Just wanted to give you all a quick update on my attempts to break away from an awful habit of checking e-mails every 10 minutes, which I’ve briefly stated in my recent Reclaim Your Time! article.
It’s now been just over a week, and I already see that this experiment was a success:
- Discipline
I’m now reading my e-mails only at 9:30, 12:30 and 15:30. There are no exceptions, and there wasn’t a single day when I failed to accomplish anything planned for the day due to a postponed e-mail session. - Productivity
I definitely gained productivity – and it clearly shows in my daily planner, cause I’m constantly getting more and more things done on any given day.
I also enjoy larger periods of time when I’m fully focused and concentrated on a particular task or just read some documentation. Until recently, all these things were quite possible, but required an additional effort on my part. Why try harder, if the same amount of things can be done in a smarter and relaxed way? ;) - Joy
I’m definitely enjoying myself more, firstly because of the successfull experiment I’m going through, and secondly because I’ve actually managed to reclaim time just like I was going to. - Better organization of my day
Not only I’m learning to align all the e-mail related activities to the designated times, but I’ve also learned to use these times as planning tools. In the morning, I can decide on a pattern for the day, for instane, read e-mail at 9:30 and immediately after this get something done. Some things may not necessarily have been dealt with in time if they were not attached to some simple action like reading e-mails.
That’s about it for the moment. I’m sure I’ll write a summary article on this experiment few weeks later, but even now I can see it’s been one of the best ideas I’ve chosen to follow through.