If this is your inbox, you've got trouble.
Making room for the “next right action” to grow your business means dropping bad habits that sap you of your focus and energy. Over the next month we’ll look at five bad habits you should quit ASAP in the interest of your productivity (and maybe your sanity!).
Bad Habit to Break #1: Stop allowing email to run your day
Yes, “quick response time” is a great way to impress your clients. But if your stellar response time comes at the expense of important projects, you’re making a big mistake. Stop using your email inbox to tell you “what comes next.”
Studies have shown that we can become addicted to checking our email thanks to a little hit of dopamine we get when we find something new, but you have to get the email monkey off your back.
Constant email monitoring hurts your business in several ways:
1. Email checking errodes your ability to focus on important projects
2. Allowing email to run your day derails well-thought out plans
3. Obsessive mobile email checking creates the impression with others you’re a bad listener
4. The “time cost” of switching between email and tasks robs you of hours over the course of a year
Set times to check email throughout the day. Schedule time to manage email (beginning / middle / end of the day), or before/after major projects. You’ll find that almost any email can languish in your inbox for a couple of hours without any ill effects.
Stay tuned. Next week we’ll look at Bad Habit to Break #2, which is probably driving up your stress level without you realizing it.
