Break the Habit: Stop Checking Email So Often
There was a time when emails consumed my life. I’d stop working on my current task to check my emails every time that notification dinged. Along with doing this in the office for nine hours a day, I did the same on my off hours. Before and after dinner, during a TV show, before bed, even in the middle of the night and on the weekend — no time was sacred!
Some may say that’s an email addiction, but others (like my boss) believe it’s just “part of the job.”
Whatever you call it, the problem is that this behavior actually reduces productivity. No matter how good you are at multitasking, switching between tasks means the need to refocus. How many times have you gotten distracted from a task, taken care of the interruption, and returned to the task with “okay, where was I?”
Additionally, don’t dismiss the fact that checking email less frequently reduces stress. A study conducted by Kushlev and Dunn at the University of British Columbia found that “limiting the frequency of checking email throughout the day reduced daily stress” in their subject group. Furthermore, “lower daily stress predicts greater well-being” which is no surprise.
Now, if you’re ready to stop checking email on the evenings and weekends, be more productive at work, and promote your mental health and wellbeing, let’s look at how to lower email anxiety.
The Email Batching Technique: How to Check Email Twice a Day
One way to get your feeling of email overload under control is to use the Email Batching technique. This involves managing messages only a couple of times per day. It allows you to control your schedule, rather than letting your inbox manage your time.
You can also target your focus on handling the messages instead of fragmenting your attention by bouncing back and forth between your inbox and other tasks.
To make the method more effective, consider the following:
- Set a schedule to manage messages at specific times such as 9 AM and 3 PM.
- Create time limits for each batch like 30 or 60 minutes.
- Prioritize messages in each batch or use a system like the Four D’s (below).
- Work on similar or related emails in a batch.
One important action to take before you tackle this technique is to clean your inbox. Once you clear the backlog of messages, you can start fresh which puts you in a position to make the method a success.
Organize, Clear Your Inbox, and Unsubscribe
To set a solid foundation for effective mailbox management, use the following Clean Email tools to declutter your inbox, organize your emails, and unsubscribe from unwanted messages.
Unsubscriber Feature: Use Unsubscriber to remove yourself from multiple mailing lists at once. You can also pause subscriptions temporarily while you clear out your inbox.
Screener Feature: View all emails from unknown senders in one place. This lets you stop junk before it reaches your inbox.
Mute Function and Mark as Read: Silence or mark messages as read to reduce distractions.
Auto Clean Feature: Create rules to automatically declutter your mailbox and organize incoming messages moving forward.
Cross-Device Syncing: Clean your inbox from anywhere. You can use all features across devices and those actions sync seamlessly.
Clean Email is committed to your privacy and security by not selling your data and ensuring it remains safe. The application has been on the market for more than 10 years and cleans 5 billion emails each year! It works with all IMAP email accounts and is available on the web, desktop, and mobile devices.
Turn Off Push Notifications
Are there times when you do decide to stay away from your emails, but then receive a notification for a new message and go check your inbox after all?
One way to prevent this type of distraction is to turn off your email notifications. With most devices, you can manage alerts from your device or system settings or customize the notifications for the mail application you use.
Additionally, you can consider setting up Focus mode for your away time. This then stops inbox notifications from interrupting you during meals, family time, and on the weekend. And unlike some similar tools, you can specify which notifications you still want to receive like communication alerts from your spouse or partner.
Schedule Time for Email
To reduce email anxiety and put the Email Batching technique to work, consider scheduling events on your calendar and/or using tools that enforce the time limits you set. Here are a couple of methods and tools you can use for this.
Time Blocking
Time Blocking is a time management technique where you create blocks of time on your calendar to take care of tasks. Combined with Email Batching, you can set up recurring events to manage your inbox twice per day, each day. You simply block your calendar for those timeframes, set reminders so that you know when to begin, and work on nothing else during those times.
You can create time blocks with the calendar you already use for events like Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, or Apple Calendar --- no special software necessary!
App Limiting Tools
On Android devices, you can use the Digital Wellbeing tool and on Apple devices, you can use Screen Time. With these types of tools, you set daily limits for the amount of time you can spend with your email app.
If you’re interested in third-party options, apps like Freedom and RescueTime help you minimize distractions by tracking and limiting the time you spend with your mail app.
When you reach your limit with tools like these, either the app automatically closes, or you receive a notification letting you know your mail management time is over.
Process the Batch (the Four D’s)
Many who seek to reach inbox zero swear by the Four D’s for handling incoming messages. But you don’t have to strive for zero emails or spend zero time on messages to use this technique — it works perfectly with the Email Batching method.
Using the Four D’s, you review each new message and then do one of the following with it:
- Do: Reply to the email right away, especially if it’ll only take a couple of minutes.
- Delegate: Forward the message to another team member to handle.
- Defer: Delay acting on the email until you have time to determine the correct action.
- Delete: Remove an unnecessary message by deleting it or moving it to the trash.
By triaging messages using the above actions, you should be able to handle each new email in the batch and move onto the next task.
Use the One Touch Inbox Strategy
One final technique you can use for email stress management is the One Touch Inbox Strategy. This is similar to the Four D’s above but without the Defer action and also works well with Email Batching.
The intent here is that you handle each message only once. This means you reply, delegate, or delete the email immediately. This not only eliminates the amount of time you spend revisiting the same messages which can be counterproductive but also reduces the overall time you spend managing your inbox.
A Balanced and Effective Approach to Email Management
Using both Clean Email and the Email Batching technique, you can create an efficient mailbox management system.
Clean Email provides features for task automation and long-term organization while Email Batching helps prevent interruptions and allows for better focus. Together, these tools can help you maintain a clutter-free inbox, reduce email anxiety, and free up time for things you enjoy like family, hobbies, and personal interests.
