Feeling like your day is over before you accomplish your goals? Read our newest GGR Blog!

Heather Wendt

This week, Ryan Johansen takes a look at something we probably all do when we start our day, and how that might actually be creating issues. Worst Way to Start Your Day is a look at how to avoid jumping into our day and unintentionally killing your productivity by checking email as our first task.

Checking email can result in the following:

• Letting others control your day - we shift from "what do I need to get done" to "what do you need from me?"
• Being set up for immediate distraction - often tasks determined by email can distract us from the real work we should be accomplishing
• Unhealthy relationship - dopamine release can become addictive, creating extra stress

So, does that mean we have to ignore our email? Not at all. Ryan shares some practical tips and strategies to ensure that we are the masters of our day, allowing email to become a part of our day rather than the driver.

Take a moment and read the blog post and then share your response to the following:

1. After reading the blog post, how do you feel that email has undermined your efforts in the past?
2. Besides the strategies for managing your email, do you have any other suggestions in ensuring that the efforts spend throughout your day are as effective as possible?

Amanda Flurry

1. Email and Slack have absolutely undermined my efforts in the past. Most often, the culprit is something that should take a nominal amount of time but quickly escalates into additional questions. I really like the suggestion to focus on 3 quick wins in the first hour of the day! Those things that take a short amount of time can often be the easiest to procrastinate on as well.
2. I like scheduling breathing room for the unexpected. There have to be gaps to answer questions or deal with new issues that arise. Having times scheduled for knocking out email or Slack messages makes it easier to focus on high priority items in the moment while also addressing those other items in a timely fashion.

Heather Wendt

Love these @Amanda Flurry! I am very guilty of checking email, Slack, and LinkedIn first thing, and while that works ok sometimes, other times anything I had planned to do ends up falling by the wayside. Tyranny of the urgent I have heard it called. Also really like the idea of including time for what you don't know will land in your lap :). Great way to feel like you are able to accommodate it without throwing your entire schedule off....thanks for sharing!

Allison Mortens

Pulling suggestions and points both from the article and from @Heather Wendt and @Amanda Flurry - I'm going to give this a shot! I'm a strong proponent of "time chunking" - blocking off time exclusively for specific activities, including breaks! I color code my chunks so I can see what type of activities are coming my way without needing to read the event (orange for customer meetings, pink for internal meetings, green for anything revenue-related 💸). I think a common plight of any customer-facing folk is being ruled by the Tyranny of The Urgent and needing to get back to our customers as soon as their email hits our inbox. I'm down for an experiment, especially with the goal of being more productive. 😏 I'm curious to see what efficiencies I can find by adjusting some of my standing practices!