Do you check your email when you get in each day and then let it dictate what you accomplish that day? At the end of the day do you feel like you haven’t completed as much as you’d like? Does your email control what takes priority?
An average email takes 2.75 minutes to process. Obviously some will be deleted right away and others will have time taken for a reply or other action. So if you’re receiving 42 emails each day (which is the average), that’s about 2 hours a day spent on email alone. Go ahead and work out your average email habit per day.
To put email into perspective let me share some facts with you :
- There’s no such thing as an urgent email. If it was urgent they would call you.
- Email breeds email. The more you email, the more email you will receive.
If you use the techniques I’m going to share with you, you’ll be able to cut your email habit by at least 50% per day. That’s an hour of time recouped per day for an average user. But, if you do nothing it’s probable your email addiction will increase and you’ll have even less time to spend on the activities that actually make money .
Here are 5 action steps to cut your email habit in HALF and reclaim time to work ‘on’ your business, and the profit generating activities you should be focussing on :
- Empty your Inbox. Set up a folder for items that require action. Delete or archive the rest.
- Limit your email length to 4 sentences or less.
- If an email you send doesn’t need a response, say so.
- Make sure you complete your most important job by 11am. Do not check your email first thing in the morning.
- Here’s the big one…..only check your email 3 times per day. Once at 11am, after you’ve completed your most important task, again at 1pm to action any replies from your 11am messages, and lastly at 4pm.
Check email only 3 times a day? Are you crazy , I hear you say. In order to manage the outcry resulting from only replying to emails three times each day just set up an auto-response email to advise your customers and colleagues that you have put in place a new email policy in a move to improved effectiveness, as it helps you accomplish more and serve them better.
Here’s what to do right now to cut your email habit by 50% and reclaim your time so you can spend it on profitable activities . Don’t wait until tomorrow to start. Take action NOW; draft your auto-reply email and set it up to send to reply to any new emails you receive. Let your colleagues know in person, so it doesn’t come as a complete shock to them.
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