So apparently we waste up to 96 hours a year just opening and closing emails without taking action on them. At least, that’s what I’m told. Speaking for myself . . . yeah, that seems about right. As much as I wish this wasn’t my default so often I open a new email, scan or read it, then decide I don’t want to / don’t have time to deal with it at that moment and then mark it as unread to come back to later. Open, close, open, close, until I finally deal with it. Or it gets lost in the archived abyss.
I keep learning about this time management technique that I’m desperately trying to put into better practice: touch it once. Open the email and deal with the email. If you’re not ready to deal with it, don’t open the damn email. Open, close, open, close, I can’t believe how much I do this. It’s embarrassing.
So here’s some mini advice for whoever needs it but mostly accountability for myself to just touch the damn email once and get a couple weeks of my work hours back. Uffda.
With Love,
Natalie