On average, people check their email 11 times an hour. They spend their lunch hour scrolling through their email while they eat and never really taking a break. How often do you check your email?
This NPR podcast provides some great tips to change your email habits. When we check our emails constantly it literally increases anxiety. The sound your email client makes when you get a new email might be enough to stress you out without even reading the email.
Here’s what you can do:
Turn off your email notifications – Get in the habit of checking your email at specific points of the day. We often jump back and forth to different tasks depending on what an email says. Plan your objectives for your day, set a schedule for checking emails and you will see your productivity increase and your anxiety drop.
Batch processing your email – When you are checking your email, be 100% focused on checking and responding to emails. You will most likely save time and feel more productive if you answer all your emails and then set it aside (turn off those email notifications!) so you can focus on your other tasks.
Archive read emails – We tend to not archive an email after we respond because we are in a rush or just forget to. Archiving your emails will not only help cut out any confusion of what you responded to or what you didn’t, but having an empty inbox is on of the most satisfying feelings in the world.
How often do you check your email and what tips do you use to stress less and stay productive?