{"id":5152,"date":"2012-02-02T19:40:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T00:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/?p=5152"},"modified":"2022-08-19T16:21:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T20:21:45","slug":"never-check-email-first-thing-in-the-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/never-check-email-first-thing-in-the-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

– Updated 03-18-12 –<\/strong> Science writer David Bradley on his blog ScienceText<\/em><\/a> also recommends, “Avoid social networking and email first thing<\/a>.” I know it works for me, I walk around and talk to staff before I get tangled up in the work everybody else wants me to do.<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"Never<\/a>Sid Savara a widely regarded personal development trainer published 7 Reasons You Should Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning<\/strong><\/a> at his site sidsavara.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#1 \u2013 Ignorance Is Bliss … fully Productive – <\/strong>When it comes to email, ignorance is bliss. That\u2019s why if you\u2019ve got something important you want to make progress on, the author offers these four words for success:<\/p>\n

\"SPAM<\/a>Don\u2019t check your email – <\/strong>As soon as you get in, work on something important for 30-45 minutes, and only then check your email. If you can stand it, wait even longer. The article suggests that as long as you\u2019re ignorant of everything else that\u2019s going on outside, you can concentrate on what you want to work on.<\/p>\n

Any new information you get can cause you to get distracted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

#2 \u2013 It\u2019s Not Your Todo List<\/a> – <\/strong>Mr. Savara<\/a> you know what is most important for you to work on the first thing in the morning you should go ahead and do it! By checking email, you risk doing what someone else wants you to do. Or more bluntly, when you check your inbox, the emails you get are a to-do list someone else makes for you.<\/p>\n

Who is in charge of your time \u2013 you, or the person emailing you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lack<\/a>#3 \u2013 It\u2019s An Excuse To Lack Direction – <\/strong>The author says that checking email is a low-priority activity and that you may be checking email first thing in the morning because your to-do list has gotten off track somewhere. He argues that when you don\u2019t have a clear list of priorities, checking email becomes an urgent activity that you do at the expense of your important ones.<\/p>\n

#4 \u2013 Reaction vs \u201cProaction\u201d <\/strong>– When you check your email, you end up with more work to do \u2013 and because we\u2019re in \u201ccheck email\u201d mode, we start replying to them at the expense of the task we were just working on. Rather than actively setting an agenda, email forces you to react to items as they come in \u2013 regardless of their true priority.<\/p>\n

Mr. Savara says he prefers taking proactive actions. Work on the things that are important to you, regardless of whether they\u2019re urgent or simply at the top of your inbox. Stop wasteful actions, and focus on productive actions instead.<\/p>\n

\"social#5 \u2013 Searching For Excuses <\/strong>Blindly checking email (or Twitter<\/a>, or Facebook<\/a>, or any number iTime wasters) is usually just searching for an excuse to not do the work that must be done according to the author. Don\u2019t fall into that trap. Don\u2019t give yourself an out by checking your email for an excuse to fail. He urges, don\u2019t check your email\u00a0 \u2013 acknowledge the task you need to get done and do it.<\/p>\n

Cross that bridge \u2013 it\u2019s not going away.<\/strong><\/p>\n

#6 \u2013 There\u2019s No Set Time Limit – <\/strong>Meetings get a bad rap for being a waste of time \u2013 but at least you usually know how long a meeting will last. But do you know how long you\u2019re going to spend on email once you open your inbox, odds are you don\u2019t know \u2013 or you\u2019ll underestimate it.<\/p>\n

The problem is, checking email only takes a minute but you can get sucked into follow-up activities that result from opening your email, and there\u2019s no way of knowing how much time these will take. You have a set time limit for how many productive hours you have in a day don\u2019t let email suck you in and cause you to devote more time to it than you can afford.<\/strong><\/p>\n

#7 \u2013 It Builds Expectation – <\/strong>A lot of people say, \u201cBut I have to check my email! People expect a response from me in the morning!\u201d The author believes that there are some requests that need immediate responses, but they\u2019re much less frequent than you might think.<\/p>\n

\"Time\"<\/a>He argues that people expect a response from you in the morning because you\u2019ve always responded first thing in the morning and you\u2019ve built that expectation. The more often you check email, the more often people will expect you to check it. Just stop checking it first thing in the morning, and people won\u2019t expect it anymore.<\/p>\n

Mr. Savara<\/a> recommends the following email rules:<\/p>\n