The Best (and Worst) Times to Check Your Email

The Best (and Worst) Times to Check Your EmailThe Best (and Worst) Times to Check Your EmailWhen You Should (and Shouldnt) Check Your EmailDont worry your schmelzglass arent going anywhere.Email might be a crucial tool for communication in your day-to-day work, but it can end up being a major waste of time if not used effectively. This is especially true if your smartphone is linked to your work email youll get swamped with notifications regardless of where you go and what youre doing, leading you to constantly switch your focus from one thing to another.While having zero unread messages might give you short-term satisfaction, keep in mind that it does not reflect your productivity In fact, youll be dragged into a never-ending cycle of distraction, as new emails will only keep coming in. TopResumes career advice expert, Amanda Augustine, recently shared her tips with nahe daran sein Company for when you should and shouldnt check your email. Here are her seven tips for checking your e mails and minimizing distraction1. Dont check your email first thing in the morningIts an instinctive habit for many professionals to check their inbox the moment they reach the office, or even worse, as soon as they wake up in the morning. While you might think that checking your emails before moving on to other tasks boosts your productivity, its actually one of the worst ways to start your day.Not only can it throw off your schedule and to-do list for the whole day how many times did you open your inbox to just check and then, hours later, you look up and realize your morning is gone? but it also wastes precious hours when most people are operating at their peak levels of productivity, Augustine explains. Imagine coming in to work with urgent tasks to schliff by the end of the day, only to open your inbox and find hundreds of unread emails. Hours later, you finish responding to the emails only to realize that your day is gone2. Do use the 2-minute rule to skim through your inbo xIf youre really worried that you might be missing out on urgent requests and emails from your boss by not checking your inbox, use the 2-minute rule to skim through your emails at a tischset time in the morning. This strategy is based on productivity expert David Allens best-selling book, Getting Things Done.Look through your inbox and identify emails that require immediate response or ones that can be replied to easily. If you can finish your responses to these emails in two minutes, send them right away. Keep in mind that this doesnt mean that you should respond to every email that you can respond to within two minutes. This strategy means responding to messages that you can process easily and that relate to important people in the organization. Anything else can wait until later when you have more time.3. Do check your email when youre away on a business tripIf your employer is sending you away for conferences or business meetings and youve disappeared from their email trails wi thout a single response, things wont look good for you. Remember, while you shouldnt be expected to be reachable 24/7 while traveling for work, your employer should be able to contact you from time to time during the duration of your trip. The company is bearing the cost of your excursion after all, so that isnt too much to ask for.Additionally, you should also be up to date with your emails when traveling on a business trip so that you dont miss out on whats going on back at the office. Your boss might be offering an exciting project thats up for grabs, and a simple mistake like checking your email late can cost you an exciting opportunity for growth. If youre traveling, always make sure that you enable roaming data or buy a local SIM card for easier connectivity.4. Dont check your email when youre overwhelmed and procrastinatingWhen youre feeling overwhelmed with your workload and approaching deadlines, its easy to think of checking your email as being productive. Responding to yo ur emails might help you feel like youre getting something done, but in fact, youre just running away from reality and putting off tasks that are more urgent and critical.Dont allow your email to become an excuse for why the real work you needed to complete did not get done, Augustine suggests. Whenever you find yourself opening your inbox, stop and take a step back to examine your pending tasks and re-establish your priorities. Never use your inbox as an excuse for why you couldnt finish the other tasks at hand, as that reflects badly on you.5. Do check your email when youre expecting an important responseIf youre waiting for an important email from your clients, a delayed response can significantly slow down the progress of the whole project and opens up room for miscommunication and misinterpretation. Hence, keep your inbox open when youre expecting important emails. It also helps to set up special notifications on your phone for certain senders so that youll get alerts when they email you. schauplatz up alerts like these would help to prevent distractions from unnecessary promotional messages.6. Do check your email when youre commuting on public transportationIf you happen to take the train or bus to work on a daily basis, this would be an ideal place to skim through your inbox and apply the 2-minute rule. It gives you a productive start of the day, using time that cant be spent doing much else. Additionally, it helps you to dive straight into urgent tasks when you reach the office. Similarly, the evening commute back home can be used to organize your emails into folders, delete spam and promotional messages, and set up an action list for the next day.7. Do check your email on a scheduled timeOne of the most efficient ways to boost productivity is to schedule tasks in your calendar and keep to it. Similar to how you block out time for meetings and events in your calendar, set aside a block of time every day to check and respond to your emails. Setting asid e a specific time like this helps to keep yourself accountable and fully focus on the task at hand. Additionally, this habit helps to set clear expectations to your colleagues about your response time.Dont let your inbox rule your time and energy. Instead, follow these tips to create an efficient and effective way of checking and responding to your work emails each day. You will thank yourself laterIs your email inbox full of recruiters or random promotions? If youre waiting for recruiter emails, your resume may be to blame. Check today with a resume review, on usRecommended Reading5 Lessons From Marie Kondo to Help You Tidy Up Your Job Search12 Things Successful People Do Each MorningProductivity Tips That Really Work