How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days 153 Comments
If you don’t yet use Twitter, don’t start. It’s pointless e-mail on steroids. I had to laugh when I saw a post by the one-and-only Robert Scoble on the 19th titled “Productivity up 200%, Twitter Down.”
[Postscript: LOL... I've actually started using Twitter to make occasional one-way announcement to readers, but I don't follow anyone or allow pings. "Anyone who wants can join me for a movie at..." doesn't make a very good blog post :)]
E-mail (and all of its Crackberry/digital leash/Twitter cousins) is the largest single interruption in modern life. In a digital world, creating time therefore hinges on minimizing e-mail. The fastest method I’ve found for controlling the e-mail impulse is to set up an autoresponder that indicates you will be checking e-mail twice per day or less. This is an example of “batching” tasks (performing like tasks at set times, between which you let them accumulate), and your success with batching will depend on two factors:
1. Your ability to train others to respect these intervals
and, much more difficult,
2. Your ability to discipline yourself to follow your own rules
Think your boss won’t go for it? You’d be surprised. Here is one example from a SXSW attendee. His two e-mail to me have been combined with a bit of editing for length.
Hey Tim,
Here’s what i took away from your presentation (and put into action!):
I sent out an email to everyone in my division letting them know i’ll only be checking email at 11a & 4p. I’ve included my email down below:
“Hi all…
In an effort to increase productivity and efficiency I am beginning a new personal email policy. I’ve recently realized I spend more time shuffling through my inbox and less time focused on the task at hand. It has become an unnecessary distraction that ultimately creates longer lead times on my ever-growing ‘to do’ list.
Going forward I will only be checking/responding to email at 11a and 4p on weekdays. I will try and respond to email in a timely manner without neglecting the needs of our clients and brand identity.
If you need an immediate time-sensitive response… please don’t hesitate to call me. Phones are more fun anyways.
Hopefully this new approach to email management will result in shorter lead times with more focused & creative work on my part. Cheers & here’s to life outside of my inbox! “
So far the response has been very receptive and supportive. Here’s the quick “reply to all” email response i got from our senior operations manager (he oversees 5 radio stations. and most of the people in the building):
“Tim,
AWESOME time management approach!!! I would love to see more people adopt that policy.
-C.”
I’m sticking to it and it’s making my days more productive already. As the days are progressing, more people are “on the bus” with respecting my new email policy and i havent had any snags (even with SXSW going on – and i work in Austin radio, so we’re all swamped this week). However, every single person feels like it just wouldn’t work for them if they did it. (“oh, but i’m on too many mailing lists” or “All i do is work in my email box, i have to.” i’m sure you’ve heard it all before).
As far as your presentation… A major thing i took away is applying the concept of 80/20 to my workflow. I’ve always known i waste a great deal of time on things that ultimately aren’t showing the bulk of my ROI. Hearing you present it in a new light enabled me to start actively weeding out the time wasting clients & processes. I do a lot of work that our interns should be doing. So i’ve begun designating responsibility appropriately, thus freeing up my plate for the more relevant tasks. It will be a slow process, but senior management is on the same page with me.
Cheers,
Tim Duke
KROX & KBPA – Interactive Brand Manager
—
Here is a shorter autoresponder another attendee successfully implemented:
Thank you for your email! Due to my current workload I am only checking email at 11am and 4pm. If you need anything immediately please call me on my cell so that I can address this important matter with you. Thank you and have a great day!
-Tom
My personal e-mail autoresponder limits me to once per day and indicates “I check e-mail once per day, often in the evening. If you need a response before tomorrow, please call me on my cell.” My business e-mail autoresponder, on the other hand, gives me the option to check email once every 7-10 days.
The real hard part, of course, is keeping yourself away from that damn inbox. Get on a strict low-information diet and focus on output instead of input; your wallet and weekends will thank you for it.
Posted on March 22nd, 2007
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153 Responses to “How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days”
March 22nd, 2007
6:43 am
Hey Tim,
Am in IT sales and your ideas on maximising output and not input ring very true. Will be trying some of your approaches especially around email and let you know how I go. I am all about minimising work hours too so keep those suggestions coming.
Cheers,
Enzo
March 22nd, 2007
9:39 am
I like this idea a lot too. But I get annoyed with auto-responders and my regular contacts might get annoyed too if every email they send to me generates that message.
Do you think a disclaimer at the bottom of each of my outgoing emails would suffice? People who might expect a more immediate response from me are most likely those who I’ve emailed before.
So if I have a disclaimer of sorts near where my signature is, they would probably see that and know what my email policy is.
March 22nd, 2007
10:11 am
A friend told me about your blog. He was right, this is great information. I will check back regularly. Thanks
March 23rd, 2007
5:23 am
Charles,
I completely understand your fear of alienating people with the autoresponders. This is a fear everyone, myself included, has (or has had).
Here is how to avoid it: ensure that the autoresponder is only sent — or bounced back — to the same contact every 4-7 days. All of the mainstream e-mail applications I’ve used have this type of option, and even Gmail send at most one autoresponder per 4 days to the same contact.
Using a disclaimer at the bottom near your sig doesn’t work well, in my experience, as people forget it and have learned to turn off as soon as they think it’s another “This is a confidential communication. If this is not intended for you… blah… blah…”
Give it a shot and take it slow. The worst that happens is you go back to the usual routine after testing it. The more likely scenario is that you cut your email intake in half within the first week.
Good luck!
March 23rd, 2007
7:53 am
Two days in and the auto responder has provided me with the following benefits:
1. I am not spending the best part of my day – the beginning of my working day – getting bogged down in emails
2. The twice daily burst of email activity has felt more productive
Interesting things to note:
1. I have had no calls to my mobile for those instant responses (perhaps I will add my mobile number in the future!)
2. The volume of emails does seem to have decreased – how is this possible? something to monitor!
3. Not one of my colleagues has come to ‘complain’ about my auto responder (a concern I had before testing).
The way forward:
1. Attempt to stick to twice daily emailing – strong urge to take a look during the day – I really am addicted to the in-box ping!
March 25th, 2007
7:14 pm
[...] » How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss Checking email only twice a day sounds reasonable… but why would you have to tell people you’re doing that? Do people really expect you’ll respond faster than every four hours? (tags: email tips wwd) [...]
March 26th, 2007
3:46 am
Hi Anne,
I have found that people will generally expect you to respond as quickly as technology allows you to receive their e-mail, hence the permanent ADD of most Blackberry owners.
I have one friend, a uber-successful mechanical engineer, who received a Blackberry e-mail from his boss just as he (my friend) got on the NYC subway with me at 9pm on a Friday. There was no reception, so he responded as soon as we got off 4 minutes later. His boss had already left him a voicemail indicating that they would need to “have a serious talk” the following Monday about his lack of response, and that the head boss was livid and threatening to fire him.
