Recently I read an amazing article about the management of email and how it can completely monopolize your work day if not careful.  I can’t say that I have strictly adhered to the direction in the article but I have attempted to change my habits.  Part of the study discussed how a single email you receive can completely divert your attention from the task you were doing for as long as 15 minutes, even if you are just sending a quick response.  By the time you come back to the task you have to figure out where you left off, what you were doing and re-engage.  If this happens during your whole day you can’t accomplish anything.  So here are some tips I picked up that I thought were excellent.

• Turn off all alerts your email client throws at you, popups, sounds, icons in the system tray, etc.  These can all be disabled no matter what email client you are using.  They are completely distracting and unnecessary.
• Change your habit of keeping your email open and in front of you all the time.  Every time a message comes in you can be on your heals to respond.  Its better to allow yourself 15-30 minutes two or three times a day to respond to messages or send out correspondence.  This will give you time to perform your regular job tasks without constant interruption.  Its much more efficient this way.
• File or delete email that you have either handled or is not necessary.  Many people get cc’d on email and to me that just means its for my information but not something I need to deal with.  So I read and delete it.  If its important I file it into a folder so I can find it later.  I don’t keep email piling up in my inbox.  It makes it impossible for me to know what I still need to deal with.
• Figure out if you use your email as a ToDo list or as for Correspondence.  Depending on your specific use of email it can greatly change the way you use it and manage it.

I hear a lot of “but wait, if I don’t respond to an email immediately someone might get angry”  Well if that’s the case and its that important, the phone works, use it.