(Ping!) You’ve Got Mail!

 

I’m old enough to remember when email was a novelty. When I started working in the early 1990’s, many corporate employees still did not have their own email accounts and instead relied on three ways to connect with others – paper correspondence, a phone call, or a face-to-face meeting.

 

As a result, it was much easier to control how and when people could get in touch with you. You could simply stop answering your phone, close your office door, and completely focus upon the task at hand.

 

We now live in what I call the “Age of the Ping!” Between the two of us, Dave and I have about a dozen email addresses for various business and personal uses, Facebook accounts, Twitter feeds, Google Alerts, LinkedIn accounts, SMS Texts, Instagram, and SnapChat among other ways that people can get in touch with us.

 

Combine all of these Pings! with having access to the Internet on our Desktop PC’s, our laptops, our tablets, and our Smartphones that opens more information to us in an instant than people historically have been exposed to in a lifetime and it’s easy to understand why people often have difficulty focusing on the task at hand and making progress on their personal goals.

 

Some Sobering Math

Let’s say you’re in the habit of scanning your email, Social Media, text messages and other things once an hour every day. You’re not actually handling any of the messages – you’re just “checking in” to see if anything is new.

 

If you have 16 waking hours each day, 365 days of the year, you’ll do 5,840 of these scans every year.

 

Let’s also say that each of these scans takes you 30 seconds. (The actual time it costs you is probably much longer because it’s not just the time that you’re actually scanning your messages, but also the time it takes you to reengage with the work you need to focus on.)

 

If each of these 5,840 scans takes 30 seconds, that’s 2,920 lost minutes every year or almost 49 HOURS of lost time that you could have spent pursuing your goals.

 

Think about that – you’ve given away over a whole 40 hour work week of precious time just simply glancing at your inboxes. What could you accomplish month after month and year after year if you put that time to better use?

Here are three strategies to do just that.

 

Shut Off All (or at Least Most) Audible Alerts

 

Have you ever been in a meeting with someone and you feel like you’re in an “electronic rainforest” of noises? Their computer is pinging away with incoming email messages and their phone is constantly erupting with a cacophony of various noises to indicate incoming calls, texts, and other alerts?

 

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time focusing on our conversation and I wonder how this person can get anything done that requires more than a nanosecond of attention.

 

You can instantly increase your ability to focus on your goals by turning off all, or at least most of your audible alerts on your computers, tablets, and phones. You may choose to make an exception for incoming phone calls from specific family members who may need to reach you in an emergency.

 

But really, do you need to have your attention diverted from the things that really matter to you by a well-meaning friend who is compelled to send you cute puppy videos on a daily basis?

 

Put Limits on the Number of Times You Check and Handle Messages

This is a really tough one for most people – including me! Ideally, work to get yourself down to checking and handling your messages less than five times a day. Pick a maximum of two times to respond to messages, and no more than 2 or 3 other times to do a quick scan.

 

If you need help resisting the temptation to check, close down all email applications on your various electronic devices so that it’s not as easy to simply “flip over” to your inbox and see what’s there.

 

Reeducate Your Co-Workers, Family, & Friends

Have you ever been at work and have someone drop by and ask, “Did you get my email?” Often, it’s something they’ve sent within the last hour and they may act surprised when you haven’t seen and/or responded to it.

 

At work, let co-workers know that your check and respond to emails a limited number of times a day. Have them mark emails as urgent if it requires a response within 24 hours. And if immediate action is required, ask that they call you on the phone or stop by in person.

 

Also let family and friends know you are cutting back on electronic correspondence. Dave is now down to responding to personal emails once a week in many cases. Like your co-workers, ask your family and friends to leave you a phone message if something is truly urgent and needs a quick response.

 

Your Assignment

Think about what you could do with an extra hour in your schedule week after week, month after month, and year after year. Take back your precious time by implementing one or several of these suggestions so that you can focus more on achieving your personal goals and creating your Custom Built Life™! Comment below and share your daily target for total number of electronic check-ins. Also let us know how you would love to spend the time you are going to free up from checking your devices less often.