A busy journalist told the story of going to Europe for two
weeks. His e-mail was inaccessible for the entire time. When
he returned, he had more than 700 messages waiting for
him. He knew that it would take him many hours, even sev-
eral days, to go through 700 e-mails. So he took a deep
breath and pressed “delete all.”
His attitude was simple. He said, “I refuse to be the slave
of any person who sends me an e-mail, expecting me to
reply immediately. Besides, if any of these e-mails were
important, whoever sent the e-mail will send it again.”
And he was right; 90 percent of the e-mails that he
deleted were never repeated, and the ones that he deleted
that were important ones were resent within a few days.
Make a decision not to allow your e-mail to control your
life, like the tail wagging the dog. Instead, discipline yourself
to use e-mail as a business tool. Make your responses quick
and to the point. Check your e-mail only twice a day, or less
frequently. Even better, leave your e-mail off on the week-
ends and spend more time with your family and friends or
engaged in personal activities.
The good news is that you will probably never miss an
important message. There are very few things that happen
that cannot wait another day or two, especially in business.
80 TIME MANAGEMENT