Over the last couple of months – particularly since I got my hands on my iphone, I have gone back into the realm of checking my email on a more regular basis.

While I’m working… at cafes… etc.

And I was thinking about it yesterday and just how much email addiction costs every one of us as business owners.

In fact, I think if we were to look at the amount of time business owners and  their employees spent checking their email while at work, it would amount to millions of dollars every day.

The bottom line is email and interruptions will stop you from getting everything done.

In fact, I saw a study from the guy who wrote the 4 hour workweek which said that people are more productive smoking marijuana than they are when they are checking their email all of the time.

Anyway, let’s look at why email is an addiction.

It doesn’t matter what someone is addicted to – drugs, food, alcohol, sex… whatever… they go back to that source because it gives them a certain feeling.

Like when we receive an email we have been waiting on… we feel good inside.

Perhaps it’s a new quote. Perhaps a client has just approved your proposal. Perhaps it’s a message from a friend.

Whatever.

We do it because we get something out of it. And even though we know it’s bad for us, we keep on doing it.

Perhaps we need to set up “email addicts anonymous” to help overcome this epidemic

(Interestingly enough, I was reading a book the other day which talked about a group called Workaholics Anonymous in New York – it was a VERY small group)

Onward…

Let’s look at the damage email causes us.

Not only does it take up our time. It sends us off on tangents.

We receive an email and think “I must respond to this now”… so rather than focusing on our priorities… we are doing something which is not urgent and not all that  important.

It stops us looking at the big picture, because we are always caught up in the details.

So what’s the solution?

Well, this is what I’m doing at the moment…

I’ve disconnected my email so when I hit on the “send/receive” button nothing happens.

And I’ve done this on both my email account and my iphone.

If you want to do it too, here’s the step you need to take:

Go to internet explorer
Click on tools / account settings
Go to email tab
Click on your main account
Under logon information: delete your username and password

And then decide to ONLY check your email twice a day – say at 10am and 4pm. Even write
an autoreply message which goes something like this…

—
Thanks for your email.

In order to become more productive, I am only checking my email twice daily – at 10am
in the morning and again at 4pm in the afternoon.

If your email is urgent, please feel free to call me on my mobile at XXXX XXXX.

Warmly,

Your Name
—

And once you’ve done that, you can use the additional time this creates to invest in
growing your business and getting more customers by implementing the strategies and
techniques you’ll learn at http://www.morecustomersmadeeasy.com