It’s a sad state of affairs and an all too common problem. This culture of immediacy needs a severe backlash.
March 26th, 2007
7:18 am
Tim,
I love this idea, but I think the twice a day checking is overkill for some of us. If you work in an environment where the culture is to use email for immediate needs, then this is definitely appropriate. But for someone like me, who works on my own, I think the key is to train people when to expect an email response. If I always respond immediately, I’m training people to expect that. If I often take a day to respond (or more), people will be trained to use the phone for urgent requests and emails for less urgent ones.
Still, it’s a brilliant concept and one I’m going to train myself to try.
March 26th, 2007
2:10 pm
[...] Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek coming out in late April, suggests checking your email only twice a day. He also proposes using an auto-responder that tells people who email you what your schedule is for [...]
March 26th, 2007
3:31 pm
Interesting and great for most, and will be great for my numerous personal e-mail accounts, but as a web geek with a distributed internal client base e-mail is my *preferred* method of receiving requests. That way I don’t have to explain over the phone to every wanna-be mouse jockey at my organization why blinking bright red text is really a bad idea for our web site. I can just ignore the request until I’ve implemented something that will work within our design standards.
March 26th, 2007
10:16 pm
Keep an eye on Tim Ferriss……
Tim Ferriss – clearly the illegitimate love child of David Allen and Hermione Grainger – may be on to something. Without stealing too much of his thunder, he argues following your heart and your brain is the best approach in life, resulting in radica…
March 27th, 2007
7:00 pm
to Woodstock:
I am also a web/interactive designer and coincidentally the emails Tim Ferris is quoting in this blog post are from me.
as web designers much of our work is time-sensitive and not everybody really “gets” design so i was initially concerned i would be spending tons of time on the phone explaining/justifying my decisions to people (re: blinking bright red text on a website as a bad idea) . this hasnt been the case at all.
It’s become clear all around my office that “email response” isn’t synonymous with “instant response” and any conversations i’ve had about maintaining design integrity have been much shorter phone chats than if i wasted time typing emails back & forth.
(and yes. if it’s an email request for a giant blinking red text with background music & a flying bee mouse cursor I do just ignore the email. If they REALLY want it, they’ll call to discuss. but the phone hasn’t rang yet and everybody’s happy).
March 29th, 2007
3:41 pm
Hi Marci and Woodstock,
Tim is on the money. The key here is being able to decide when you check and respond to e-mail, not necessarily checking it twice daily. For some, like Marci, that would be overkill. For Woodstock, he is correctly (I do the same) funneling people to e-mail as his preferred method of communication. The two-times-per-day recommendation was made at SXSW, where most attendees were online and either emailing or Twittering during ALL presentations!
The point of the autoresponder, and much of what I recommend, is controlling the frequency and quantity of your information intake. You need both to prevent overload, but how each of us will implement the tools differs.
Good observations,
Tim
April 15th, 2007
3:29 pm
[...] saw this post referenced at heathervescent. “In a digital world, creating time therefore hinges on [...]
April 17th, 2007
2:11 am
Like the concept, but the volume of emails is still in your inbox. Do you simply ignore the rest that you cannot get to at 11 and 4pm? How do you prioritize them without actually reading them (or at least the 3 line preview?) Seems like you might just be ‘batching’ the same volume of emails, but just in one bunch (which is also more productive) but I’m not sure I’m convinced yet that you’re able to address the inquiries that come into your inbox.
April 17th, 2007
2:31 am
Hi Kris,
There are a few approaches to reducing volume. I’ll have a PDF manifesto coming out soon with ChangeThis (started by Seth Godin) that discusses that in depth. If an entrepreneur, you (re)design your business with information flow in mind. If an employee, you use 80/20 analysis applied to how your performance is measured to determine which tasks/emails/people should be responded to at what intervals (daily, every Friday, every two weeks, not at all).
You will need to accept that some people are more important than others, and some people aren’t important at all, as it relates to your goals. This isn’t being cold, it’s avoiding inevitable overload. This means that you can take simple steps, like not responding e-mails that don’t ask for a response or contain a question, and you can take more absolute steps, like depending on an autoresponder to set expectations that allow you to ignore responding to most altogether.
There are ways to do this without alienating everyone. In fact, there are ways to do this that will make others respect you more. Keep an eye on ChangeThis — my manifesto should come out in a few weeks, and I’ll announce it on the blog.
Good questions!
Tim
April 19th, 2007
2:03 am
[...] Seth Godin’s ChangeThis. In the meantime, here is part of the Sunday video, which covers: batching e-mail, applying the 80/20 principle to time-consuming customers, outsourcing your life to overseas [...]
April 23rd, 2007
9:18 am
Any advice for one who plays the role of “help desk” and is tethered to a crashing server?
April 25th, 2007
6:19 pm
[...] an email auto-responder that directs people to other channels. It’s a bit presumptuous to auto-reply with a long-winded description of your personal scheduling problems and proposed solution. If you’re going to impose on your [...]
April 26th, 2007
8:35 pm
[...] but I decided to do it on a whim after reading a bit about Tim Ferriss and hearing him mention the twice-a-day, 11/4 schedule. I haven’t yet read his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, but it’s been building tons of [...]
April 28th, 2007
7:31 am
[...] following message, adapted from Tim’s own, described in the most popular post on his blog: How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days Thank you for your e-mail message. Your message is important to [...]
May 1st, 2007
6:48 am
[...] site is Tim Ferriss‘ blog, The Four Hour Work Week. Of particular interest was his post How to Check E-mail Twice a Day, which explains how to do exactly that. A noble goal – and I love the underlying philosophy; check [...]
May 1st, 2007
2:22 pm
[...] the world won’t stop spinning if you check email less often… How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days [...]
May 1st, 2007
5:18 pm
Tim,
I’d love to receive more e-mails from clients and partners instead of so many damn phone calls. This is before using any autoresponder. I live in a culture where everyone thinks so much of speed that writing an email seems to take more time–and request more information and thought (duh!)–than making a call.
Of course, my phone can’t do autoresponders and it can neither be closed, for more reasons than one. I tried asking, explaining, not answering (screening, if you please) instantly. And I can be as good as Jacobs’ Asha, I was trained to be good. What do you suggest?
On a different note, I’ve realised some less than a month ago that once I solved a client request in my mind, I had little interest in executing it on paper or whatever support. It explains why I dream of outsourcing that part of my job every so often. I just need to figure out to whom. Indians are too expensive for me at the moment :)
Thanks for confirming my thinking, at large. It shouldn’t be so damn hard; it shouldn’t be about retirement.
May 2nd, 2007
12:24 pm
[...] por csr el 02 May 2007 a las 06:23 pm | Archivado como: Leído por ahí… Interesante propuesta: contra la interrupcionitis aguda de los que vivimos para el buzón de correo (extrapólese al lector [...]
