Why You Shouldn’t Check Your Email First Thing In the Morning

Every conversation about technology and productivity–especially in ministry contexts–needs to consider the effects of technology and productivity mismanagement and addiction.

If you’re anything like me, you can waste the best hours of your morning dealing with email and with requests and tasks that arrive via email–despite the fact that there are plenty of probably more important things to be done that didn’t just arrive with the morning mail.

Lifehacker quotes blogger Sid Savara on how he suggest re-taking those productive first hours of your day:

As soon as you get up, work on something important for 30-45 minutes, and only then check it. If you can stand it, wait even longer. Some days I don’t check email at all until after lunch.

And you know what? As long as you’re ignorant of everything else that’s going on outside, you can concentrate on what you want to work on.

You don’t know what fires need to be put out, you don’t know about that special sale that’s going on today and you don’t know about that funny video your buddy sent you.

For some other great thoughts about how we check our email too early and too often, see Lifehacker’s writeup, or see Sid’s original article 7 Reasons You Should Never Check Email in the Morning.

(photo from Razvan Caliman)

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