Be honest. Are you really using e-mail as productively as you could?
Few people have ever been taught a good e-mail system despite the fact that they will receive over a gazillion or so e-mails in their lifetime. Many people use the same system to handle e-mail as they did to handle paper.
How many of these do you do?
1. Open an e-mail, read it, and then leave it.
2. Don’t completely empty your e-mail Inbox.
3. Use e-mails in your Inbox as a place to remind you of what to work on.
4. Constantly scroll up and down on your list of Inbox e-mails so you don’t forget to do something.
5. Continuously check your e-mail (average device checking today is 150 times per day).
6. Constantly use Search to find something.
7. Immediately reply to the e-mail when you first open it. (The “Only touch a piece of paper once” incorrect belief.)
8. Have your e-mails interrupt you upon their arrival.
9. Keep e-mails that you need to work on (Action) with e-mails that you are saving (Support).
10. Use the Off View (e-mails lined up in a list) when viewing e-mails in your Inbox. Worse, have your
Message or Auto Preview on at the same time! (Yikes!!!)
How you scored:
0 You may have a future in the Productivity business. 1–3 Pretty good.
4–5 Trouble is a’ brewing.
6–9 Time to get down and dirty and make some big changes.
10 Call me as soon as you can.
© Greg Vetter 2018. All rights reserved
