My boss said my morning email check was killing my focus

During my review last month, my manager pointed out that I was always behind on project work by 10 AM. She said, 'You spend the first 90 minutes of your day just reacting to other people's priorities.' I realized she was right. I was starting each day by opening my inbox and getting pulled into a dozen different requests. Now, I don't open email until I've finished my first big task of the day, which I block out on my calendar. Has anyone else tried this kind of schedule change and found a better time to handle messages?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_mary6d ago

Oh man, my friend Jake did something like that. He used to start his day reading all his Slack messages and it was chaos, like getting ten people asking him for stuff at once. He started waiting until after lunch to even look at it. He said the quiet morning let him finally fix a bug in their system that had been sitting for weeks. His boss actually complimented him for being more ahead of things now. It sounds so simple but it really changed his whole work day.

alice892d ago

That's such a smart move by your friend Jake. Protecting that morning focus time makes all the difference.

sean7826d ago

Totally get this, my old manager said the same thing about my morning routine. @the_mary's friend Jake is spot on, that quiet time is a game changer. I started doing my main work before even looking at emails and it stopped my whole day from getting derailed. It felt weird at first but now I can't imagine starting any other way.