Email is not dead, according to Jocelyn K. Glei, but it does kill our productivity. Recent projections suggest that worldwide email usage will grow by 12 percent in the coming years. Let’s look at the numbers and then learn how to manage this invasive digital necessity productively.
- The average person checks their inbox 11 times per hour, processes 122 messages a day, and spends 28 percent of their total workweek managing their inbox.
- Outside of work, more than 80 percent of workers monitor their email over the weekend, nearly 60 percent tend to their inboxes on vacation, and 6 percent admit to checking email while their wife was in labor or during a funeral.
- A recent study found that millennials are more frequent users of email than any other age group: They are more likely check email from bed (70 percent), from the bathroom (57 percent), or, most disturbingly, while driving (27 percent).
Source: 99U, September 19, 2016.
Email is literally sucking away our time, our attention, and our energy. These are four of my favorite research-backed strategies for minimizing the time you spend on email and maximizing the hours you spend on meaningful work.
- Check your email in “batches” for less stress and more happiness.
- Neutralize your “fear of missing out” by using VIP email notifications.
- Boost your focus by closing your email when you’re doing other tasks.
- Know that multi-tasking with email reduces your IQ and your creativity.
INSIGHTS: These tips and others we have all seen support the notion of, “plan your work, then work the plan.” The lost time numbers are astounding and don’t include today’s ever-present text expectations.