Email. Gneeeurgh. Of course I don’t mean that, I couldn’t run my business without it (I think…fortunately, as we run email for a living, mine never goes down), but it can be a big distraction, especially with notifications coming in all the time from Twitter and LinkedIn. I have a strategy now though, and I thought I’d share it.

It’s fiendishly simple. If I need to concentrate on writing some web content (which I do directly into WordPress) or doing research or reading an article, I simply open a new browser session. Email stays tucked away along with other distractions like LinkedIn. I don’t have an audible alert for new email, so I can put my mind to the task in hand, then return to the email browser session when I’m ready. If you use an email client rather than webmail (I use Zimbra webmail) just turn it off – nothing will break, honestly. And if it does, you know who to speak to.

Talking of email, you might be interested to read this IT Donut article on how to stop email ping pong. Point no 2 wins my heart – make it clear what you’re expecting to happen next: do you need information from your recipient? Do you need them to do something specific? Keep email useful, rather than a net drain.

Right, I’m off to check Twitter…