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September 30, 2008
How often should you check email?
One of the most common questions I get as a GTD instructor is how often to check email. I usually answer, "It depends." This usually annoys the people who wanted to be told really clear boundaries OR delights the people who don't want to feel bad that they think they check it too often. Here's why I say it depends.
By its nature, processing email is one of the 3 ways we spend our time. It's what GTD calls "Defining Work" time (p.50 of GTD book.) We all need time to process new inputs. How often you should check email is hugely dependent on other factors, like:
What's your job? If you are in a service or sales role for example, you'll stress yourself and miss potential opportunities if you impose unrealistic limits on how often to check. If much of your work shows up on email, you probably need to stay pretty close to what's showing up in your Inbox. If you are not in this kind of customer facing position, then you may not need to check as often. You'll know best.
What are the company guidelines? Does the company expect a 15 minute turnaround time or 15 day? Big difference. Whenever I facilitate that conversation in companies, it's amazing to hear the difference in understanding even among people in the same jobs and on the same team. Guess where many team conflicts stem from--simple misunderstanding like this over guidelines.
Are you checking to avoid doing something else? I'm certainly guilty of this one. Send/Receive does not disappoint for bringing something potentially easier and more interesting. By the way, this then moves into doing work as it appears.
What's your pre-defined work like? If you're constantly checking email and not looking at what's on your lists, there's probably an opportunity to step away from the Inbox more often to tackle what else your job requires you to do.
I do one big sweep of my email, bringing my Inbox to zero, once in the morning and once in the evening. And then I'm snacking on what shows up during the day. Some days, I'm in my Inbox a ton. Other days, if I have a bunch of meetings, that morning and evening time is critical to bring it back under control. Your job may be different though.
Hopefully this has given you some food for thought. Now go check your email. Maybe something more interesting showed up while you were reading this blog.
Cheers.
Posted by Kelly at September 30, 2008 03:17 PM
Comments
At work we use Outlook, and this is how I'm currently handling email:
First, I disabled the incoming email notification icon (the little envelope that pops up in the system tray when new mail arrives). I find it distracting and stress-inducing. A quick glance at the bubble notification will let me know if I should take care of a new message right away or not, and I love how it fades away by itself after a couple of seconds.
Second, I programmed a message box alert for VIP emails (my boss, my wife, and my kids), which naturally get handled immediately.
Third, I programmed another rule (which kicks in after the previous one) that filters messages into two separate folders: one for emails addressed to me (i.e., those in which my address appears in the "To:" field), and another for everything else (messages that I've been CC'd or BCC'd, messages from email lists, internal memos, etc.) The first group I check whenever I have some idle time; while the second I check only twice during the day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
Posted by: Christian Hess at October 1, 2008 09:39 AM
Thank you for this article. This is something I have battled with on and off since I have been following GTD. I am in IT so checking my email can be pretty important depending on the events that are going on. I follow a similar pattern that you do by getting it to zero in the morning and then I triage it throughout the day either at my desk or on my smartphone and then get it back to zero before leaving the office. Thank you for the insight and think the article will help a lot of people.
Posted by: Adam Martin at October 1, 2008 10:19 AM
