7 Reasons to NOT Check Email First Thing in the Morning - Part 3
3: Ignorance Is Bliss!
As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said,
“There are many things of which a wise man might choose to be ignorant”.
When it comes to email, ignorance is bliss. That’s why starting your day focused solely on accomplishing one or two or even three of your highest priority tasks (before you look at email) will make you both feel and actually be more productive.
Avoid checking email for as long as you can - any new information that arrives via email will only cause you to get distracted, lose focus and be less productive.
We should use what Timothy Ferris calls, in his best-selling book The Four Hour Work Week, ‘selective ignorance’. This helps us to stay focused on what really matters. If you are blissfully unaware of what fires need to be put out, if you don’t know about the special sale that’s on today and if you don’t see that funny joke your colleague has sent you, are you really any the worse off? You’ll find out about these soon enough.
But meanwhile, you will have made progress early in the day on the things you are responsible for, rather than struggling to get them done later in the day, under time pressure and with sagging energy levels!
Stay tuned for Part 4 next week.
All the best for now!