Email is just one source of potential overwhelm.
Consider these 3 bits of narrative:
1: He say down at his desk and the first thing he did was to check his email.
2: One of his e-mails was expressing anger towards him so he responded in kind.
3: He had email notifications turned on so, when the first new one arrived, he duly looked up from what he was doing ans checked what it was.
Those 3 are all the same person. The same morning.
What do you think of their approach to e-mail & productivity?
Here’s the good news: the person isn’t real. It’s a character called Jack McEvoy in a Michael Connelly thriller called “Scarecrow” – some recent bedtime reading.
In defence of Jack, he was going through a particularly tough patch in terms of his career, his love-life, and his personal safety. Dealing with any one of those would be challenging – let alone all three!
Most of your days are more ordinary than Jack’s was that particular morning.
Most of your days give you the chance to decide proactively how to start your day, when to check email, what (if anything) to do in response to an anger-provoking email, and how to reduce potential interruptions.
And this applies no matter what your intelligence is, no matter how rich you are, no matter how talented you are.
You get the chance every day to make decisions that will affect how productive you will be that day. That may sound boring. That may sound like it demands relentless discipline.
Tough.
You won’t be successful just because you’re disciplined about how you approach your work.
But if you’re not disciplined, you definitely won’t succeed.
Your choice.
You’d be better off if you were overwhelmed less.
And, whether or not you’re challenged by overwhelm, you’d be better off if you had greater clarity, focus and control.
Your time is incredibly valuable. And, today and every day, you make decisions as to how to spend that precious time.
If your inner voice is urging you to be better at choosing how to spend that time, I may be able to help. E-mail me to find out more!