May 2nd, 2007
1:53 pm
Holy crap! How am I going to ween myself off of the crack-pipe known as my ‘Inbox’!?!?
This is going to be tough…I mean, I’ve already checked this page three times for new posts! What should I do if I have OCD tendencies? Huh? I mean really…what would I do if I had OCD tendencies? OCD tendencies?
Ha! Seriously – thanks for the info; this seems like a wonderful policy to adopt. Bye bye ‘new message alert’.
Thanks,
-TC
May 2nd, 2007
5:57 pm
Tim — Love the book and your approach to time/task management. So simple and effective. I read “Getting Things Done” twice and did not become as focused or efficient until I tried your email policy.
For those of you who are afraid to take the leap of checking email 1-2 times a day just try it. As a managing partner of a small design/marketing/web agency my goal was is to always make sure the client feels taken care of. Well, after hearing the SXSW podcast I started scaling back immediate replies to clients and am now batching emails twice a day… Email from clients is much more focused and clear, the phone is not ringing as much, and we’re getting *much* more done and revenues are growing even faster!
I have found Tim’s approach to communication to be similar to the “Girlfriend Factor”… When you have a girlfriend you tend to attract more attention from other women. Well this approach to communication has worked with clients and prospects. It has *increased* prospects’ need to work with us (I don’t know why but we’re closing a higher percentage of our deals this year) and, on top of that, our current clients are much more focused when they send in a request. Clients are even sending us their deliverables on time with fewer questions!
May 3rd, 2007
11:36 pm
what email client do you use tim?
do you use gmail, outlook, etc
since you are mobile most of the time my assumption is that you are more web based to facilitate flexibility
May 10th, 2007
11:42 am
[...] Sample Post: How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days [...]
May 11th, 2007
4:08 pm
[...] this as a problem; conversations like this are a step in the right direction though. » How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days I have found that people will generally expect you to respond as quickly as technology allows you [...]
May 15th, 2007
12:40 pm
[...] 15, 2007Important to your business survival I came across this post How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days which is imperative to your business [...]
May 15th, 2007
6:49 pm
[...] I noticed that Tim Ferriss has a very interesting post on How to Check E-mail Twice a Day. [...]
May 15th, 2007
7:17 pm
[...] an active approach to making the right adjustment. In a recent post by Tim Ferriss called How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days, in which he discusses setting parameters around visiting you inbox. But more importantly [...]
May 17th, 2007
12:35 am
[...] to reduce the # of emails sent per day. The real challenge will be to get to the point where I am checking my email only twice a day and handling it in batches. Yes, it is possible, and yes, you will deal with [...]
May 17th, 2007
12:42 am
I work in a school and the most amazing thing has happened. Everything has become dependent on email and the internet. Now, mind you, I like email and the internet, but there is no reason in my mind to stop a conversation with a real live human being to read an email that has just come in on a blackberry. A most excellent idea to go on an information diet. Great idea. Thank you.
Michael
May 24th, 2007
4:18 pm
[...] but I have not started yet. I am reading his blog though and there is some great stuff on there. This post was of particular interest and I am certain it will hit home for a lot of you. Tim advocates only looking at email twice a [...]
May 28th, 2007
8:23 pm
Scripting for Success…
Planning is perhaps as old as civilization. A lot of us have short and long-term plans. Pretty much every businesses makes them. Governments too. Marketers and PR pros are especially fond of planning. Advertising agencies plot out campaigns six months…
June 3rd, 2007
7:32 pm
Why should any Interactive Brand Manager be in favor of an “idea” that could possibly bring X amount of detriment to the whole economics of interactive marketing? Unless he wants to cause some volatility to his own ’stability’ (i.e. job) in the interactive media industry. Perhaps? LOL :)
Anyhow, twice a days sounds awesome! for TIME IS SCARCE.
June 3rd, 2007
9:01 pm
Wow – this approach is revolutionary – it’s about time someone came up with the idea and put it forward in a coherent manner! I’m in account management at an insurance/investments company, and find myself easily spending up to half my working day browsing my inbox. This includes cursory views (“in case it’s urgent”), re-reading emails that weren’t read properly the first time due to an “ADHD” tendency to be distracted by other incomings.. I’m going to try this approach starting tomorrow and see what happens. I suspect it will improve my productivity etc immensely. Having read comments etc on this topic, it dawned on me that inasmuch as “company culture” exists, so does one’s “personal culture” – i.e. you take a general approach to things for long enough, and reinforce it consistently enough, people begin to expect it of you and don’t think twice. The hard part of course is changing the culture.
June 14th, 2007
8:32 pm
[...] relevant postal mail is funneled into e-mail, so you can check both email and postal mail at once (“batching” both at the same time); you can travel freely whenever and wherever without ever missing a [...]
June 15th, 2007
12:21 am
[...] I do it on my time frame. Secretaries will begin to figure it out. Tim Ferriss suggests sending an autoresponse out that explains your email schedule (he checks his Monday afternoons). That way people [...]
June 20th, 2007
12:31 am
It wasn’t until I started work in my current job that I realized how ridiculous email communication can become. Today I had a person attach a copy of a document I’d sent her for me to delete one paragraph, attach the revised document to an email, and send it back. It is for “urgent” needs such as that one that I must be available at my monitor for the whole business day (whether at home or in the office.)
I just plowed through the book over the past two days. Your thoughts have confirmed the conclusion I’ve been avoiding — elimination is the only solution for my job!
June 20th, 2007
5:24 pm
The 4 hour work week…
You can hardly miss this book by Tim Ferriss at the moment, it seems to be everywhere, but the question must be is it just hype or does it live up to its seemingly unbelieveable title?
I read the book straight through when it first arrived and althoug…
June 24th, 2007
8:33 pm
[...] suggests using an autoresponder script (which I’ve implemented in one of my accounts). This entry details how he checks email only once per [...]
June 26th, 2007
12:49 pm
We have been talking about Tim’s book quite a bit on our blog and podcast. My co-host, Jay, did a post about “Cutting the email leash” and I did a series called “The Information Diet”. If it interests you to see parts of the book in action please checkout our site by clicking on my name above.
We have been so changed by the book and we cannot wait for our interview next month, thanks Tim!
June 26th, 2007
2:14 pm
I have a contrarian view to offer on Blackberrys, Treos, etc. After years of working as a fitness trainer and getting on a computer only for short bursts, I find it easy to use the handheld on the “twice-a-day” basis. It’s when I sit down at the desk that I get sucked in to Web browsing, writing long messages that would be painful on the handheld, etc.
June 30th, 2007
2:32 pm
Sweet! I just began reading about this 4hr work week book/site today. I already had this part executed. My inbox sends an auto reply stating something like, “my inbox requests stays full this time of year, so for immediate attention please call me.”
