Email vs Productivity

Entrepreneurs Need To Get Off Email!

Why?

Otherwise we’ll be constantly distracted with non-essential work.

How?

Hugh Culver of Experts Intensive has some great answers in  this Mixergy Podcast interview. Extracts from the transcript.

• Goal & Discipline

You have to have a goal. When I got to bed, I actually write down, on a little post-it note, the two or three things I must do, as soon as I wake up.I think when most people wake up, they think it’s just another piece of time. This is just another chunk of time, and I can use it in any way that I want. I can read something. I can go online. I can fiddle around. They have to have a goal. Then they have to match that with some very basic disciplines. For example, my cup of coffee…go right into whatever you’re using, Word or whatever writing program you’re using. Get to work, and then cross that off your list. I find it is such a satisfying way to start the day, that it’s a habit that is totally ingrained for me.

•  Sketch/Mind Map it at Night; Finish it in the morning

I wake up at 5 am. I work until 7 on anything that is going to be hard pushing. So for me, that’s creative writing, designing a proposal, or completing a proposal to a client. For example, if the day before, I might quickly draft out the proposal in five minutes. (I rough it out. For example, I might template it a mind map.) Then, in the morning, I work on finishing the proposal, when I’m fresh, and creative. I don’t want to ever start from scratch, cold. I want to have a bit of a running start.

• The Morning Walk / Run

At 7:00, I must go out the door. It’s very important for me at 7:00. I don’t wait until 7:03. Because then it becomes 7:10. I have to be out the door at 7:00...(I get) back at 7:45. If it’s a school day, I help make lunches, and get the kids out the door, and drive them to school. I’m usually at my office by 9:00. That's when I check email.

•  Start with the Most Difficult Item(s)

I do the hardest 50% in the first 90 minutes of the day. I figure out, the day before, what’s the hardest work I’ve got to get done. I do it between 9:00 and 10:30. Then I go back and check my email again. I’m not dabbling during the day.

• Do routine work (including email) during times when your energy levels go down 
  
  
• Reward Yourself For Getting off Email

If you want to get off your email you have to first of all figure out what is rewarding you for being on email? Then what you have to do is you have to come up with a bigger reward for the non-email work. It’s as simple as that.