A recent study shows that we spend an average of 64 seconds to get back on track after reading an email. That can add up to hours a week!
Solution? Check your email on a schedule, perhaps once every hour or two. Maybe only once or twice a day, depending on your needs and how often you get really important emails. I personally turned off my instant email notifier last year, because I had a tough time resisting the urge to check my email every time I received an alert.
Obviously, this solution will not work if you have a boss who expects instant responses. In that case, you'll need a new boss–preferably one who is smart enough to realize that having their employees drop everything every few minutes to cater to their latest crisis is probably not a very efficient management style.
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