I have spoken previously about the importance of mindful habits in the morning.
They create positive pathways to ensure a productive day ahead.
I believe, strongly, that you shouldn’t wake up to your phone in the bedroom – charge it in another room! – and, also, that you shouldn’t doomscroll the minute you get up.
I used to switch from Twitter to Instagram to LinkedIn to YouTube to TikTok and, before I knew it, 7am had turned into 8am and my senses had been subjected to all this unnecessary digital noise as I looked to go about my day.
The significance of ditching your phone in those precious moments first thing can’t be underestimated.
But I’d like to go a stage further and show you how this mindset can help you in the world of work, too.
What I’m going to say will sound controversial – but, if actioned, it could make the world of difference to your creativity and productivity.
I believe one of the biggest mistakes people make when they arrive at work and open up their laptop is heading straight for emails.
I’m saying now – don’t start your day with emails!
Statistics show that the average office worker receives 121 emails per day and that the average number of emails sent and received each day keeps rising.
By 2023, the number of email users worldwide will reach 4.4 billion. That’s up almost 16% from 3.8 billion users in 2021.
Importantly, employees spend more than 90 minutes per day recovering from email interruptions.
Approximately 92% of employees show elevated blood pressure and heart rate when handling emails at work.
Many companies are making strides to combat this email epidemic.
At Intel, engineers and managers go offline each Tuesday morning to create “four continuous hours of thinking time”. US software company Menlo Innovations have ditched internal emails.
Emails are not delivered after hours at Volkswagen while Daimler have a “Mail on Holiday” policy which issues a reply to the sender that the person is out of the office and that the email will be deleted, while also offering the contact information of another employee for pressing matters.
But, more than the obvious stress of being at the mercy of emails, I bring it up as someone who champions creativity and curiosity.
When you begin your work day with emails, you are starting your day reactively rather than proactively.
You are completing someone else’s to-do list – not focusing on your own priorities at a time – the morning – when your energy levels are at their peak.
How many times have you left work and thought ‘I didn’t do anything I wanted to do today, I got sidetracked’.
One of the easiest ways for this to happen is to disappear into email limbo.
Sifting through your inbox saps your focus and motivation. We get lost. Don’t let this happen anymore – make a plan for yourself and stick to it.
I used to be powerless, too, but now I’ve taken control of my day.
My routine? I don’t look at email first thing – and set myself specific times to use it through the day.
I always manage to get something of personal value completed by the time Microsoft Outlook fires up – and that feeling of accomplishment drives me forward for the rest of the day, in the knowledge that I’m “on a roll”.
I even set my ‘Email Signature’ and let people know how I work.
Be clear, consistent – and enjoy the freeing benefits.
Paul Brown 