My E-mail Addiction

Tweet

I'm an addict.

Yep. Have been for too long. It's time for my recovery to begin.

No, I'm not talking about illegal substances. I'm talking e-mail. Lately I'm realizing I've become addicted to checking my e-mail. I daresay some of you can relate.

Maybe it's the instant society we live in. We want instant everything. And e-mail is nothing if it's not instant. But instant isn't always better. And in my case, it's eating away at my writing time---time I should be holding precious. It's time for a change! I've tried breaking this habit before and relapsed. However, I'm really going to try harder this time.

The key, I think, is taking it slow. Making changes one at a time. Last night I was reading over a post by Michael Hyatt (Chief Executive of Thomas Nelson Publishers). It's called Breaking E-mail Addiction, and it gave 3 practical steps we can all take to simplify our e-mail lives. I'll summarize them here, but you need to go read his full blog post.

1. Work on your computer in “offline” mode.
   
   
2. Only check e-mail twice a day.
   
   
3. Don’t check e-mail first thing in the morning.

I already work in "offline' mode, but my problem was checking the emails incessantly throughout the day. So today is the first day I'm trying Michael's experiment. I'm only checking messages two times. And I waited until eleven o'clock to be my first.

Already I'm noticing a difference in the way I'm thinking. My thoughts are clearer. I'm more focused.

Pray for me. I want to keep this up! :)

Become a Book Reviewer for Thomas Nelson

Tweet

Today at his blog From Where I Sit, Michael Hyatt (President & CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers), unveiled their new website just for book review bloggers. This is an intriguing concept -- #1 that Thomas Nelson is seeing such a potential in bloggers, #2 because there are some great incentives here to review their books. Here are three as outlined in Michael's post:

If you are a blogger, this new site has at least three benefits:

1. Free copies of our best books. We will send you a free copy of the book you are interested in reviewing. In addition, after you have requested a review copy, we will email you a PDF of the first two chapters so you can immediately get started. Meanwhile, we will drop a physical copy of the book in the mail.
   
   
2. Content resources for your blog. We will provide you with free resources to use in your review. These include things like cover art, video or audio clips (when available), external links to other related items, etc. Frankly, this is the part of the site that we need to expand upon the most.
   
   
3. External links to your blog. We will provide a link back to the your actual review of the book. As you may know, external links are what drive up your blog’s ranking on Google. In general, the more links the better.

And here's what they require of you after you request a book:

Bloggers must agree to write a 200-word review—good, bad, or ugly—and post it on their blog and on the Amazon detail page for that book.

I'd say that's a great deal, since most of us already write reviews of the books we read anyway. If you're interested in participating, there are several great books (fiction and nonfiction) being offered. Check out the site today!

Video on the history of Thomas Nelson Publishers

Tweet

I just found an interesting mini-documentary about the history of Thomas Nelson publishers. CEO & President Michael Hyatt narrates. Lots of tragedies had to be overcome to make it what it is today.

How the book acquisition process works

Tweet

In a recent entry over at his blog From Where I Sit, Michael S. Hyatt (President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers) shares the ins and outs of the book acquisition process. It's an eye-opening piece detailing the 5 Hurdles every proposal faces.

Check it out here.