I am in a performance environment where call time is monitored. My incoming call time and incoming call quantity is the highest on the entire sales floor. So is my revenue number and my margin number. I am the top performer here, so I can concur… THIS STRATEGY WORKS! ( I am happy to know that I am on the same page so far with this book/site). I will read on now. THanks
Shawn
July 8th, 2007
11:55 am
Love this idea..but how to set it up in Hotmail!
Famously the owner of a billion pound mobile phone company banned his staff from using email…his name was John Caldwell. Seemed to work!
Thanks Tim for a great book. Hope to meet you one day. Life the workout routine too.
July 10th, 2007
9:56 am
We’ve implemented this idea in our life insurance company in Toronto, and it did miracles for us. We’re getting more and more productive as time goes and our clients are happier as well. I’ve been recommending some ideas based on your book to my clientele and the referrals are increasing tremendously. Feel free to check some of my other productivity and success tips in our Toronto insurance brokers guide section.
July 10th, 2007
8:46 pm
Today I decided to try cutting back my email addiction by only checking my email twice a day. I sent out a brief email to my colleagues and my boss. It basically stated that I would be responding to emails at 10am and 4pm in an effort to become more productive and to call me if the matter was urgent.
Instead of warm reception from my boss, I was told to retract my email, and to basically be at anyone’s beckon call. Any ideas on how to approach this from a different angle?
July 11th, 2007
7:31 am
Chris -
I had a similar problem but I decided to get creative. Remember, this is about re-training those around you to respect your time. (or to develop new expectations about your responsiveness) I retracted my email auto-response by request and simply stopped responding to most emails except around 10am and 4pm. (and now only at 4pm pretty much)
Simply speaking, I created a rule in Exchange/Outlook to move all incoming mail to a separate folder that I never checked except at 10am and 4pm. I added exceptions for a few key people, like my boss and a few key team members I work closely with. I also added one customer who is having problems right now. I setup outlook to download email every 30 minutes from my “VIP” folder only.
For the first two weeks I responded to my boss pretty quickly. Now after a month I respond once a day. I just had to ease him in to it. Remember, its about giving the appearance of responsiveness, and even then, its simply a tool to wean people off of you.
A partial remote work agreement is probably required or you’ll be judged more by your presence than your results.
The key, however, was to demonstrate outstanding value in more important areas. My ever increasing response time became less important in a very short time as valuable work was being delivered that mattered.
In about a month I went from 60 hours a week in the office where I responded to email constantly and attended many meetings per day to less than 10 hours a week in the office and probably only 30 hours per week total work time. I attend 1-2 meetings per week now.
I even refuse meetings from my boss. ;^) I’m not kidding. However, after a month, he told me that I made him realize that he has too many meetings and that he should cut back.
What has been the result of all of this? There are too many to list, but I’ve been asked if I’m interested in management, two different teams are fighting over me because they want me to work for them, and I just got rated in the top 10% of the entire organization. My past months accomplishments were cited as ‘proof’ of my value.
I tested assumptions and found some ‘work arounds’ that paid off. Now everyone is trained to expect a slow email response time, but in their mind, I’m so busy with important stuff its okay.
July 16th, 2007
10:15 am
[...] I’d also be willing to bet that if you honestly looked at how you spend your time, you could find quite a few instances where you either fritter away your time doing meaningless [...]
July 17th, 2007
8:35 am
[...] I limited myself to checking email only twice a day (as Tim Ferriss advocates in his book and blog), and today I told myself to stop buying new books until I took the [...]
July 17th, 2007
10:56 am
[...] of his tips…check your email only twice a day – but not first thing in the morning. Why? Because often you’ll check your email and get [...]
July 18th, 2007
8:30 am
[...] Tell everyone To cut down the deluge of office emails, tell everyone in the office via email that you’re only checking email twice a day. This will train your coworkers to reconsider before sending you trivial messages. More importantly, you’re more likely to stick to your word if everyone knows about your email policy. For examples of what this email should look like, check out Timothy Ferriss’s post, How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days. [...]
July 19th, 2007
2:49 pm
OMG, Tim you have to see this, this is hilarious and oh-so-sad; YES they really are serious:
http://www.3dmailbox.com/trailer/index.html
From the site:
“New email meets the Bouncer (spam filter) at the entrance, takes a cooling, disinfecting shower then takes the plunge into your inbox and swims until you read it.Once read, they hang out poolside until you move them to a cabana (mailbox).Spam gets sent to the beach to await their fate at the jaws of the Great White Sharks.If the Bouncer can’t decide if email is good or spam, it chills in the Ice Rink until you decide. If you delete good mail, it goes to the trash alley.”
ROFL.
Enjoy that one.
Cheers,
Andrew
July 19th, 2007
10:27 pm
i want to check my e-mail on http://www.hotmail.com
July 19th, 2007
11:13 pm
[...] can still gain enormous freedom at work by honestly applying the 80/20 rule and believing you can batch process 99%+ of the communications you [...]
July 26th, 2007
12:57 pm
Hey Tim, you’ve got a nice photo in Brazil! And the other photos are pretty good!
July 26th, 2007
11:08 pm
[...] following message, adapted from Tim’s own, described in the most popular post on his blog: How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days Thank you for your e-mail message. Your message is important to [...]
July 30th, 2007
7:32 pm
I just went to send you an email, seeing that I finally bought your book, and I was going to forward you the Amazon confirmation of that blessed event, and, Lo and Behold, I didn’t have your email address any more. This, then, must suffice.
I hope sales are going well. Do you think getting rid of your trailing “s,” that embedded sibilance, would lighten your load, revamp your feng shui, and increase your productivity still more?
July 31st, 2007
2:39 am
[...] Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. [...]
July 31st, 2007
6:20 pm
[...] 8. Learn the Secrets of the Super-Organized. A few simple habits keep clutter and chaos at bay. 9. Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. 10. Become an Early [...]
July 31st, 2007
6:57 pm
A lot of people put Email as priority #1 each day. It is the first thing they do each day… which usually means that their entire day’s plan is shot to hell.
Avoid this habit. It is better to recognize that the morons who are emailing you first thing in the morning for something they want done “now” are the people who need to be prioritized.
July 31st, 2007
11:33 pm
[...] Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. [...]
August 1st, 2007
7:10 am
[...] Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. [...]
August 3rd, 2007
8:00 am
Instant productivity boost…
Multitasking doesn’t actually work. You aren’t doing more … you’re just doing the same things in smaller batches — much less efficiently. When you multitask, you’re really just interrupting yourself. They say it takes 15 minutes to get back into…
August 4th, 2007
6:50 pm
[...] sort thru the list and I think the idea of checking my inbox twice daily sounds great too. Heck, I could have spend that time to do more productive activities. This post [...]
August 5th, 2007
11:02 am
[...] Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. [...]
