Checking Email 2x a Day

While on vacation I did some thinking, praying, and goal setting for my life and my work. One of the goals I set calls for a change in how I use email as a pastor. Preparing for 2 weeks of vacation, I made a decision to not check email once during vacation. I loved it.

During my time away I realized how easily email can:

1) distract me/get me off task from the work I’m doing (how email can lead to an unwise use to time)

2) act as a default to-do list instead of my prepared to-d0 list (how email can control me, instead of me controlling email)

So, my new goal is to check email only 2-3x a day. I’m 3 days into my experiment. So far, so good.

I check email 1x in the morning, somewhere around 10am. This gives me a few hours in the morning to focus on solid blocks of work. Around 10am I tackle my inbox.

I next check email once or twice in the afternoon. At about 2 or 3pm, me and my inbox go at it again. Many of those emails have something to do with the morning email session. I also might pay my inbox a quick visit right before I leave the office for the day.

For several months not I’ve also been leaving my laptop at the office most days so that I have a cleaner break from work, so that email doesn’t punctuate my evening at home with my family. My wife loves this. I dig it too.

This doesn’t mean that I only send email 2-3x a day. Throughout the work day I’m still sending original emails as needed (making sure at those times to avert my eyes and not even look at my inbox).

We’ll see how this new goal/experiment goes. I can see this becoming a habit. Visiting my inbox only 2-3x a day is feeling about right.

Thoughts? What are you doing with email?