How email intervals can save you from insanity

Problem: Email is unre­lent­ing, and when you tend to your inbox—people just reply back to you more quickly. Email will take over your life if you let it. Here’s how I fought back.

Solution: Email Intervals

Step 1: At the begin­ning of the day decide when you’ll check email

I sug­gest that you pick a time in morn­ing and at the end of the day, and stick to only open­ing your inbox at those times. We’ve been trained like lab rats to keep hit­ting the refresh bar, but it’s silly and makes us unproductive.

Step 2: Get a timer

Email inter­vals will require you to sprint through your email for a set period of time. Grab a timer, I sug­gest Minutes for the OSX dash­board, you can also your a phone.

Step 3: Work like a crazy per­son for 10 minutes

Open your inbox like a horse leav­ing the gate—hus­tle. You will be sur­prised how much email you can get done in the first inter­val. In the first 10 min­utes try to use what ever pro­cess­ing sys­tem you use to tell what is impor­tant, what is trash, and what is good to just file away.

Step 4: Take a two minute break and read a few pages

I find that I clear my mind by read­ing a few pages of a book. It takes me out of the suf­fer­ing tor­ment of email for just long enough to remind myself that if I hurry I can get through my entire inbox and get back to mean­ing­ful work—creating things, meet­ing with peo­ple, plan­ning, build­ing, think­ing, dis­cov­er­ing, invest­ing in relationships…

Step 5: Repeat and then shut down your email program

When you fin­ish your short break, get back to another 10 min­utes of hus­tling through your email. and repeat steps 3 and 4 until you’ve done what you need to.

My find­ings

Most peo­ple rely on email way too much—it’s a good com­mu­ni­ca­tion tool, but it lacks emo­tion, can go on rab­bit trails, and gives peo­ple a sense that they need to include every­one in their con­ver­sa­tion (death by cc:).

People learn quickly that if they need you imme­di­ately, they should pick up the phone. A 3 minute phone call or face to face con­ver­sa­tion can clear up a 20 email con­ver­sa­tion, and has the added bonus of build­ing a trust rela­tion­ship with that person.

What do you think?

Let me know what you think of this idea. Will it work for you? What reser­va­tions do you have?