More Less Distractions

July 19th, 2011
[ General ]

Check out this whiteboard with some quality vs quantity guidelines on it from Caterina Fake. I came across it while reading a post about how I can send emails without having to check them. Having now ditched my ‘smart’ phone with no intent of going back, I’ve become hooked on being distracted even less.

To that end, I’m back playing with the practice of only checking email at a few set times each day. Included in that is a new twist I hadn’t tried before in that I don’t check email at night. I certainly slip some days and check more than I need to but most days I’m checking my email three times a day, at 10am, 1pm, and 4pm. That means between 4pm and 10am I am a free man which means more time with my family in the evenings and way more productivity at the office in the mornings. It’s insane how difficult this practice can be to adopt after years of checking email all day long.

I’m always curious to hear how others are managing to cope with email overload? Comment below or contact me directly.