Life Of E's

In the same way that ants, termites, roaches, or any other bugs will come into your house (or office) uninvited, in essence email does the same thing. I think you will agree that it would be highly annoying and unacceptable for a person to be hanging around all the time, asking questions, reminding you of things you need to do, and never giving you any rest. Wouldn’t you feel the need to take action and defend yourself against such an interloper? Well….

How about if you take that same stance concerning the need to DEFEND yourself against the barrage of email? In particular, you need to DEFEND yourself from the encroachment of email. If you are reading this, I think I can safely assume that you know email can completely consume a day if you allow it to? Who’s in charge? You or your email?

If you want to defend yourself, do the following:

1. Turn it off. I don’t just mean to minimize your email. I mean to turn it off. I will make the assumption that you are already smart enough to have turned off all the little reminders (yellow folders, various sounds, etc.) to tell you that you have new mail, but you may find it irresistible to maximize the window that contains your email. Turn it off because it at least makes you think about it a little bit harder before you reopen the program. Note: If you have two screens, like I do (and which I heartily recommend), avoid the thought that keeping email open on one while you do your work on the other helps you to be more productive. It doesn’t. Use both screens to help you with the projects, tasks, and other work that you need to do…now, back to the focus of this article…
2. Establish no email zones or times. Maybe you decide that from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. is a no-email time. Or, you might designate Sunday afternoon as email-free times. If you’re designating no email zones, you might designate your bedroom, airports, your commute, the library…it’s up to you, but sometime every day and some time every week and some places must be email free. It’s your life – and you are in control, right? Right?!
3. Thirdly, set up as many rules as you can to keep out unwanted emails. If you don’t know how to set up rules, find someone nearby who does – and then keep out as many emails as you can. BUT, mostly, you need to think about setting up rules, policies, best practices for yourself as a professional.

You are a smart, capable person…and since you have read this article, you know at least three strategies to defend yourself against being smothered by your email. Put them into practice starting this very day. It is just one of the ways you can be more peacefully productive…

And if you would like additional ways of getting and staying productive, then please join others (worldwide) who receive Meggin’s weekly emails (and see what is available for download at no cost at the following websites):

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)
**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay (http://www.KeepingChaosatBay.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

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Tags: defend, defense, email, encroachment