Day 5 – Email Addiction

Thanks to all who have participated during the week.  Hopefully  you have reduced the email overload.  Now the trick is to keep your inbox slim and encourage others to follow suit.

Email addiction is one of the major causes of email overload. It's the feeling that you must constantly check your inbox no matter where you are, what you are doing or what time of day it is.

Day five is about taking stock, checking you are not suffering from email addiction and making plans to keep your inbox out of the email overload zone.  Here is our three step plan for the last day.

Step 1  - Check your level of email addiction

Use Mesmo Consultancy's free Email Addiction self-assessment tool.  Identify your strengths and weaknesses and if necessary seek advice about how to control the urge to have another email fix.

In the coming days and weeks as you are about either toReply/Forward or even ‘Send’ pause and ask yourself would an alternative be more efficient (eg talking)?

Step 2 - Review your action plan and goals and tell us how you fared 

Share how many emails are still left in it (excluding those which arrived today). What aspects of our email management techniques helped you the most?

Email me; Post responses/comments on this blog; Tweet the size  of your inbox using the #emptyinbox or #inboxweek (eg my inbox only has 10 emails left in it)

The last free copy of 'Brilliant Email' is for the cleanest inbox and the person who made the best progress.  Email your responses to me.

Step 3 - Moving forward

How will you keep your inbox slim and control the email overload in the coming weeks?

Look back to Day 1 and how much time you were losing.  Chances are most of your colleagues are losing just as much time and also need help.   Ask us about our Brilliant Email Master Classes or buy some copies of 'Brilliant Email' (available from any bookshop and Amazon).

Prize winners will be posted next week