Having forgotten my phone today and not having constant access to email made me remember an article I ran into and had to share. Several key things contribute to burn out but one of the major ones of today's business world is email. So here is a fun little exercise.
- Think about the number of emails that you receive in a day...
- Now think about your average response time to those emails...
- Now think about how many of those emails are really critical, high value things that need immediate responses...
Scary isn't it? Recent findings even shown how the level of access provided by things like Blackberry's and other email devices actually make you dumber by as much as 10 IQ points with close to drug addiction levels.
To address this immediate brain drain one of the things suggested is to set aside specific times to answer emails. Don't let your email be a task list. There are emails that are urgent and there are ones that can wait. Prioritize.
