Maximizing Productivity with Email
Cal Newport's book Deep Work emphasizes the value of minimizing distractions. Email can easily pull your focus away from meaningful work, so use it intentionally.
Protect Deep Work Times
Email can be a huge time suck! Schedule periods of the day where you ignore email entirely. Use that time for the tasks that require your full attention. Outside of those blocks, process email quickly and return to focused work.
Turn off notifications and check it only one to three times per day. Processing your inbox in batches lets you stay focused on real work the rest of the time.
Do More Work When Replying to Emails
This is a key principle of email productivity. To quote Cal Newport:
"How you respond to [emails] will have a significant impact on how much time and attention the resulting conversation ultimately consumes. [Some emails] generate an initial instinct to dash off the quickest possible response that will clear the message - temporarily - out of your inbox."
Cal's advice is to respond with what he calls a "process centric response". Your response should resolve these questions:
What is the work that is represented by this email?
What is the most efficient way (least number of emails) to resolve this conversation successfully?
If you reply with these things in mind, you will spend more time up front, but will reduce the total time spent on the email thread.
Don't Send the Email
Another way to reduce time spent on email is to simply not send some emails at all. Ask yourself these questions:
Will anything good happen if I do send this email?
Will anything bad happen if I don't send this email?
If the answer to both questions is "no", then don't send it. This will help you avoid unnecessary email threads and keep your inbox cleaner.