August 9th, 2007
7:35 pm
[...] dengan menghemat bandwidth. Caranya? Tahan nafsumu untuk membuka situs yang kurang penting. Periksa e-mail sehari dua kali saja cukup. Hentikan pemuatan halaman bila informasi yang dicari sudah ditemukan. Gunakan plugin seperti [...]
August 10th, 2007
3:08 am
Hey…I un-installed all the mail notifiers.
-Nish
August 12th, 2007
5:14 pm
[...] How to Check E-mail Twice a Day… or Once Every 10 Days [...]
August 13th, 2007
4:27 am
[...] “4-Ñ… чаÑ?оваÑ? рабочаÑ? неделÑ?” (The 4-Hour Workweek) Ñ?оветует проверÑ?Ñ‚ÑŒ почту дважды в день или даже раз в 10 дней. [...]
August 13th, 2007
10:29 am
Check email triple a month? Hm, maybe it’s better to cancel using email at all than? I think it’s near optimal to check emails every two hours or so. It’s not too often and not too seldom.
Tim
August 15th, 2007
5:21 am
[...] time. Well, as with creativity, implement those lifehacks you’ve been reading about. Check e-mail once a day or once a week. Don’t watch TV, and keep the RSS, but check them sparingly. As for e-mail, setup that snazzy [...]
August 15th, 2007
7:09 am
[...] Wie gesagt, checke von nun an Deine Mails nur noch zweimal täglich. Falls Du die Möglichkeit hast, reicht auch einmal pro Tag. (Tim Ferriss, Autor des Buches “The 4-Hour Workweek” checkt seine Mails nur noch einmal alle zehn Tage.) [...]
August 16th, 2007
5:31 am
Telephone or e-mail…
The productivity guru of the moment, Tim Ferriss, writes in his book how he was able to reduce the amount of e-mail received by setting up an autoresponder to tell that he only reads his e-mail once a day and that it is better to phone him for urgent m…
August 16th, 2007
1:08 pm
[...] design” topic. New perspective and strategies on life and work, such as How to Check E-mail Twice a Day…or Once Every 10 Days, How I Work: The Four Hour Work Week [...]
August 16th, 2007
10:20 pm
[...] and focus on execution of your top to-do’s instead of responding to manufactured emergencies. Set up a strategic autoresponder and check twice or thrice [...]
August 17th, 2007
7:53 am
This wouldn’t work for me. I am freelancer, if the client sends an email s/he wants to know NOW if I am available. Phones take too much time and interstate calls are expensive here.
I just use the old filters if it’s one of my clients I receive the message in my cellphone.
August 17th, 2007
8:08 am
I can see this being a very good thing but in the posistion I have I feel that this would give me more work!
Most of the humans I work with needed stuff yesterday! and I’m the only human who has access to the color printer (do to humans abusing it) there for I get at least 12 e-mails a day asking me to print something up before their 2pm meeting or 10am meeting They all meet at different times!
If i don’t print right away they do call me and make sure i got the e-mail! And the same goes for packages i get last minute packages sent at 10am and needing them done by 12 noon and printed.
My question is if i take action on your blog and only check e-mail 2-3 times a day (every hour would be best) with the last minutes i get on a daily basis how would this help me and my time managerment?
Please repsond I love your blog but this has always been hard for me to wrap my head around!
BTW I work in radio on demand company you ask you get period. no expeations or find a new job!
August 17th, 2007
3:04 pm
Just read the lastest issue of Fast Company (September 2007). ‘The Scoble Show’ column extolls the virtues of Twitter, although I guess he’s speaking more to the marketing opportunities than to the productivity loss/gain derived from using it.
August 17th, 2007
3:55 pm
[...] Check email only twice a day at set times say 11 am and 4 pm. Close your email client at other times and turn off all email [...]
August 17th, 2007
10:40 pm
One of the reasons I have a BlackBerry is for the freedom it gives me. That might seem like an oxymoron, but hear me out. Since I have the BlackBerry, I can justify leaving work/client sites/whatever much earlier than I could otherwise.
One really simple way to apply the principle discussed here (I’m considering using it) is to switch the profile on the BB to a Phone Only profile for hours outside your email check, and then back to one that allows messages and calls during your email time.
Thoughts?
###
Hi Steve,
This is completely viable IF — and it’s a big “if” — you can control the impulse to check e-mail when a computer is sitting in your pocket. Another friend canceled his data plan on his Blackberry, so he is unable to send e-mail but still able to send text messages.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Tim
August 20th, 2007
9:40 am
Hi All,
Where can I find e-mail scheduler for receiving e-mails (including instant receive in case emergency)? As suggested 11:00 and 16:00 hours!
Thanks!
August 20th, 2007
10:40 pm
[...] The 4 – Hour Workweek, shares thoughts about email management and setting expectations in his post How to Check E-mail Twice a Day … or Once Every 10 Days. He also reveals some ideas about productivity in a CNN Money article. Tim refers to this as [...]
August 23rd, 2007
10:56 pm
[...] Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. [...]
August 24th, 2007
7:28 am
[...] Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. [...]
August 28th, 2007
7:55 pm
I guess I just don’t understand this… The reason why I prefer email to phone calls is that I can check it whenever I want, and people are NOT expecting me to get back to them right away. I guess it must have to do with the fact that I don’t work in an office, so people don’t think I am glued to a terminal all day. But they do expect calls to be returned quickly, maybe within a couple of hours. It seems there is much more leniency towards email, though. Which is why, though it is my preferred mode of communication, even my closest friends and nicest clients keep calling me… I actually even considered putting my email address on my outgoing voicemail message, to encourage people to email me instead of leaving a message.
I am often either in session, concentrated on a project, or otherwise engaged, so I rarely even pick up my phone. When I then listen to voicemail, I often have to deal with the ramblings of the person leaving a message. Or worse, they tell me “Can you please call me back?” even when they just want to chat or something. I find the phone to be the single biggest interrupting annoyance.
With email, I can chose to skim it, delete it, or reply later. I can read email while I am on hold (which happens a lot during my phone interpretation work), or, if I had a Blackberry, on the noisy train, where phoning is hard to impossible. Email also gives me the opportunity to ponder an offer, think out a careful reply, cut and paste directions to my place (maybe even add a map!)… But, most of all, I feel like I can read email whenever I want. Which, ultimately, is what you are talking about: design your own time, and not be at everybody’s beck and call. Though I totally understand advising people to cut back on the frequency with which they check email, I really can’t wrap my head around asking clients and colleagues to call instead. That seems to be asking to be interrupted all the time.
Thanks for your blog! Really enjoying it!
September 1st, 2007
9:56 pm
[...] But if someone sends me an email or an IM, I often avoid answering right away. I’m trying to limit how often I read my email anyway, and I usually have my IM set to “do not disturb”. Often, people figure it out [...]
