Email

How many hours of your life have you wasted checking work email? Check out this calculator offered by The Washington Post. A new report from Adobe says that, on average, white-collar workers in the US spend 4.1 hours checking their work email each day. That’s 20.5 hours each week, more than 1,000 hours each year, and more than 47,000 hours over a career.

While kids are texting and chatting using various apps, most adults are still emailing. In fact, if you are in the business world, you may be expected to check your emails constantly. Recent studies show that not only do office workers spend 33% of their workday reading and writing email, but science now says there is a clear link between spending time on email and stress.

What can we do to reduce the amount of our valuable time spent checking emails? Jocelyn K Glei, an advocate of mindful productivity and the author of “Unsubscribe” says we first need to admit that email is an addictive game. She writes, “Productivity is no longer about keeping up, or keeping busy, or having it all. It’s about being deliberate and being focused. It’s about spending more time deciding and less time doing. It’s about getting really clear on what matters to you and letting the rest go. With email—as with everything else in life—you must say “no” to some opportunities, in order to say “yes” to your priorities.” Her book is full of suggestions on how to do just that.

While kids are texting and chatting using various apps, most adults are still emailing. In fact, if you are in the business world, you may be expected to check your emails constantly. Recent studies show that not only do office workers spend 33% of their workday reading and writing email, but science now says there is a clear link between spending time on email and stress.

What can we do to reduce the amount of our valuable time spent checking emails? Jocelyn K Glei, an advocate of mindful productivity and the author of “Unsubscribe” says we first need to admit that email is an addictive game. She writes, “Productivity is no longer about keeping up, or keeping busy, or having it all. It’s about being deliberate and being focused. It’s about spending more time deciding and less time doing. It’s about getting really clear on what matters to you and letting the rest go. With email—as with everything else in life—you must say “no” to some opportunities, in order to say “yes” to your priorities.” Her book is full of suggestions on how to do just that.

Although it was written for teachers, Frank Buck’s article on using email more efficiently rings true for parents as well. Ever thought of composing your email ‘backwards”? Buck suggests adding attachments first (because they are so easy to forget), “front loading” your email with the most important information, and composing a subject line that summarizes the email’s content. Other common sense suggestions in the article can help you tame email blunders and communicate more succinctly.

Although it was written for teachers, Frank Buck’s article on using email more efficiently rings true for parents as well. Ever thought of composing your email ‘backwards”? Buck suggests adding attachments first (because they are so easy to forget), “front loading” your email with the most important information, and composing a subject line that summarizes the email’s content. Other common sense suggestions in the article can help you tame email blunders and communicate more succinctly.