2 Changes To Your Email Habits That Will Level Up Your Productivity
Some are spam, some are from your Nan. Some are from your boss, and others are from Hugo Boss.
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It’s a bit ironic, isn’t it?
I’m sending you this email newsletter to discuss the dangers of email as a time sapper.
It’s a perfect illustration of the nuance we need when thinking about email’s role in our lives. Take a look at your inbox right now—you’ll likely find a bizarre mix of messages from different senders and with very different purposes.
Some are spam, some are from your Nan.
Some are from your boss, and others are from Hugo Boss.
My little go at poetry - i’ll stick to my day job. Ha.
All of those emails, side by side, piled into that humble inbox, which ranks them not by importance but by date and time. A linear stream of urgency, triviality, and, let’s face it, distractions.
On top of that, many of us juggle several email accounts
Your work email, a Hotmail account from when you first dipped your toes into the online world, a Gmail because Google won that battle, and maybe an Apple email just because you feel you should. Ping, ping, ping.
The notifications never stop.
Sure, email providers offer "Focused Inbox" features to filter out the noise, but how reliable is that? Do they really know what’s important to you? Or are they subtly guiding your attention to what they want you to see?
Either way, it doesn’t fix the problem.
Email dominates our work lives but it doesn’t have to be that way
Let’s talk about “inbox zero”—it sounds like a noble goal, but it can quickly turn into a trap. Suddenly, your job becomes keeping that inbox empty, forgetting that your real job is to get meaningful work done.
Email starts to feel like an endless game of whack-a-mole or if you get into one of those dreaded email exchanges - email tennis (pick up the phone guys!).
Much of the problem begins with those first 15 minutes each morning
You sit down with 30 minutes before your meetings start. The temptation is strong—you open your inbox to “quickly” check for urgent messages. And there it is: an email from accounts asking for last week's revenue figures, and they need it by 11 am. They don’t explain why, but it sounds important.
You answer: “Revenue was up X% last week. Thanks, Martin. Done.”
Two minutes later...
“Thanks, Martin. Could you also give us the last four weeks of figures and a quick background for the board pack?”
Suddenly, you're locked in an email tennis match, back and forth, spending precious time helping someone else prepare for their day.
And there goes your time to plan for your own meetings.
What’s worse is that this request probably could’ve been made weeks ago, with a little foresight.
Email isn't the enemy here—it’s just the channel. This could’ve easily been a Teams message or even a passing comment during your lunch break.
The problem is how we use these tools and how we manage ourselves.
So what’s the cure?
It comes down to setting boundaries and communicating better with those around you—a little tough love sometimes can help too. There’s a two-pronged approach to dealing with email overload, and you’ll need both to make it work.
Step one: Go cold turkey. Stop answering emails during those precious first minutes of the day.
In fact, get in the habit of not checking email until you’ve completed your critical tasks for the morning.
Prioritise your own work first.
Over time, people will learn that you’re not going to jump just because they ask at the last minute. And yes, your past behaviour might have set the expectation that you’re always available, but that’s a habit worth breaking.
Now of course there is nuance here and you’ll need to make judgements as you go. Not all emails are equal and if the CEO comes knocking you might want to reply.
I know, I know!
It’s your career, but for those ones I’d reply pretty quickly!
Step two: Be proactive. Get ahead of the curve by offering help before it’s even asked for.
If you know a board meeting is coming up, reach out to the relevant people and provide the data in advance. It makes you look prepared and, more importantly, shifts the dynamic.
You’re no longer reacting to last-minute requests—you’re driving the conversation.
When you combine these two strategies, email stops being the centre of your day.
You regain control of your time, especially in those crucial morning hours, and your productivity will improve dramatically.
What do you think?
Could you have a better relationship with your inbox?
What’s the first thing you do when you fire up the laptop each day?
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Thanks for reading - see you in the comments.
Martin
I just read a pirated copy of Slow Productivity by Cal Newport... Have to say, Martin, you did amazingly well on this piece, summary of a few chapters where Cal goes on a tangent about emails (one of his books was solely on how to deal with emails, which is funny).
True, I open emails almost immediately bc they contain Substack newsletters and I like to get through as many as I can right away. Since I'm not in an office job any more, thank goodness I don't have to worry about quarterly reports ):