Email can be a black hole that swallows productivity, but a few changes to your inbox habits can help you take back your time. First, don’t let yourself check email more often than once per hour, and turn off any notifications that tempt you to. Most people don’t expect you to respond immediately, and doing so keeps you from concentrating on other tasks. Second, move emails out of your inbox the first time you read them, so you don’t waste time by having to read them again later. Put messages into two folders: one for those that require a response and one for those that don’t. Many of us use lots of folders, thinking it’s better to file email in specific places, but having more choices slows us down and drains our decision-making energy. Third, take the time to set up automated filtering. Move the messages you need, delete the ones you don’t, and block the spam that’s left over.
Adapted from “How to Spend Way Less Time on Email Every Day,” by Matt Plummer
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