Blue Eye

Email Productivity Tip (for Desktop Email Clients)

This blog post previously appeared in the Old Office Divvy Blog

Email and I are not friends… Aside from the fact that I find email a weak way to communicate (particularly when you’re dealing with multiple team-members), I just think that there is just too many of it.

Plus it’s a constant interruption.

I use Microsoft Outlook, and like most people when a new email pops up in my computer, I see it pop up, and feel obligated to look at it; which creates constant interruption in my world, which is not what I need.

So I developed a new method to deal with this issue, which I think can pass as a productivity tip. It’s new for me, but it’s been working so far…

Here is what it is:

I setup my email-download-interval at 25 minutes.

My outlook used to download every 5 minutes. Now that I changed it to 25 minutes, I’m interruption free from email for nearly a half-hour, which is enough time for me to attack in a 20-minute sprint intervals towards my daily to-do list items.

The downside? You’ll have to call me if you send me a really, really urgent email.

Check out the settings below, and try for yourself. If you need help locating these settings contact me through my office or on twitter.

Do you have other practical productivity tips when it comes to using your email and dealing with it? I’m most interested in hearing about them…

Author
Recent Posts

Ky Ekinci

I'm a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Office Divvy. I am an entrepreneur, a trusted advisor, a world traveler, a Coworking advocate, and an appreciator of fine cigars.