As a recent New York Times article pointed out, email can be as much of a time-waster as a time-saver. Yes, it has revolutionized communication — you can send messages any time of the day, asynchronously, to one person or a hundred. And you have an automatic record of your correspondence.
But all our checking and rechecking of email really cuts into our productivity. The problem? It takes a lot of time to get back on track after pausing to peek in your inbox (or read an instant message). Recent studies have shown that workers in information-intensive companies spend 28% of their day responding to unimportant interruptions (like non-urgent email) and then getting back to their tasks. 28%!
If this sounds familiar, here’s one place to start: reduce the frequency with which your email program checks for new mail. Many apps do this every five minutes — try changing that interval to 30 minutes or an hour. And resist the temptation to click the check/send button in between.
Here are instructions for changing that setting in Microsoft Outlook Express, and here are instructions for Mac Mail.
Now you can sit back, crack your knuckles, and get to work …
Technorati tags: email, email productivity, workplace interruptions, checking email
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