It has been a while since my last post as we are extraordinarily busy pushing toward a Jan 31 deadline. In my continuing battle to find more time and be more effective at work I've come to a realization. I'm a slave to email. We communicate with clients all over the place. Many are in different time zones or even different continents so email is an effective way to track down and disseminate information. I can block out time, I can close the door, I can even have my calls held temporarily. However, for some reason I can't resist the urge to open an email when it shows up and I can't turn it off because it's integrated with our calendar and client database. So every time I hear a ding, or see the little envelope pop up I can't help myself. Until now.
Our software checks email every 2 minutes so my day was being reduced to little blocks of uninterrupted time between email deliveries. I went in and reset the delivery time to 60 minutes and it has made a big difference in my focus and efficiency. Try it, you'll be surprised at how serene life becomes without that little chime going off every 2 minutes.
Note: we use Goldmine with a POP3 setup through our server. Other POP3 configurations in Outlook, etc. offer the ability to set how often the computer checks the server for email. If you are using an Exchange server you may be out of luck, I don't know. If delaying delivery isn't an option maybe you can disable the sounds and icons associated with new mail. All programs allow you to manually check the server if you are expecting an email and don't want to wait.
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