Multiple productivity articles warn against checking email when you begin the day. The reasoning: reading email derails your productive focus, even if you decide to respond later. Unanswered messages can create stress that distracts you from an important task at hand. And if you do choose to respond, this is reacting to other people’s priorities versus making proactive progress on your own goals. In the Forbes (possibly pay-walled) article Why Checking Your Email First Thing Is Killing Your Success, Jodie Cooke says, “Why start the day on someone else’s agenda when you could use [the morning] to master your time and own the day?”
Confession: I’m aware of this advice. Yet I *always* check email (and social media) before I start my writing day. And I fully intended to make this blog post about why reading email in the morning is just fine, thank you very much. I understand the concepts. I just intentionally choose not to regard them. Starting my day by knowing what’s arrived in my in-box is not really an issue.
Except . . . maybe it is. In the process of drafting this, I realized it’s actually more problematic than I thought.
Except . . . maybe it is. In the process of drafting this, I realized it’s actually more problematic than I thought.
I’m fortunate that I have a lot of control over how I schedule my days. After some coffee and morning journaling, I do a “quick” email and social media check and save the messages that require a more thoughtful response for later. But as Cooke says, “Checking email feels productive because the task goes in the work category of your mind. But it should go in the distraction column along with social media. . . . You know it’s not what you should be doing but you’re kidding yourself that it matters.”
That gave me pause. Was I kidding myself? The very day I was drafting this post, I received an irritating email, and even though I put it aside until later, the annoyance weighed on me as I started my *real* work. And I've noticed that my writing time has been creeping to a later start each day, which can leave me scrambling in the evening to fit everything in.
What would happen if I focused on my creative writing THE VERY FIRST THING instead of reading email (and, I admit, scanning social media)? What if I used those less important tasks as a reward for getting a big chunk of writing done?
What would happen if I focused on my creative writing THE VERY FIRST THING instead of reading email (and, I admit, scanning social media)? What if I used those less important tasks as a reward for getting a big chunk of writing done?
I decided to do an experiment for the week before I posted this. Lessons learned:
- Breaking a routine is hard. I left myself a "DO NOT GO ONLINE" post-it as encouragement each morning. Then I did my writing first. On two days, I even surpassed my goal.
- The lure of checking email/social media (I know they're not the same, but I tend to lump them together in process) is a nice reward. I finished my work earlier than usual each day.
- Doing “pomodoros” (timed work sessions) virtually with friends can help keep me on task.
- Despite my desire to check email first thing, there was never anything time sensitive that couldn't wait until after lunch.
- When I do catch up online, it helps if I set a timer so that a few minutes don't become an hour.
This new routine definitely requires more will power, but I think the benefits are worth it. Do you check email first thing or do you wait?
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