3 Bad Email Habits That Kill Productivity

Just because you have had issues in the past does not mean you have to travel down this path in the future.

Here are three bad email habits that may be killing your productivity:

1. Checking your inbox entirely too often. Are you the type of person who obsessively checks for new email messages? If so, this can kill your productivity throughout the day.

Solution: set aside particular times for checking email. For example, you may do this upon arriving at work, at lunch, and before leaving for the evening.

1. Neglecting to respond to an email on the spot. In many cases, reading an email is just the start. From there, you have to formulate a response. While this sounds easy enough, many people slack off when it comes to responding.

Solution: set a rule that you will respond to every email, if required, without delay. This way you don't have the message hanging over your head.

1. Letting your inbox fill up with unread messages. The last thing you want is to ignore email messages for an extended period of time, watching as your inbox becomes more and more cluttered with each passing day.

Solution: as you refresh your inbox take the time to open every new message. This will keep your inbox clean, ensuring that unread messages never get too far ahead of you.

By becoming more efficient, as far as your email is concerned, you may be able to save yourself several hours of wasted time every week (or month), and there are several apps that can help. Not only will this give you extra time for other tasks, but it will help you feel better about how you approach and manage your inbox.