September 4th, 2007
3:39 pm
“My business e-mail autoresponder, on the other hand, gives me the option to check email once every 7-10 days. Shoot a note to see how it’s done.”
I didn’t get the auto-response :-(
Would love to see it!
###
Hi Goby,
I also use SpamArrest, so a few people receive the confirmation e-mail in their spam folder. Just “whitelist” the e-mail in the book if you can (make it an always-approved e-mail address) or look out in your spam folder. Thanks for the comment!
Tim
September 4th, 2007
9:35 pm
Telling everyone To cut down the deluge of office emails its funny :)
September 14th, 2007
12:33 am
[...] productivity at work and in life, I recommend you read the book (if you haven’t already). Tim’s blog is also a great [...]
September 18th, 2007
5:57 pm
[...] Check Email Once a Day … or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity. [...]
October 6th, 2007
9:46 pm
A few comments…
1. Tim, thanks for a great book. I got the audio version and listen to it on my iPhone.
2. To all the people who are saying, “I want to check email on my Hotmail account”: What the hell is stopping you? If you want to use the strategy of checking email twice daily, what is stopping you from only logging in to your Hotmail account at 10am and 4pm? Stay away from it and set alarms at these times if you need reminders. Maybe I just don’t get it but why would someone ask how to check web email twice a day?
3. SpamArrest. Tim, you don’t need whitelisting or challenge/response to keep spam out of your Inbox. I use a simple strategy called Mail-Washing that I describe here http://www.iadam.org/. Ping me off-list if it does not make sense or if you want me to set up a test of it for you. I get virtually no spam at all and I don’t make people type “Pretty Dog” into a box to confirm that they are human or ask them to state why they want to contact me.
4. To the folks who would rather have email because they can answer it on their own time schedule and it is not as immediate as a phone call: Have you heard of voicemail? GrandCentral.com has a free voicemail account that you can refer folks to as your contact number. Voice messages are sent as .wav or .mp3 files to your email account, which, as you know you check twice daily on your own schedule. And just because the phone rings does not mean you must answer it. Which leads me to…
5. BlackBerries and iPhones and bears…oh my! Here is an interesting thought: What if you wanted to have mobile email to give you “freedom” away from a computer, but you did not want the interruptions? What if it were possible to turn the email alert button on your iPhone or BlackBerry to “silent” (not vibrate), and then set an alarm on the unit to go off at 10am to remind you to look at your blackberry and process email? Hmmm… requires a lot of self-discipline but the thing has both an off switch as well as a silent setting!
6. To the fellow who had the boss who got mad at him for not being responsive enough to an email sent at 9pm: Been there, done that. You need to look for a new job and give your notice. It is simply unhealthy working for someone like that. Run…now.
7. Regarding notifying the office that you’ll be checking email twice daily: Why notify them at all, just do it and mention it in person when you see someone. If you send out an all-office email it just becomes ammunition for those who want to sabotage your job or torpedo you. Just do it. They will get it if they want to get things from you. If they have a problem with it, meet in person to discuss, that way there is no written record of how you respond to their whining.
8. Good rule of thumb: If it’s longer than two paragraphs or you’re writing longer than 2 minutes it really should be a 2 minute phone call. Get a timer and practice cutting yourself or the other person off after two minutes.
Thanks
Adam
boettiger@pobox.com
October 10th, 2007
10:48 am
[...] fact, there was something Ferriss-esque about the entire way of living. It reminded me of your low-information diet, for instance. In some ways, it was a huge [...]
October 14th, 2007
2:29 am
[...] you. The second check can be in the late afternoon or evening depending on your job. Some people (like Tim Ferris of the Four-Hour Work Week) promote a twice-a-day email check all the time (actually far less in his case), so you may want to [...]
October 16th, 2007
7:30 pm
[...] fact, there was something Ferriss-esque about the entire way of living. It reminded me of your low-information diet, for instance. In some ways, it was a huge [...]
November 13th, 2007
2:52 pm
[...] was just as much fun, but definitely taking less time as if I would check them twice a day. I guess batching works with blog reading [...]
November 14th, 2007
9:26 pm
hmm.. I’d love to do this, but unfortunately, email is the best method for gathering information, and email conversations take place, meaning I ask a question they reply with info, I reply with other questions or more info. Things get sorted via email better because you can read and re-read what they say and spend time figuring out what they mean and want.
I prefer email to phone because then I have a written record of the information that I can refer to. I don’t want to scribble notes while i talk on the phone, plus I can better phrase the questions via email. Oh, and the phone is a worse interruption than email. it’s an annoying noise that i MUST respond to at that time whether I want to or not
November 18th, 2007
1:03 pm
[...] und die Zeit für wichtige Dinge frei gehalten.Mehr über diesen Ansatz findet sich bei Tim Ferriss (dem Autor von “The 4-Hour-Workweek”), eine deutsche Einführung zum Thema gibt es [...]
November 20th, 2007
8:01 am
[...] Must be answered now is not a narcissistic, “I’m very important, answer me right away.” situation. You are, without a doubt, very important to me. However, email is not for conversation – particularly back and forth exchanges with no useful outcome. To understand this more fully, read Ferriss’ book or check out this blog entry. [...]
December 1st, 2007
5:04 pm
[...] artyku? dotycz?cy tak postawionego pytania autorstwa Tima Ferris, pisze on równie? o tym na swoim blogu. Co wi?c by si? sta?o, gdyby?my zamiast sprawdza? poczt? kilkana?cie razy dziennie [...]
December 23rd, 2007
10:37 pm
I definately use and check my emails way to much right now. Thanks for info.
January 5th, 2008
11:10 am
[...] you are not tempted to just skim the messages and go back to other things. Productivity gurus like Tim Ferris will also tell you that getting rid of the habit of constant e-mail checking will improve your [...]
January 6th, 2008
1:06 am
I’m halfway through your book. I read this…I spend at least 3-4 hours a day checking and responding to e-mails (and I have a sophisticated outsourced spam blocker). That is……until tomorrow (it’s now Sunday!!). Thank you for the freedom suggestion :o)
January 21st, 2008
7:18 pm
To send a automated response to every (spam) email will only result in more spam!
I’m sure people realize that business people WILL respons as soon as they can! Why send that email?
January 29th, 2008
9:14 pm
[...] Ferris, author of The 4 Hour Work Week, explains that “E-mail (and all of its Crackberry/digital leash/Twitter cousins) is the largest single [...]
February 18th, 2008
8:46 pm
[...] due to interruption, and 40% of the time, an interrupted task is not resumed within 24 hours. Use template autoresponders to alert people of your email schedule and encourage them to call if something needs faster [...]
March 17th, 2008
8:02 pm
[...] summer, I had the opportunity to try a little experiment, courtesy of Tim Ferriss. I was working, at the time, at a law firm in Manhattan–a firm known for its high intensity. [...]
