Stop using email to double your productivity
There is life beyond email. And it’s much better than what you have now.
Listen to this story. I lived for my email.
My main task of the day was to leave my tray to zero.
Also, I felt a true ninja mail. Responded minutes after receiving one. Hundreds of email folders.
I’m a monster, a beast. A crack. The good thing about having a smartphone is that you can always watch.
**Some fun facts**
Diving for the network, I have found that Luis is not the only one who has decided to end the email as a communication channel.
Do you know we spend 73 days a year reading and answering emails.73 days!
Another plus: working without using the email prevents multi-task and increases productivity, according to this other study.
And last but not least: 40% of the emails you receive are good for absolutely nothing.
Do we have alternatives?
One alternative is to use social networks to connect with others. Since there are many professionals that capture customers and communicate with them through networks.
How I can stop using the mail?
I clarify that I am not an extremist. I keep getting emails and answering frequently.
But I’ve gone from 3-4 hours a day with the email within 30 minutes in a month.
I tell you how I got:
Step 1: Newsletters bye, bye!
As you hear: I have dropped from 90% of the newsletters to which he subscribed.
Before you tell me I’m crazy, ask yourself these questions:
• Is it really that essential newsletter?
• If it is not to miss a post, could use RSS instead of email notification?
Think about this: 1 email = 1 moment of distraction.
Step 2: Automation, come to me!
Not only can you automate mail signature (if you’re not doing, please do), there are some tricks, especially if you use gmail, which allow you to be much more productive.
Use Text Expander to save you write the same answers over and over again. Especially if you work in customer service or support.
Gmail Post to work for you. Program a filter like this:
When you receive an email notification (reminders Facebook or Twitter, advertising, etc …), select the drop down menu next to the message and select “Filter messages like this”.
Step 3: Notifications off
Remove notifications, both sound and vibration, for any incoming email on your smartphone.
So radical.
It’s that simple.
So cash.
Step 4:
Start Checking for new emails fewer times a day. The first mid-morning. If you start the day answering emails you are wasting the most productive time of day. Hang two or three hours without looking, notice the difference. If it is urgent, you will be contacted by other means. Where puts the email response time should be 1 hour, 10 minutes, 30 seconds or a week?
Step 5: I do not walk around the bush
Something so simple and yet so complicated, right?
It is based on a simple principle: if instead of writing a paragraph so I can answer in one line, I write only that line.
Straight to the point.
Another thing: do you write as fast as you speak? I do not …
If I can solve with a call 10 seconds, I do not answer the mail, I call.
Step 6: educate my contacts
This is imperative. If not, you will still receive emails from the same people.
It is very easy to do: if you send an email, you answer them on another channel.
Call them, send them a message via Whatsapp, you write them a private on Facebook or Twitter …
When you discover that you are located faster out of your inbox, you will no longer receive emails.
Step 7: I educate myself
Perhaps the key to the whole thing. If we do not change our habits, it will not work. We are talking about not check email on weekends, not to look at every hour, every minute …
Change a habit costs a lot.
If it’s any motivation, I have gained in quality of life. Now I answer what I consider important, I control the better times, I’m much more productive, I do not lose mid-morning every day to stay with the tray to zero and am much more visible in social networks.
• Email is a vampire of time and productivity.
• To change my environment I must first change myself.
• Reduce the volume of emails as much as possible.
• Starts more social enrich communication
And you, how much time do you spend to the email and what tricks have to be more productive without email?
