Reading emails once a day?

[nvictor]

So guys, there is a blog on productivity that suggests to set a time for reading your emails once in the day. I thought it would be a good a idea at first sight.

But, what about important messages that must be read/replied as quickly as possible?

The other thing that could prevent me from this method is G Talk [or MSN, but I don't use it often...], which notifies me whenever a message comes in. If this incoming message should be read right away, I usually do that.

Can one really read her emails once a day so that she can concentrate on other things? What do you think? Or do you think of a better way of managing your emails?

[AddictiveX]

I have real problems checking my email daily, I just forget, because I dont use my email for anything important, however when I'm at work I check them every morning when I login (loading outlook as part of the routine) Its just too much hassle for me to mess around with Gmail at home, especially when I know there will be nothing of interest in there.

Ax

[Chado2423]

It depends on the purpose of your e-mail doesn't it...

There is a difference between important and urgent...

It is best to have seperate e-mails in some cases... like if I had a business I'd want to keep those emails seperate than my friends and families e-mail...

Besides if you are checking email once a day, that's once a day you could be spending hugging your wife, or playing with your kids...

[silicon toad2000]

the thing with email is you need to treat you inbox like people used to treat their inboxes, back when there were memos and things of that nature.
If someone puts something in your in tray, generally you don't read it right away, you get to it when you have finished what you are doing.
I close my outlook while I am doing tasks and open it when i have finished tasks, or in the case of a long task, between sections of a task. I have also switched off all my email alerts so I am generally unaware if I have a new email unless it's my designated time to check.
I believe once a day is not often enough, depending on the industry you work in. New emails may be important and could contain a new task which is clearly more important than what you have slated next. You would think that someone assigning an important task like that would pick up the phone, but most people in the workplace don't understand a lot about office communication.

[Addict]

But, what about important messages that must be read/replied as quickly as possible?

If it was important, they shouldn't have sent you an email. They should have called you.

This is a huge part of the "4 Hour Workweek." The author got to a point where he was checking email about once a week and emergencies really didn't happen.

[finandom]

I always check my mail 3 times a day and never spend more than 30 miniutes on this. I know I have to accomplish some tasks everyday and I don't want to let email checking block me from this. I only learn this early of the year and my production is increased tremendously.

[YazKMan]

I go by the rule that if its important enough, they'll either send a second email(which you will see if you have email alerts on) or they will contact you through a more direct means(telephone, face-to-face). Otherwise, it isn't important enough.

After all, you are busy.

[AtriumGuy]

hey nvictor--

I think its GREAT practice to set a schedule for doing things like checking email. Email can become addictive, and its so easy to get caught up in checking it 20 times an hour....this will certainly hurt your productivity.
What I do is set 3 or 4 times a day when I check my email (and make responses). Usually first thing in the morning; then before lunch, then around 3pm and lastly before I am done for the day!
This way, you don't miss anything that is potentially an emergency, but you also set a schedule. Try this out for a week and see how it works for you!
hope this helps...

[bradb]

I actually mentioned this once-a-day checking in my blog recently. I referred to all the polling we do as a kind of energy vampire.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What's the worst thing that could happen to you if you check your email only once a day? Would you get fired? Would anyone lose their life?

2. If Bad Things would happen, can you make arrangements for the people who use email to contact you urgently to instead use the phone or a knock on the door for such matters?

3. If you must keep getting urgent messages in your Inbox (urgh, that is a supreme energy vamp), then a technical solution is required. You can filter all such urgent mail into a specific mailbox, and then setup a piece of software to monitor and alert you of changes to only that mailbox.

[Sam988]

I check my emails at least once every 3 hours... but i have to, and i don't care about the impact on productivity in wasting 5 minutes to enter my inbox... there are more important things to do to save time than to take care about not checking (or checking) my inbox.

Whoever knows about the 20/80 rule knows what i'm talking about.

[bigadam]

I check my e-mail twice a day - once at the beginning of my work day for urgent items that need to go on that day's list of tasks and once at the end of day to help me prep the next day's list of tasks.

[R0b]

I always tell people to call/text me if it's urgent. I put that in the footer of my emails. That way I only have to check email once every 3-4 hours.

[Phil Parkinson]

It depends on whether you are someone that needs to reply to important emails immediately. If you are not, I absolutely agree with the idea of checking them a few times a day at set times... I have alarms that go off to remind me.

6 months ago, I would waste so much time clicking on that little envelope when it appeared in the bottom right hand corner of my screen only to find it was a friend trying to sell her a kettle or some crazy company trying to get me to buy drugs to increase the size of my XXXXXX

Phil

[silicon toad2000]

a lot of people have said that if it's important, the sender should call you.
you're right, but when it comes to email etiquette, a lot of people in the workplace are socially retarded.
Also there's the whole politics thing where people expect you to read you emails and when something is not done on time it becomes your fault because you didn't read your emails.

[Peter S C]

What has made a world of difference to me is not leaving my email inbox open whilst at the computer. I found this a huge distraction and my productivity suffered from it. I still probably check it more than I should - maybe once every 2 hours - (I would like to get down to twice per day) but I'm working on this.

[n_vizion]

I was just reading up on the four hour work week yesterday. While searching online I found that some people are checking their email twice a day. They are also creating autoresponders that notify your readers of your intention to read emails at certain times of the day. It is also a good idea to let them know that you can be reached by phone if a faster response is required.

I will definately be implementing this into my work week so I can gain control of my work days.