If you have attended one of our Time Management Workshops or Email Training sessions, you have most definitely managed to get your inbox down to zero and are proudly carrying the title of Inbox Zero Hero. But even the most skilled Productivity Ninja is still human and not a superhero and therefore it’s more than normal to lose control over one’s inbox from time to time.
Why are there so many conversations around email?
Research shows, employees spend around 28% of their time in the office responding to, reading, or composing emails, so it’s no wonder that the email inbox itself has become a symbol of stress and overload. Checking our emails has something addictive to it, so it’s no surprise that the average person checks their emails upwards of 70 times per day, with the high end of that number reaching 350 times a day.
The core of the issue is, as our own Productivity Ninja, Hayley Watts put it:
“The problem with email, the reason I’ve heard so many people talk about how email is the thing that makes them feel overwhelmed, is that no one has taught people how to use it. Or perhaps, more to the point, how to stop using it for part of the day.”
Since email has made its way into our offices, it has quickly turned into the main communication tool at work. A lot of people are overdue taking a step back from their inbox and re-evaluating their processes and dependency on emails.
When things get out of control
Even with the best checklists and processes in place, life happens and we go back to feeling that knot in our stomachs when looking at our email symbol on our desktop. Once you’ve attended our Email Training, you’re likely to get it back under control on your own, but as a trained Productivity Ninja, you’ll know that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
In this instance, you don’t even need to “ask” as we’ve got plenty of resources in place to get you back on track.
Our ‘Getting Your Inbox Back to Zero’ E-Course
We’ve designed an e-course on our Productivity Ninja Academy to help you get your inbox back under control and enable you to wear your Inbox Zero Hero badge with pride again. You can work your way through the 9 chapters at your own pace and as always, our community of Productivity Ninjas are here to answer any additional questions along the way. You can view all the details over here, but we’ve summarized some learning outcomes for you below:
- The problem with email and how to fix it
- The difference between “checking” and “processing” emails
- Organizing your emails
- Setting boundaries
- Email cheats
- Email hacking (not the bad kind)
- Making the new process stick
Have any questions about the Productivity Ninja Academy, our e-courses or our Email Training? Feel free to leave a comment below or contact us here.
By Hannah Urbanek
Hannah is Think Productive’s Head of Outreach and the voice behind a lot of our editorial and social media content. Would you like to hear more about Think Productive or share relevant content with us? Get in touch with her directly here or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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