Many people leave their email software active throughout the day and respond to emails as and when they come in. Unfortunately, this allows for frequent repeated distractions from the task at hand. Refocusing on a task after being distracted from it requires time and effort, so allowing emails to capture our attention as and when they come in will make other tasks harder and take longer. Unless you work in a role that makes it necessary to be on top of emails in minutes, avoiding email distractions can significantly boost productivity. Below are strategies that can help reduce email distractions:

• Turn off or close your email software while working on tasks.
• If you can’t close your email software but it has multiple pages, like a calendar or notes, leave one of those pages open as your default, so you are less likely to be distracted by emails coming in.
• Turn off any email notification sounds or visual prompts so you are unaware of new emails while doing your work.
• Only check your email at preplanned intervals or during natural breaks in your day.
• Schedule periods in your day where you will review your emails and periods where you will focus on other work.
• Aim to finish tasks in one go before moving on to another task or checking your emails.
• Use the 2-minute rule. As you work through your email inbox, do any tasks that take less than two minutes straight away. Place any longer tasks into a separate folder to action later.
• Don’t let emails sit in your inbox. The more emails in your inbox, the more you will be distracted by them. Create separate folders within your email account to hold emails. Use at least the following folders:
  • Storage folder(s): emails you want to keep but don’t require action. Have as many as you like and arrange them in relevant categories.
  • Action folder: any emails that you need to act on soon.
• Only use your inbox for reviewing emails. As you work through the new emails in your inbox, apply the two-minute rule then either:
  • delete the email;
  • place the email into a storage folder; or
  • put any emails that require future action into your action folder.

The above steps allow you to use the ‘action’ folder to work through time-consuming tasks while maintaining a clean and low-stress inbox.