Week 6: Batch Your Email
KEY POINTS:
1. Email is one of the biggest culprits of distraction in the workplace and at home.
2. Week 6 should be devoted to learning how to batch emails - i.e. allocating specific times to check emails each day.
3. By implementing email batching, you will create an environment where you are focused on one task, and are no longer distracted or anxious due to the amount of emails you have to deal with.
“Either you run the day or the day runs you.”
As was discussed in Work Mastery, the frequency with which we check email is the biggest interruption we all face at work, and this problem extends to our home life as well. We feel like we must keep checking email so we stay on top of it. To deal with that, we encourage you to try email batching, which is reading and sending emails at very specific times during the day. Instead of responding to things constantly all day long, do it in scheduled blocks. This practice allows employees to enter into a flow state and do their best work without the added distraction from emails.
In order to batch emails, you must first understand how it works. For example, if you start your workday at 9:00 a.m. and you determine that you need three stops during the day to do emails, maybe you work from 9:00 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. on task. Then, from 9:50 a.m. until 10:10 a.m., you spend twenty minutes cleaning up your emails. When that’s done, you will not check your email again until 1:30 p.m.
With a set-up like this, you will understand that you are not to be constantly looking for emails. You can look at your email flow during the day and ask, “How often do I need to check them? How long on average does it take me to respond to them?” Then from there you can strategically build those times into your day so that you are no longer dealing with them nonstop.
If this may be an issue, speak to the appropriate individual in your company or organization to explain this strategy to them (and maybe even suggest that it be adopted on a wider scale). Once you get the green light to batch your emails and set aside particular times when you will manage correspondence, you will now have established a structure that will reduce anxiety and distractions that steal focus and limit effectiveness.
People think not checking emails constantly takes great discipline, but this is not the case. It just requires some systematic processes to be put in place.
In this week’s exercise you’ll be implementing a new practice: email batching. See pages 33 - 34 of The Focus Effect Workbook or click Here to download the exercise. After performing an audit of your current email practices, you will determine an optimal email schedule in which you will only read and respond to emails during those periods. This will help you maximize your productivity and decrease your stress levels.
Bonus article on why emails may be harming your productivity
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.