Timely
Tips© Volume
4,
Issue 5; May 2007:
Set Your E-mail's Auto Send/Receive for
Every 60-90 Minutes
Several months ago, I wrote a Timely Tips
that strongly recommended that you not "bling"
-- meaning that you avoid the bad habit of
constantly checking and reading e-mails as
they come in. This is a very damaging habit
in regards to your overall productivity, as
you basically spend the majority of your
time dealing with small-level urgency items
rather than putting necessary effort on your
bigger, more important tasks, projects, and
activities.
One of the things many of us do that
contributes to the bad habit of "blinging"
is having our settings for "Auto
Send/Receive" in our e-mail account set
too frequently. I know many
professionals that have their "Auto
Send/Receive" set for every 5-10
minutes. Of course, if your e-mail
software is set to check every 5-10
minutes, you will be receiving messages
all throughout the day. And, if you are
easily distracted, every time your
e-mail checks and delivers new messages
(with the accompanying "blinging" sound
-- thus the term "bling"), you will
likely jump from what you are doing,
lose your train of thought, and check
these new messages. Every time you do
this, you lose your focus and your
forward progress on your projects and
tasks.
There is an easy solution for this --
namely, adjust your "Auto Send/Receive"
settings in your e-mail account to a
time frame significantly longer than
every 5-10 minutes. Preferably, you'll
set your "Auto Send/Receive" settings to
60-90 minutes or more. If you aren't
constantly getting new e-mails, it sure
is a lot easier to keep your focus on
your designated projects and/or tasks.
I personally have my "Auto Send/Receive"
set at 90 minutes, and I don't feel I've
lost my appropriate responsiveness at
all. It just allows me to be more
proactive and maintain my focus.
Of course, every e-mail software program
has a different method for changing your
"Auto Send/Receive" settings. Here's
how I changed mine in Outlook 2003:
-
First, go to your "Tools" drop down on
your menu bar
-
Then, go to "Options"
-
Select "Mail Setup"
-
Then, go into "Send/Receive"
-
Then, adjust your settings in your
"Schedule Automatic Send/Receive Every
_____ Minutes" to 60, 90, 120 or more
minutes, and then hit "Close".
In
Outlook, it is that simple. Figure out how
to do the same in your e-mail program, and
now you can avoid the continuing new message
distractions and help yourself avoid this
damaging "blinging" mentality and behavior.
And now you might actually get some bigger
items knocked off your list, and feel more
in control of your work and life. Good
luck!!
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New "Taming the E-mail Beast" Teleseminar
Scheduled -- Tuesday, June 5th -- 2:30 p.m.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Due
to my crazy travel schedule so far this
year, it has been a couple of months since
my last "e-mail sanity" teleseminar. Well,
I've put another new date on the calendar,
for all of you that have been patiently
waiting for another session. As a reminder,
this free 50-minute call (your only cost is
your normal long-distance charges for
dialing in) provides seven key strategies
for regaining control of your e-mail
account. For more information, including an
option to register, visit:
Remember, there are only 90 spots available
on this call, so I recommend you register
early. Feel free to also share this
information with your friends and co-workers
-- I like to fill these calls up. And, at
the end of each of these calls, I open up
the lines to answer your specific e-mail
management questions. So sign up today:
http://www.randalldean.com/email_teleseminar1.html
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Looking to Save Time Starting Your Own New
Business? A Great New Book ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've
recently run across a great new book on
starting and running a new business. This
book, Tactical Entrepreneur: The
Entrepreneur's Game Plan, is by Brian
Hazelgren, a noted consultant, author, and
college lecturer on business planning and
entrepreneurship. I like the book because
it is set up almost like a workbook vs. a
traditional book, and can help pinpoint
areas of weakness and opportunity in your
business plan. I've already found a few new
tips I'm planning to enact. If you are
running your own small business, or are
thinking about starting a new business, I
recommend this as a great read to make sure
you are doing "due diligence". Here's a
link with more info on this new book (note
the many offers for "freebies" in
conjunction with your purchase):
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Where in the World is Randy?
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Presented by:
Randall Dean Consulting & Training, LLC
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Look for another
issue of Timely Tips next month.
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