March 27th, 2008
2:17 am
[...] Read email only twice a day – Tim Ferris suggests communicating expectations that emails will be read and responded to twice a day, and [...]
April 16th, 2008
6:55 pm
Just found this from a friend that has read your book and is truly implementing the checking of emails twice a day. I asked if he’d explain it, but he just pointed me to this post…LOL
Picking up the book and I GOTTA implement a lot of some of these strategies!!
Thanks tim!
April 24th, 2008
10:03 pm
[...] tasks due to interruption, and 40% of the time, an interrupted task is not resumed within 24 hours. Use template autoresponders to alert people of your email schedule and encourage them to call if something needs faster [...]
April 25th, 2008
4:55 pm
[...] Learn to check email just twice a day. From Timothy Ferriss: “E-mail (and all of its Crackberry/digital leash/Twitter cousins) is the largest single interruption in modern life. In a digital world, creating time therefore hinges on minimizing e-mail.” [...]
April 28th, 2008
2:58 pm
[...] a month. Next month, another hour. Similarly, if you spend way too much time reading email, try the Ferriss method of email [...]
May 8th, 2008
6:23 am
[...] the ability to show people how they are using their time, and maybe push them to strive towards a 4-hour work week, e-mail free. by Larissa Fair | Buzz Meter [...]
May 19th, 2008
7:56 pm
Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.
May 22nd, 2008
10:23 pm
[...] in the process of applying some of the tools recommended by Tim Ferriss. The first will be to check e-mail twice a day only. I actually trialled this for a week a while ago and it really did demonstrate something [...]
June 8th, 2008
5:09 pm
Yes this is awesome because i receive 50-100 eamis a day and it is a bad habit to keep checking. Nothing is ever that important and 11 and 4 is just fine. It is all habits and i am determined to change because life needs to be lived out and not worked out.
Great idea. Thanks.
July 8th, 2008
9:32 pm
Hi Tim,
Thank you for sharing your great ideas.
However, I’d like to mention some aspects that I think need to be taken into account in customer service interaction.
1. First of all, your own issues and problems with productivity, time management or whatsoever should NOT become a customer’s problem or concern.
2. With customer you should only share information that concerns that customer in some way, otherwise, your behaviour is unprofessional.
Therefore…
If you decided to make a personal email policy, then it’s your personal business, not your clients’ business. So there’s no need to send the whole essay about your ‘great time management skills’ as a reply to your client’s email.
You talk about cutting your information intake, so do the customers. In the first example that you provide ” I’ve recently realized I spend more time shuffling through…”, if the customer receives such an email, it will take him/her a few minutes to read/get annoyed, and not ask you for anything in the future, or better he/she will simply ignore it as it’s not worth spending time. What’s the use of telling your clients what you eat for breakfast or how you brush your teeth? Do you think they should bother? Definitiely Not
What I suggest is cutting your replies to short answers including only required information without enthusiastic notes on making the world better.
An example of such an auto-reply would be:
” Thank you for your email,
We will answer your questions between 1 and 4 p.m on weekdays.
We appreciate your taking time to contact us.”
Kind Regards,
Efim.
July 9th, 2008
8:00 pm
Sounds like to me, you have just made yourself into a slave. Now, no matter what else you may need to plan, you have setup an expectation that you read AND RESPOND to emails at set times each day.
If you have a Dr’s appt, better make sure it isn’t at 11 or 4.
If you REALLY want to become more efficient, try NOT using your telephone. Email is MUCH faster, better and cheaper, plus gives you a record of the conversation.
I have a personal policy of not using voicemail. I will not leave anyone a message on voicemail and I never have voice mail in my company offices. Ify you want to be more effecient, drop this voicemail addiction and us systems that queue up callers on hold so that 20% of your office time isn’t spent listening to voicemail, noting instructions, phone numbers and the like, and then calling someone back; just to get THEIR VOICEMAIL.
Or better yet, become ultra effecient and quit wasting your time with stupid blogs that eat up your time.
Take a TOTAL INTERNET break, if you can, and that would be impressive.
July 15th, 2008
6:37 am
What would be a good subject line for this type of email template ?
July 16th, 2008
3:00 am
For the email I mentioned in my above comment, you can use the subject lines:
” Your email to [CompanyName] ” for external communications and
” Your email to [DepartmentName] ” for internal communications.
There are lots others though, ask me for more.
Regards,
Efim
August 7th, 2008
11:02 pm
[...] a day that contains all of the new posts from my feeds. Since I’ve also gotten down to only checking email twice a day, I only have to spend ten to twenty minutes a day digesting the actionable information from my [...]
August 9th, 2008
5:12 pm
Tim:
I’ve been trying this out and I have to tell you I have not had a single person even call me with an emergerncy yet, They all wait. I did have one confused Realtor (surprise) who sent me junk mail every day and t hen couldn’t seem to get why he was getting the same message 10 times a day. lol.
I also had an attorney who told me I should can the auto-responder as it is obnoxious and seems as if I feel too self important. (trust me, the pot is definitely calling the kettle black).
All and all, a great experience although I find that I still CHECK my mail too often even though I don’t have to. The addiction doesn’t wear off too easy.
One last tip, if you do respond to your email at any other time people WILL ignore your auto-responder because you ignored it. DOI NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE!! (trust me)
Thanks,
Jeff
August 24th, 2008
8:48 pm
Came to the realisation that I was spending too much time in the inbox a while back but hadn’t thought about setting up an autoresponder to let people know I’m now only checking emails once a day. Great idea and much more polite than not letting people know :-)
September 2nd, 2008
6:30 am
[...] has a blog that tries to educate people about email usage and etiquette. Please read it. Tim Ferriss advocates checking email only a couple of times a day. That may be impractical for some people, but the [...]
September 9th, 2008
7:36 pm
[...] to Tim Ferriss: E-mail (and all of its Crackberry/digital leash/Twitter cousins) is the largest single [...]
December 7th, 2008
6:30 am
[...] How to check email twice a day or once every 10 days [...]
January 15th, 2009
4:57 pm
[...] means purposely switching off: turning off phones overnight, checking email once a day (I’ve been trying this at 1pm, but will experiment with 5-6pm – there’s less [...]
January 25th, 2009
6:50 am
The discipline part is where I struggle. There are times I check email 4-5 times a day. There is just too much important information coming back to me that I have to get to.
Tim Do you outsource this task to a V.A who can then filter out the very important emails to the ones that are low priority and have them brief you on which ones to need immediate attention? I was thinking of doing this for the future.
April 1st, 2009
3:03 am
[...] Twitter feed and the latest news headline? Spend a week with your Internet connection turned off except for two hours a day, and see what [...]
