Does this sound familiar?

When you finish one task, you might find yourself opening up your inbox to see what’s waiting. You’re checking email because you’re not sure what to do next – and emails provide a convenient excuse not to think.

How about checking emails because you want something to brighten up your day?

…you log into your email because you’re hoping there’ll be a goodie there for you. It doesn’t matter that there usually isn’t – the randomness of it makes it even more compelling.

The insights into common email practices come from a well-considered blogpost, Why You’re Hooked on Email – And Five Ways to Stop, by Ali Hale. Her points will strike a chord with many, &  her solutions are more thoughtful than most.

Me, me, me, me….. Improving productivity can be a tad self-centred. It’s about focusing on oneself.

This misses a vital dimension. We mostly work in teams. We make demands on others. Yet we don’t think as deeply about that as we ought. We rarely give much brain space to the way we waste the time of other people.

This is hardly logical, since we know too well how much of our time other people waste.

Peter Drucker had a characteristically simple approach. To find out how and when you waste the time of others, you just ask them. Then you can eliminate it.

Effective people have learned to ask systematically and without coyness, “What do I do that wastes your time without contributing to your effectiveness?” To ask such a question, and ask it without being afraid of the truth, is a mark of the effective executive.

Peter Drucker, The Essential Drucker, 2007, p177.