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.
- Work on your computer in “offline” mode.
- Only check e-mail twice a day.
- 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! :)
