Balancing your life... and e-mails
Context
I am sure that, at least once in your lifetime, you have already felt completely lost between e-mails (that don't stop arriving) and your tasks to deliver to someone (such as for example, a report or a quotation). And with so many communication applications requesting your attention (like Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, etc), you don't even know where to start! Regarding this problem... you are not alone in this world!
In this post, I will share some working methods to balance your "dynamic" inbox with your commitments to your customers (internal or external). I hope that, after reading this post, you will be able to start a new approach regarding managing your e-mail inbox.
The "annoying" warning icon
I consider the New Message icon (which appears on the lower right position of your screen, every time you receive a new e-mail) to be the most distracting notification in the professional world!
Nowadays, we receive dozens of e-mails a day that shouldn't deserve our attention and that message icon deviates our focus (since it seems it is whispering for you to check your e-mail inbox). We can try to ignore it or even turn off that type of notification... but... what if it's an important subject for my professional life? Can we deal with the feeling of guilt (of not checking the e-mail inbox) and losing an important e-mail?
This is the main problem in our daily work: staying focused! In any profession, we need to be focused to respond with the needed conviction and dedication to our challenges. As our e-mail inbox is one of the most important tools in our profession, the truth is that we cannot ignore it! But this does not mean being dominated by it! We must know how to manage it to become our daily partner.
The first hint to give you is that you should close your e-mail inbox! Seems strange? Let's continue for the next sub-chapter :)
Close your e-mail inbox... now!
The advice is simple: you should close your e-mail inbox and define periods to access it. The idea is to create two distinct periods in your day:
Next, you also need to accept that these two moments can occur more than once time per day and are applied differently for professional roles or persons. The table below presents three different professional profiles and the appliance of these two moments at each hour of the day.
A "Profile 1" guy opens his e-mail inbox at the beginning of the morning (for 60 minutes). As expected for this moment, he reads and answers all "quick" e-mails and flags those that need more attention. Then, he closes his e-mail inbox and focuses on "hard" work (those tasks that need total attention). Before lunch, he checks the e-mail inbox (for 30 minutes), validates new messages, and answers the quick messages again. In the afternoon, he repeats the all process from the beginning. This method allows the guy to be "wisely connected" to his e-mail inbox and to dedicate 5 hours for full focus on tasks. This is typically the profile for a project manager, seller, or advocate; since he must be "connected" to his e-mail inbox but you also need time for complex tasks that require his attention.
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A "Profile 2" guy opens his e-mail inbox at the beginning of the morning (for 60 minutes) and performs the reading and answering of quick e-mails. He also flags the e-mails that require more attention to be done later. The other time is dedicated to complex tasks that need 100% attention and which require a "continuous" dedication flow. This is typically the profile for a researcher, designer, architect, or programmer, for example; since they need more time to be fully concentrated on creative tasks. For them, it is enough to be in contact with the "external" world once a day.
A "Profile 3" is the type of guy who cannot be disconnected from the world for a single minute, since his business depends on being always available. This is typically the profile for a stock broker, for example. A single minute without reading or answering e-mails might lead him to lose a client or a new business opportunity.
These profile descriptions and work method appliances are very subjective but I believe they helped you to understand my table above. You might feel you could be "integrated" in one of those or even create a new one!
The secret is to find the tolerance of time a client (internal or external) accepts to wait for an answer from you.
If you believe your client can wait 2 or 3 hours for an answer from you, you will probably belong to Profile 1; if not, you might belong to Profile 3, etc. It is an evaluation that only you can perform and decide the type of answer you can give.
Remember that, even when an answer to your client takes some time to prepare (like an evaluation of the request for quotation), I advise you to flag and plan the e-mail , and perform a quick answer (presenting a delivery date for the subject). This will help you manage the expectations of your client.
Also if you feel that you are answering your e-mails and receiving (at the same time) new answers for the same topic, I advise you to answer them off-line and connect again just for sending. Otherwise, your "Read, Flag, and Answer" moment might become a never-ending story. :) If you need any help on this last piece of advice (becoming offline in Outlook), just send me a message and I will show you how.
Next post
In this post, I have focused on trying to help you define moments to access your e-mail inbox and balance it with your tasks that need more focus to be accomplished!
In the next post, I will share another practical advice to help you never forget an e-mail topic you have sent to other people.
Feel free to leave some comments.
Stay tuned!