I think I learned a few things today about how to better handle my ever-so-daunting email inbox. I am the type of person that feels the need to respond to things as soon as they come in, which unfortunately results in constant distractions since I have my mail client set to check for new messages every 60 seconds. I get so much email that every 60 seconds I stop the work I am doing to reply to something, or read something else. If you find yourself in an email rut, here are a few things you can do to change your ways:

Shut off auto-check - Either turn off automatic checking completely, or set it to something reasonable, like every 20 minutes or so. If you’re doing anything with new email more than every few minutes, you might want to rethink your approach. I’m sure that some of you working in North Korean missile silos need real-time email updates, but I encourage the rest of you to consider ganging your email activity into focused (maybe even timed) activity every hour or three. Process, tag, respond to the urgent ones, then get the hell back to work.

Continue reading for more great tips. Do you have any of your own?

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