Are You a Double Dipper?
Hi There,
Do you find yourself spending too much of your day a slave to email? Are you drowning in your inbox? Does it give you a sense of anxiety when you dare to step away from your computer station or shut off your smartphone? Clearly, you’re in a predicament. And you’re not alone.
MANY of my clients struggle with the email paradox: Can’t live with it, can’t live without it. Email also happens to be one of the peskiest obstructions to Intentional Productivity. While email may be a modern-day communication necessity (for some, a necessary evil), there is no reason you can’t manage your inbox instead of letting it manage you.
Let me share the story of Cathy C. She used to feel overwhelmed even thinking about email. It was a perpetual source of stress for Cathy, and it was exhausting all of her energy just to stay afloat. During a coaching session, we spent some serious time in discovery, uncovering her “reality”, and comparing it with the truth regarding her email predicament. After some poking and nudging by me, she came to an IMMENSE realization: Cathy was a double (and triple) dipper!
During the multiple visits to her inbox each hour, Cathy would open and read all of her new messages. And then— nothing. In other words, Cathy didn’t respond to most of the senders right away, which meant she had to reacquaint herself with those same messages in the future, expending double (or triple) the energy before composing each response.
The solution was simple, but far from easy: During our next session, Cathy created a system to scan for “urgent email”. These are the messages she would read and respond to on-the-spot. All other email was attended to during the two periods of time each day she committed to her inbox, and nothing but.
Once Cathy embraced the discipline of her new routine, what once seemed a longshot began to pay off! And consider that 8 years later, her hard work to employ this discipline is still serving her.
Are you ready to tame your inbox? Sign up for a coaching consult here. You’ll be taking the first baby step toward email emancipation!
Cheers!
-Deborah
Deborah Goldstein
DRIVEN Professionals / Forbes / Linkedin
info@drivenpros.com | LinkedIn
DRIVEN Professionals, 35 Adrienne Lane, Garrison, NY 10524