Make a shift in how you think about email

Do you schedule yourself for several hours of meetings each day and then find you don’t have time to address your email? Do you find yourself ‘catching up’ on email late into the night, on the weekend and during vacations? Do you often think email is something you can squeeze in around your “real work”?

The key to getting control of your email is to recognise, as Maura Thomas says, that email is real work. And it merits your focused attention when you address it, not just a quick glance and a dashed-off reply between meetings.

Since email is real work, it takes real time to address. That’s why it’s important to schedule time in your calendar for dealing with email, just as you do for all your meetings, phone appointments, teleconferences, webinars etc.

Are you controlling when you give your attention to email today?