Do you find yourself checking your email several times a day? If you have a mobile phone are you constantly looking for new messages? It is easy to get addicted to email, I know I have.

The problem is that it can be a complete time waster. All it takes is to see a message from a newsletter you subscribe to and then you click a link, and another, and another, and….you get the idea. You become lost in cyber space and several minutes have gone by. Here are 4 tips to help you get over your email addiction:

1. Turn off that email notification. The pop-up email notification reminds me of the dog on the Disney movie UP. He is going right along with life and all of a sudden turns his head and says “Squirrel!” We can be just like that when it comes to email. It is like we have EADD (Email Attention Deficit Disorder). It is not good for you to be constantly pulling away from the work at hand. Multi-tasking and focus don’t get along.

2. Decide ahead of time when to check your email. See if you can force yourself to only check your email once, twice, or three times a day. I know that might seem difficult at first, but it can be done. In fact, it makes it better because there is probably more exciting email to look at all at once if you only check it a few times a day.

3. Don’t check your email first thing in the morning. This one was a hard habit to break. The problem with checking it first thing is that you start your day down rabbit trails. Give yourself time to get things going by working on something meaningful first thing in the morning. The world will not fall apart.  I actually check mine 3 times daily (10:00, 2:00, 6:00). 10:00 allows me to tackle anything important before lunch. 2:00 gives me a chance to check in on what is going on. 6:00 (or usually before I finish work) allows me to check in and see if anything is important before the day concludes.

4. Narrow down your email inboxes. This used to be a problem for me. I had too many email addresses. You waste alot of time trying to go to each email address and login. Instead have everything funneled to one or two email addresses. Gmail allows you to select which email address you want your message to be sent from so it can look like it is coming from any email address that you want.

Get a handle on your email addiction and you will put several hours back into your life. Lastly, when you feel the urge to check your email, take a deep breath and get focused again at the task at hand.

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We all have different ways of managing our stuff and much of it is personality driven. However, there is one area that is critical regardless of what time management system that you use:

The Collection Habit

Having a central place to collect everything is the most valuable thing you can do. Otherwise, do you know what happens? Our email inbox has a few things, our physical to do list more things, and our calendar a few items as well. It is okay to have a few collection buckets but the purpose is for all of it to go to one place.

Many people make the mistake of trying to go from an unorganized state to super-organized. That is a recipe for failure. Instead focus on one small habit for 30 days or more and then add to it later. Challenge yourself for the next 30 days to collect everything that comes to mind. If you don’t then you live paralized becuase it only takes a few items in your head to immobilize you. When you get it out on paper (or collection bucket) then you no longer have to try to remember to remember what you need to remember (make sense?)

Here are my collection buckets:

• Physical Inbox (Basket for mail, files, and letters) – I empty this out daily
• Wallet with 3×5 Cards – I have a wallet with a small pen and I record things that come to mind when I am away from my computer
• Sony Digital Recorder - I use this when driving or during my morning walk as things come to mind. A great tool to use if you are not able to write anything down.
• Chandler Project Software – This is a free desktop application software where all the stuff above eventually goes. Find out more about the software here: The Chandler Project

I cannot tell you how much this has simplified my life. When anything comes to mind I put it into my trusted system (whatever basket is closer) and then I religiously take a moment to put everything into Chandler. This has cleared my mind and allowed me to focus on “my stuff” when I want instead of it nagging me all day.

What do you use for your collection habit?

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