{"id":4141,"date":"2014-11-14T10:28:08","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T16:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/blog\/?p=4141"},"modified":"2014-11-14T10:49:51","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T16:49:51","slug":"emailsucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/?p=4141","title":{"rendered":"Email Sucks Challenge: How to Find 8 Hours of Extra Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you wish you\u00a0were healthier?<\/p>\n<p>I do. Working from home has\u00a0been a disaster\u00a0on the &#8220;don&#8217;t eat tons of junk food&#8221; front.<\/p>\n<p>Then last week I finally snapped.<\/p>\n<p>I moved our extra refrigerator into the garage, bought a chain and locked up all the junk that I&#8217;m tempted to eat during the day.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Screenshot_11_13_14__9_00_AM_1A14FF33.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"704\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Screenshot_11_13_14__9_00_AM_1A14FF33.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"704\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>The key to the lock went in my wife&#8217;s car so it would be <!--more-->impossible for me to access.<\/p>\n<p>Guess what happened? I stopped eating junk food. Then, over\u00a0the next\u00a010 days, three\u00a0pounds of fat vanished from my body. All because I got sick of the way things were going and decided to do something radically different.<\/p>\n<p>Quick question:<\/p>\n<p>Do you\u00a0wish you had more time?<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rescuetime.com\" target=\"_blank\">Rescue Time<\/a> I spend 10 hours per week inside of Gmail.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10 FREAKING HOURS!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s 1\/4 of my entire work week.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/RescueTime_-_Communication___Scheduling_1A150B27.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1003\" height=\"332\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/RescueTime_-_Communication___Scheduling_1A150B27.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1003\" height=\"332\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>The #1 thing that my coaching clients complain about is not having enough time. Well, no wonder we don&#8217;t have enough time. The average person spends over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/insights\/high_tech_telecoms_internet\/the_social_economy\" target=\"_blank\">13 hours per week<\/a>\u00a0inside of email.<\/p>\n<p>If you were to cut that in half, you would\u00a0reclaim an entire working day.<\/p>\n<p>Two months ago I set out to do just that. I unearthed\u00a0two laws you need to\u00a0implement immediately.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Law #1:\u00a0Thou shalt put a lock on thy email account.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The great thing about putting a\u00a0lock on the refrigerator is that I only have to make the decision one time. I&#8217;m not tempted by Rocky Road and Vanilla Bean\u00a0every time I open the door to get a glass of water.<\/p>\n<p>Every Sunday\u00a0morning, all of the junk food from Saturday goes in the fridge. The lock goes on and the key is hidden.<\/p>\n<p>This prevents me from falling trap to decision fatigue and doing something I really don&#8217;t want to do.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 285px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/3gOItz64eKknK\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"285\" height=\"256\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/3gOItz64eKknK\/giphy.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"285\" height=\"256\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8230;but it&#8217;s soooo good.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Email works the same way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Put a lock on it. Make the decision once and then forget it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">To do that, use the free Gmail plugin <a href=\"https:\/\/inboxpause.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Inbox Pause<\/a>. It&#8217;s like a magic lock for your inbox.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You tell it when you want your email to\u00a0be delivered and it does exactly that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Pasted_Image_11_14_14__9_26_AM_1A16570B.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"519\" height=\"536\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Pasted_Image_11_14_14__9_26_AM_1A16570B.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"519\" height=\"536\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">One of my biggest problems is opening Gmail in order to SEND a message but then noticing 10 incoming messages and not being able to wait to read them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">By the time I finish reading and responding to them, I&#8217;ve forgotten what I originally opened my inbox for.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">After\u00a0installing Inbox Pause, this is no longer a problem.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Result<\/strong>: Locking my inbox shaved 2 hours per week of my time spent in email.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Law #2: Thou shalt empty out thy entire inbox on Friday.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There is nothing more demoralizing than knowing you have 5,000 unread messages in your inbox.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I fixed this by passing a new law:\u00a0<em>Thou shalt empty out thy entire inbox on Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Every Friday, schedule a one-hour appointment with yourself to empty your inbox.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/-_Calendar_1A151352.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1078\" height=\"586\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/-_Calendar_1A151352.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1078\" height=\"586\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I don&#8217;t care what you do Monday through Thursday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But every\u00a0Friday <em>EMPTY YOUR INBOX<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Respond to some. Schedule your responses to other. Archive\u00a0them all. I don&#8217;t care.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Whatever you do,\u00a0there better not be an email in your inbox at the end of day on Friday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">One interesting side effect is that it gives you permission to put off answering less important emails in real time throughout the week and forces you to batch process them all at one time on Friday (which is MUCH more efficient).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Results<\/strong>: Cleaning out my inbox every Friday shaved off\u00a0an additional 3 hours per week.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Today I want to challenge you\u00a0to do something radical&#8230;.<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">In total, these two laws save me five hours per week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">What could you do with five additional hours?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Today I want to challenge you to do something radical&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Before you leave work today, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/harris_bryan\" target=\"_blank\">tweet me a picture<\/a> of your EMPTY inbox.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There is nothing quite like the feeling of walking out of the office on Friday afternoon and knowing that, come Monday, 5,000 emails won&#8217;t be staring you in the face.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Use the hashtag &#8220;#emailsucks&#8221; and I&#8217;ll give you a shout-out on the blog next week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Up for the challenge?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Boom! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FVHJKvJZIE\">pic.twitter.com\/FVHJKvJZIE<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014 Bryan Harris (@Harris_Bryan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Harris_Bryan\/status\/530780004133896192\">November 7, 2014<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you wish you\u00a0were healthier? I do. Working from home has\u00a0been a disaster\u00a0on the &#8220;don&#8217;t eat tons of junk food&#8221;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}