Hi Carla If you're using Outlook, you can turn off the email notification thing. That may stop the urge to check every time an email comes in.
And there's a guy out there now proclaiming the 4-hour work week (Tim Ferriss). One thing he does is read/respond to email once a week and at a prescribed time. To quote from an interview he did on CNN: "To avoid wasting time on business e-mail, I check it only an hour each Monday. I weaned myself from logging in, starting by turning off the audible alert and looking at it twice a day, at noon and 4. Then I reduced the frequency. I never log into e-mail first thing in the morning." (http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/04/magazines/fsb/4_hour_week.fsb/index.htm ) Website: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/ Podcast from SxSW conference: http://2007.sxsw.com/blogs/podcasts.php/2007/03/19/the_4_hour_workweek_s ecrets_of_doing_mor Of course, there's lots of other stuff he does that supports that 'one hour a week' thing which you may not be able to do. But some of his principles and tips may work for you. Rhonda Rhonda Bracey [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cybertext.com.au AuthorIT Certified Consultant -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martinek, Carla Sent: Tuesday, 21 August 2007 12:01 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [TCP] Textaholic / emailaholics - how do you keep it from takingover? -----Original Message----- From: Melissa Nelson > My niece is a textaholic. I have to say I find it a bit annoying because > she will check her text messages every other minute when we do something. :) This makes a great transition into another subject, relevant to our jobs. I'm subscribed to multiple lists (applications, dita, stc, tech writing...) and if I were to try and keep up with all of the postings on every list, I'd go absolutely bonkers. So here's the question: What do you do to manage the overflow of electronic messaging so that it doesn't eat up your day and productivity? For me, I use filters in my mail. LOTS and LOTS of filters and folders for sorting. Mail from coworkers is usually project-related, and it gets read relatively soon, usually within an hour. If it's something from a list, I may not read it until lunchtime, or I may just mark all messages as "read" because there aren't any subject lines in the folder that pique my interest. (One prime reason for keeping subject lines current to the actual discussion!!) Some of the lists I have very little to do on, but for various reasons I want to keep up on what's happening there because it does affect my job in some small way. I've also worked hard to purge the urge to respond to everyone's questions on lists. Yes, I may know the answer, but there's probably 20 others who also know it. I first check to see if my answer would be *unique* before I take the time to craft a response. If it isn't, there's no reason to post a "me too" response. And finally, I try *not* to jump to my email every time I get a notification of a new email. :-) That's darn hard, but it can be done. If I'm really in crunch time, I'll close my email application altogether and only open it once an hour or so, just to check work messages. -Carla ______________________________________________ Author Help files and create printed documentation with Doc-To-Help. New release adds Team Authoring Support, enhanced Web-based help technology and PDF output. Learn more at www.doctohelp.com/tcp. Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
