One of the biggest time sucks known to the modern worker / athlete is messaging. Email, voicemail, instant messaging, twittering…you name it, it’s a message. I think the majority of people handle these multiple levels of messaging like a crisis manager: poorly. And the worst part of it is that the majority of the messaging has little – if anything – to do with work.
My latest read, The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
The one I want to cover today is the concept of “batching,” where Ferriss describes a strategy for lumping together enough of one type of work and then crushing it. For example: Instead of checking email every five minutes, and answering a few every time, practically annihilating any private time to get things done, Ferriss suggests an autoresponder that notifies the folks sending you email that you will only be checking email twice a day. Encourage folks to call / IM you instead.
I have personally implemented this strategy with a great deal of success….I have gone from 250+ emails a day to just over 40. I can’t begin to tell you how much psychologically “freer” I feel without the weight of all those emails sitting there…just waiting for me. And I’d much rather talk to folks than play email tag. If you find yourself just struggling to get through the average day, this is a strategy that might work for you…sure did me a world of good!
Get out of work so you can workout!
Coach P
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