I recently read the average person spends up to two days per week on email and a full day per week in meetings.
Yikes! That’s a lot of time lost!
It may be you spending too much time in meetings and emails or it may be your employees. In either case, wouldn’t it be better to focus on tasks that drive your growth?
I’m not here to tell you to eliminate all email and meetings. If you’re in sales, emails are necessary to close deals. And some meetings are vital to keep a team moving in the same direction.
That said, we’ve all found ourselves dropping important tasks when we hear the ding of the inbox. And I’m betting you’ve been in meetings that leave you saying, “I’m not getting that hour back.”
So how do you change this? Glad you asked. Let’s start with email.
Kill the inbox notifications
It may feel tough at the beginning but this is the first step to freeing yourself from the email trap. Don’t believe it’s a trap?
Gloria Mark, Professor at UC Irvine, conducted research into interruptions at work. Her research found each time a person is interrupted, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.”
Once your email notifications are gone from your laptop AND your phone, you can create a schedule for email that works for your role.
For some, it may be once at 10 AM, after working on the top priority of the day. For others, it may be two or three sessions per day. Find what works for you.
So many meetings!
Meetings can be a bit tougher. Especially if your business is established and you’re used to having lots of meetings to get things done.
So when it comes to meetings, I start by optimizing existing meetings rather than eliminating them. Ensure your company’s meetings have a purpose, an agenda, and a meeting lead.
A purpose is simply an understanding of why the meeting is happening and what you need to accomplish by the time it’s over. If you don’t know why it’s happening or there is nothing coming out of it, why are you meeting?
An agenda keeps the meeting flowing. Most meetings begin with a little bit of personal chit chat but don’t let it run too long. Once everyone is there, transition into your first topic.
Finally, make sure you know who is leading the meeting. And if it’s not you, make sure that person knows they are leading it. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been in where each person involved thought it was someone else’s meeting to run.
Okay, that’s it for now. I’ve contributed enough to your email time this week. Thanks for reading and I wish you nothing but growth in your business.
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Your friend,
JC
