Are you always looking for time-management tricks as a way to get more done each day?
You can also increase your productivity by improving your focus, so that you get more done and more effectively, with whatever time you have available.
One way to become more focused as you work is to pull up the drawbridge – my metaphor for cutting off distractions, online and offline. And an important part of cutting off distractions for most people is stopping the endless inundation of email.
Improve Your Focus By Going Offline
If you want to stop receiving emails so you can focus better on your work, then try going offline during key work periods.
Users of Outlook 2010 can choose the [Send/Receive] tab and click [Work Offline], as shown in the image above.
Alternatively, you could:
- Close down your email program completely – but this could be a hassle if you need to refer to an email for the project you’re working on.
- Turn off auto-receive and stop ‘checking’ email altogether.
When you’re ready to release the drawbridge, click [Work Offline] again.
Other Email Programs
If you use a another email program, please let me know if there’s a similar option to the Work Offline button, and I’ll update this post for readers.
I am guessing people know how to unsubscribe to emails that they don’t want come in… that’s my daily priority when it comes to email, and really, I never have more than 20 emails in my inbox at a time. I know networking is critical for some and you can’t unsubscribe to everything, but I bet you can unsubscribe to even more than you have already… that’s my “nipping it in the bud” tip for the day!
Time management is great to improve your efficiency.
Email is a big question and pit fall for many, by freeing up specific times in the day to work on email you can save yourself a lot of time.
i couldn’t agree more. I get so distracted by checking email and having the computer on, period. That is a great suggestion.
@Sue: If your job is answering email then you ARE being productive having email come in. But for others, or for times when you need to write a presentation or plan a project, going offline for a couple of hours can let you really focus. M 🙂
Easier said than done!! A lot of my work that needs to be done is answering email. I wish it was just that easy!! Keep the great ideas coming.