We usually think of it as time waster.
It can dominate your day if you let it.
However, you shouldn’t underestimate email’s potential as a productivity tool and time saver.
Email was intended to let us communicate quickly and directly with others. When used to your advantage, it can be a powerful time management tool.
Email First Thing in the Morning
Email can be a great productivity tool, especially for early birds.
One of the best times to send email is first thing in the morning. Very early. Even before others are up.
Why?
- Because it lets you write your email while your inbox isn’t continuously filling up.
- It gets your emails in motion and working for you before the day even begins.
- And finally, your email with be the first thing that the recipients see when they open their inbox.
To be clear, I am not talking about spamming people with silly emails.
I am referring to sending emails that get work done while you are doing other things.
“Send 5 emails to start your day. Let them work while you are busy on other things.”
I recommend that you send 5 emails each morning to get work done before you even start your day.
Why 5? It’s an easy number to manage and should take you only 5 minutes or so to send.
Here are 5 Reasons to Send 5 Emails Before You Start Your Day:
- Top of the Inbox – One of the biggest advantages of sending emails before you start the day is that they appear at the top of the recipients inboxes when they begin their day. It’s strange that almost everyone reads email from the last one to arrive. Can you imagine if stores worked this way… the last person to arrive gets to go first?
- Get Work Done While You Are Doing Other Work – Sending your messages early in the day lets your email get things done while you go about your day. You can review your inbox later in the day and see the results of your messages.
- Time Shift Your Communication – Unlike phone calls or text messages, email is a great “time-shifting” communication method. The other person doesn’t have to be on the other end of the line at the same time. They can respond to your messages on their own timeline. This saves time on both ends.
- Accountability – Email is a great tool for accountability in conversations. It is easy to ignore or forget verbal conversations, but when you put it in an email, both sides have a record of what was discussed.
- Saves Time – Email is a great tool when used productively. While it should not be used for timely or immediate needs, it is a very quick way to reach anyone, no matter their location. A few seconds can save you a trip or even a phone call.
Using Email to Be More Productive in Your Day
Email doesn’t have to be something that wastes your time. And your inbox can actually be productive when used prudently.
Send 5 productive emails each morning and you can multiple your efforts while you are busy going about your day.
Question: What 5 emails can you send before your start your day? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Okay, I usually ignore most time management tips because they’re intuitively obvious. This one hit it out of the park though. Great fantastic idea, and it balances the other great time management idea to stop getting bogged down with unimportant email (which you can do by dealing with the important emails first). One more reason to add to this (although it’s part of #2, but goes beyond it): This get’s the ball rolling. By that I mean that your most important items are those which interact and affect your most important relationships (a derivative of the Franklin Covey management principles), and what better way to make those priority #1 than by interacting with those top relationship needs first thing in the morning. Kudos.
I beg to differ Craig. While I do agree with the benefits you listed, I feel the RISK of getting lost in your inbox and losing valuable productive time outweighs those benefits. I prefer looking at email only after I have completed my most important task (MIT) for the day.