If you’re anything like me, the first thing you do at work, after making yourself a cup of tea of coffee, is to open your email program to see all of the new emails that came in overnight.

To gain skills to manage time excellently, consider using Time Management Training Course delivered by pdtraining in Adelaide, Melbourne and other cities in Australia.

It always amazes me how many people do their emails outside of work hours.  Is that because they were just too busy to read and respond to their emails during the day?

Or are they just poor managers of their time?

And if this is what you do every day, then more often than not, your daily plans just went right out the window because there will be at least one email that you feel requires your immediate attention and this starts the avalanche of reactive tasking for the rest of the day.

OK, so how are you supposed to deal with emails?

You manage the time you spend on them by setting a fixed schedule and start treating emails like tasks.

I think it’s hilarious when someone sends me an email with the little red flag on it because what is important to them may not be so important to me.

Instead of reacting to incoming emails as they appear, you have to take control of your inbox and set a specific time when you will respond to them.

Instead of opening your emails the very first thing, you might wait until 10am – after you’ve completed your assigned tasks for the morning – before checking your inbox.

Or you can set aside 2 hours a day; 9-30-10-30am and 3-30-4.30pm to read and reply to emails.

Then turn off your email program for the rest of the day. You’ll be amazed at how productive you become!

Email can be an absolute time stealer, and you may even find some staff hiding in their inbox while they avoid some of their more important, but tedious tasks.

Take control of your inbox and create more time in your day!

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All public Time Management Training courses include am/pm tea, lunch, printed courseware and a certificate of completion.  Customised courses are available upon request so please contact pdtraining on 1300 121 400 to learn more.