those particular e-mails that appear to warrant immediate attention. If they can be responded to in a minute or less, then do so now. If they require action then schedule them on your to-do list. Then get off the computer for at least an hour, turn off the e-mail indicators on your phone, and get to work!!

Whatever you do, do not have an auto response that lets people know that you only check your e-mail at certain times of the day. First of all that just pisses off the person who sent you an e-mail two minutes after the last time you supposedly checked your e-mail. Second, there is no way that you can be 100% sure that every day you will check your e-mail at those specific times. And third, did I say it pisses people off? Oh, right and no one cares when you look at everyone else’s e-mail they only care when you are going to look at theirs. 

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet and to be released this June TimerOrganizer

www.timerorganizer.com