["But, are there hidden dangers in being a slave to your inbox?"] – I think so as well Joe.

I don't know too many people that make money from checking their inbox, except for those online survey takers…I'm sure they've figured it out. So why do we let email consume our schedules, blocking out far more lucritive activities and initiatives?

I feel the answer is this: checking email is a whole lot easier than doing the things that really make money and humans are pretty lazy by nature. Many business owners, sales professionals and others trick themselves into thinking they are busy all day long when really they are just looking at their inbox every 5-10 minutes.

This kind of behavior makes it very difficult to accomplish anything at all. Imagine writing copy for your next sales letter, or putting together power point slides for a presentation…with every quick glance at your inbox, how long does it take you to get re-focused and dialed into what you were working on before checking email?

Tim Ferris has some really great suggestions about the proper usage of email in his book “The 4-Hour Workweek.” I won't list them all here because the book is an excellent read and my comment is already getting long.

What has been most successful for me is setting a schedule for checking email and being disciplined enough to follow it. Whether you choose 8, 12 and 4 – or even something as often as on the hour every hour, make a plan and stick to it.

This will undoubtedly increase your productivity. Thanks again for your thoughts and suggestions.

Jarrod Morris
http://imarketingmavens.com

["But, are there hidden dangers in being a slave to your inbox?"] – I think so as well Joe.

I don't know too many people that make money from checking their inbox, except for those online survey takers…I'm sure they've figured it out. So why do we let email consume our schedules, blocking out far more lucritive activities and initiatives?

I feel the answer is this: checking email is a whole lot easier than doing the things that really make money and humans are pretty lazy by nature. Many business owners, sales professionals and others trick themselves into thinking they are busy all day long when really they are just looking at their inbox every 5-10 minutes.

This kind of behavior makes it very difficult to accomplish anything at all. Imagine writing copy for your next sales letter, or putting together power point slides for a presentation…with every quick glance at your inbox, how long does it take you to get re-focused and dialed into what you were working on before checking email?

Tim Ferris has some really great suggestions about the proper usage of email in his book “The 4-Hour Workweek.” I won't list them all here because the book is an excellent read and my comment is already getting long.

What has been most successful for me is setting a schedule for checking email and being disciplined enough to follow it. Whether you choose 8, 12 and 4 – or even something as often as on the hour every hour, make a plan and stick to it.

This will undoubtedly increase your productivity. Thanks again for your thoughts and suggestions.

Jarrod Morris
http://imarketingmavens.com

I use stars b/c they are faster [but I can't do a search based on a star, so it's a trade].

It's a bit revealing, but I sometimes use a plugin called Quicktext, which is alike a handy tool that helps with forming pieced-together replies in a few clicks. Saves time, a lot of it.

Soon, I might be covering how to do the same with Outlook, Mac Mail and possibly Entourage.

~Joe

Thanks again for helping to widen the perspective.

Kevin Barrett