Or, looked at another way, having email alerts switched on means you are in effect allowing other people to control your time.Īs I’ve said for a long time in my Productivity Training : “ Email is a great servant, BUT a poor master!” You can take back control by checking your email when you want to, not when your email program alerts you to. In other words, having email notifications turned on means your email has control of you– not the other way around. Most people automatically stop what they are doing to open up the new email and deal with it. I have not met too many people who can ignore an email alert and continue working. It is so easy to lose focus when the alert sounds. Reminders that you have new mail are one of the most constant interruptions or distractions you can have. Of course it may be that the email requires immediate attention, but more often than not, it can wait. Of course it may be that the email requires immediate attention, but more often than not, it can wait.įor many people, the email notification that sounds when they receive an email almost inevitably means they will stop what they are doing and check their Inbox.
I asked him if he found this a distraction to which he replied, “Absolutely!”įor many people, the email notification that sounds when they receive an email almost inevitably means they will stop what they are doing and check their Inbox. He did not! So I pointed out to him exactly what was happening as we were chatting. After a while I asked him if he realised what he was doing. Since he was a friend, I felt I could have a little jibe at him. Every time the email notification sounded, he quickly glanced at his screen to read the subject and decide whether the new email was important. While I was there, his email notification alert was going off constantly. Some time ago, I was sitting alongside a friend in his office.
It starts with being aware of the distraction I was convincing myself that I wasn’t being distracted, that I was able to multitask, but I now know that this is simply not possible (as you will know too if you’ve read my previous post about the Multitasking Myth).
I recall from years ago that there would be times when I’d see or hear this alert and determine that it wasn’t important … only to suddenly have a thought about the email and stop what I was doing to fire off a reply. Some part of your brain is immediately thinking about the email you have just received.
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