Be Master Of Your Inbox

Remember, please that my work as a productivity consultant doesn't mean that I teach folks how to do more faster, more faster, and then faster still, until you fall apart. My purpose is to guide folks to identify the tasks that are profitable for them, and to focus on those tasks as their highest priority, all the time striving to maintain a profitable level of function in each profitable area of activity. In other words, There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Such is often the case with email.

How many times do you check email every day? How much time does it take? How much of your email in the office is official and how much is unofficial?

Our purpose is true to the basics of economics; that everyone works for incentives, i.e. Your company exists for financial profit. Every worker works for the incentives of cash and other benefits.

My intention is to help you accomplish your required tasks with less time in the workplace, for a non cash benefit: More time for your personal interests....more time off the job. This will create an environment of increased motivation and better creativity. Bosses and supervisors will do well to use this incentive with employees whenever possible. It will benefit your work environment and, in time, your bottom line.

Now, to you, the reader, whether you are the owner, boss or worker, you should get your email habits under control because that action will reclaim much wasted (unprofitable) time and permit you to finish your day's work sooner, without cheating your email duties and without working faster and faster.

The solution is not difficult. First get a good count of how many times a day you check email, and how long you spend each time you check it. This will vary, so simply add up all the minutes you spend handling email on a random day...and note how many times you went to your inbox. After you use my plan for a few days, measure again and compare.

For the day after, set a definite time and promise yourself that you will only check email two times for the whole day. Decide on your times before you leave work today. Twice a day, that's all folks. This will work for most people. If you must have super responsive email for customer service support, you can set up an autoresponder to respond to each customer with a form letter for you, or you can automatically outsource and forward those emails to someone who can answer 95% of them for you, from a list you provide.

Do whatever it takes, but reduce your email checking to twice daily, with a view towards once a day after about 30 days on the two times a day schedule. If you find it necessary, you can send all your contacts a short email explaining that in order to give better service you will be answering email twice a day and give the hour that you schedule that for. Then they will know that if they get an email to you before your 11:00 check, they will get an answer very quickly. Also, they will know that if they miss the 11:00 check, they will get a response between 3:00 and 4:00 P.M.

Get yourself mentally ready before you go to your inbox. Determine that you will aggressively delete any obvious spam on sight, before you get tempted and distracted. Then, open each message thatis work related and either answer it or flag it for special action. Make every effort to respond to each one as you open them, however, you may have to put some in the pending mode, if research is required. If you have help, you may want to have a helper find out why Mrs. Allen's order was not packed properly and send her an apologetic response and a refund, for instance. Emails that are personal should be left unopened until all your work is done for the day. I use separate email addresses for different categories of correspondence and open each inbox only at its appropriate time.

Yes, this sounds rigid. That's because it is serious. We're talking about your livlihood. If you are among the majority of people who just kind of float along, going with the flow... whichever way the current runs, who knows where you'll end up? If you are among those few who want to rise to the top, ahead of your peers, this kind of management of your work habits, focused on productivity will help you to set a certain course to your personal definite destination, and will make it possible for you to arrive successfully. You can do it. I know you can. You just need to decide to navigate towards success, and then take the first step. The second and third steps will then come more easily.

By: Sergeant Carpenter

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Get more information and more free tips on how you can increase your productivity by going to Sergeant Carpenter's site for effective business managing You can also sign up for a free consultation at his site.