I’m so thrilled that so many of my lovely subscribers open my weekly emails.

I know you probably get tonnes of emails every day, all vying for your attention, so I’m grateful. Genuinely.

(And if you’re not receiving them for some reason, please just email me at [email protected] and I’ll see what I can do).

My hope is it’s going to do something small to help you towards your goals.

That’s the aim anyway!

Whether you want to launch your own digital course, set up a part time business, or pursue some of your creative dreams… my aim in these emails is to give you practical and motivational advice based on my decades of experience.

But I have to admit…

Emails can be as much as a curse
as they are a blessing

These days the sheer volume of emails that hit your inbox every day can cause info overload, distraction, stress and anxiety.

And it can eat into the time you should be spending on your goals.

This is particularly true if you have a job, or if you’re self-employed or freelancing.

You see, one of the challenges when starting an online business when you are also employed, is that you need to do the work in your spare time.

Those precious bits of the day are when you need to find focus, so you can concentrate on what you’re doing and make that small amount of time really count.

But what happens if that spare time is constantly being swamped by emails that you feel you must deal with… or that distract and upset you?

Unfortunately, this is a common problem – especially since the Covid 19 outbreak, when so much work was transferred online.

It really struck me when I read an article in the ‘work and careers’ section of The Guardian this week.

The headline read:

‘It just doesn’t stop!’
Do we need a new law to ban
out-of-hours emails?

The article described a recent study of workers in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

It showed a massive increase in the average number of emails sent internally by businesses since the pandemic began.

In fact, they estimated that the average workday had extended by 48.5 minutes – all because of email.

Employers are increasingly sending emails to workers, associates and clients out of hours – sometimes at 10pm, 11pm, or in the wee small hours.

You probably know this from your own experience…

It might be that you’ve sat down for dinner, or started watching a film, or you’re reading in bed….

You hear the inbox alert ping and you cannot help but reach for it, as these thoughts race through your head….

Why is that person contacting me at this hour?

What if it’s important?

What if I need to reply urgently?

What if I forget to reply tomorrow?

This happens to me a lot, too.

But… to make things worse…

Sometimes I am to blame!

I have to guiltily confess that I also sometimes send emails out of hours.

In my defence, I don’t ever expect the receiver to reply right away, or even that they will read it that night.

It’s just that I get an exciting idea in my head and I feel I have to send out an email while it’s fresh in my mind, before it slips out of my brain by the next morning (my middle aged memory is not great!).

Thing is, in the old days, it didn’t matter when you sent an email.
People would just pick it up when they logged onto their computer for work the next day.

However, now that almost everyone has a smartphone, with an email app, they see those emails arrive in real time, and it can stimulate a mental response outside of their control.

I know from my own experience that when I get emails about work projects at night, I either feel I must respond quickly OR I don’t respond, but the email plays on my mind, distracting me from what I am doing.

So look, I’m trying to get better with this, because I realise that I contribute to same problem that frustrates me.

But what about you?

Do you find that whenever you sit down to focus on a project, emails drag you back into work-mode, or fill your brain with distractions?

If so, there are three steps I recommend.

• First is that you deactivate email alerts on your phone after a certain time of day – perhaps 6pm, depending on your working hours. At the very least, decide when you are going to be spending time on your own project, and disconnect for that period. Sounds simple but it works.
• Second – plan out times of day you will answer your emails and stick to them. I personally find I’m most productive if I do a morning check, a midday one and a quick check at 5ish to ensure there are no urgent matters.
• Following on from this – I find that you can reduce your anxiety about missing important emails by setting your alarm half an hour earlier the next morning, (or by allotting 30 minutes at the start of work) to go through those emails you received that night before. You’ll then be able to respond without it ruining your attention span when you need it.

You will probably notice that in ‘deactivating’ each night, nothing bad will happen.

That email you missed at 8pm will be answered at 8am the next day instead, which is still very prompt, and nobody will be cross or offended.

And if there is an issue, then this is something you should speak to your boss or manager about – because you do have a right to have time to yourself outside work.

The benefits of this strategy will be that when you finish your job for the day, you can draw a line under it, and begin focussing on your other projects.

Try it and see if it makes a difference!