April 17th, 2009
3:27 pm
This felt like a good post to respond to your Twitter request :) keep up the good work
April 23rd, 2009
4:52 am
[...] Check email on a schedule: Check email just twice a day to keep it from taking over your online life. [...]
May 2nd, 2009
4:05 am
Have only discovered Tim but boy am I glad.
It was only after I read this site and watched “Fireside Chat with Tim Ferriss” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8fyIhsvjhc that I realised how much email was in control of my work life and the impact it was having on my personal life. Since I got an iPhone with its mail push function it has been, on reflection, out of control.
Up until 2 days ago I checking my mail at 6 am when I got up, reading it while having breakfast with my 1 year old son, refreshing it constantly as I walked to the train station, replying to mails while on the train only stopping when it went underground – and that was before I went into work! So in effect I was using email 2 hrs before I even got into the office. When I got home I was bathing the kids, again while accessing mails, I even was access them will reading the kids there bedtime story – madness I know but it is amazing how you don’t notice these things if they become habit.
Anyway here what I have done and even after just 2 days I feel like a massive load of my shoulders
iPhone – I disabled both my work and gmail accounts on my iphone. So that I won’t cheat I got my wife to change the passwords on both accounts – therefore even if I tried to set them up again I couldn’t without getting the passwords from her – as she will not release them believe me!
I then moved my mail app icon to the last page of my apps – completely out of the way with all the other useless free apps I have downloaded.
While I was at it, I moved the 3 news sites apps I was also reading nearly every 5 minutes to the last page of my apps – I now realise that I don’t need the latest news every 5 minutes. Once a day is more than enough.
I have also added the following auto responder to both work and personal emails
Thank you for your email! In an effort to spend as much non work time with my kids as possible I have begun a new personal and business email policy. As such I am only checking mails at 12pm AET on weekdays. If you need anything immediately please call me on my mobile, it will be good to chat with you. Thank you and have a great day!
May 6th, 2009
2:53 pm
[...] this up with 4 articles discussing how to become more efficient when on your computer. 1 and 2) Check email twice a day and Email Ninja both by Tim Ferriss -implementing these techniques are not without controversy, but [...]
May 7th, 2009
4:00 am
Dear all,
I am happy to read this book and I had implemented most things written in books and am helping all my clients to achieve such life style using my mobile based erp software called Mobileerp.net
Checking emails once a day may not be practical idea but replying fast thru blackberry whenever u are free or comfirtable will be good idea.
I check my emails mostly in travelling or when I am watching tv or free. If important I reply else forward to my VA.
May 10th, 2009
7:09 pm
Great to read this but take in mind that reading and deleting auto responders takes tremendous amounts of time on yearly base. Email is not a telephone so an answer may take some time. It is much better to reply after one day with a complete answer than after an hour with an email you will reply tomorrow. Effective emailing starts with stopping to use auto responders unless you are away for more than 2 days.
Switch of voice mail!
Than also take in consideration an other time waster that is voice mail as you call someone to speak to him if he does not answer you can send an email or try to call back later, no you can’t because cash you connected to a voice mail
Voice mail is just a great money collector for telephone company’s 3 times cashing for 1 message: 1 call speak in voice mail, 2 listen to the voice mail, 3 call back and if your lucky you reach him otherwise the whole thing starts over again.
Happy running, Myckel
May 20th, 2009
9:25 am
[...] but I guarantee most people did what I did which was spend WAY too much time in Outlook. I love Timothy Ferris’ concept of managing email. While his approach may not be entirely realistic for everyone, it’s a different way of [...]
May 27th, 2009
11:27 am
[...] There’s a reason so many productivity gurus (Marc Andreessen, David Allen, Merlin Mann, Tim Ferris) suggest checking email only once or twice a day. Just like many folks now remind you not to print [...]
May 30th, 2009
6:40 am
[...] the volume of email you receive is truly immense, setup an auto-responder to let people in on the rules you have setup and make them write emails in such a way that it is [...]
June 29th, 2009
5:41 am
I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
July 2nd, 2009
1:56 pm
Hi,
Does anyone know how to create an autoresponder in Apple Mail (Tiger) and MS Outlook 2003 (Windows), that can be limited to be send only once every 4 days or let’s say a week to the same recipient, is customizable (text and title, so not with the default “Out-of-office” title) and is running/working even when the computer (client) is is powered off???
I’ve been searching for hours and still haven’t found the solution. :((
Your help is very much appreciated!!
Greetz,
Vincent
July 27th, 2009
8:50 pm
[...] has written a great deal on the subject of managing e-mail. You can read his words of wisdom here. Share and [...]
July 28th, 2009
4:25 am
[...] One of the most common compulsive behaviors among entrepreneurs? Constantly checking their e-mail accounts. Entrepreneur and best selling author Timothy Ferriss has written a great deal on the subject of managing e-mail. You can read his words of wisdom here. [...]
August 13th, 2009
6:50 am
One thing that’s reduced inbox clutter for me is unsubscribing from useless newsletters. I repair computers for a living, so a ziff-davis email saying “Join us for this executive roundtable on enterprise security” is useless to me. I never removing myself from these lists until I started digesting what’s in The Four Hour Workweek.
August 13th, 2009
3:29 pm
Nobody knows the answer to the question I askes earlier?!? Not even you Tim?? Or are you busy dancing and scooba diving? ;-)
If you’re back and by accident see my messages. I need your help! :D
September 14th, 2009
5:31 pm
[...] efficacement le temps que vous consacrez à vos mails, Twitter ou Facebook (à lire à ce sujet un article en anglais de l’excellent Tim Ferriss). Cela ne pourra vous être que profitable [...]
October 29th, 2009
3:00 pm
[...] and focus on execution of your top to-do’s instead of responding to manufactured emergencies. Set up a strategic autoresponder and check twice or thrice [...]
November 16th, 2009
6:00 am
[...] break through on a significant project.Let’s take the whole day off!I wish I could be more like Tim Ferriss. Through a clever system of automation, deferral of routine tasks to employees, and – let’s [...]
November 17th, 2009
11:38 pm
[...] wish I could be more like Tim Ferriss. Through a clever system of automation, deferral of routine tasks to employees, and – let’s [...]
January 10th, 2010
1:27 am
[...] Ferriss suggests that “In a digital world, creating time therefore hinges on minimizing e-mail.” He advises that corporate employees setup a schedule of two times per day when they will check and reply to email, and setting up an autoresponder to inform people that email will not reach him until those times. He’s available by phone for emergencies, but by limiting access people think twice before contacting by phone. And finally if someone does call, Ferriss answers with “This is Tim, how can I help you?” to guide people to the point quickly. [...]
February 2nd, 2010
6:08 pm
[...] you are going to do weekly J). I won’t expand too much on this, because I will let the master Tim Ferriss here explain it for you. But, make sure you will do it and you will easily have an extra 10 hours a week to yourself. Trust [...]
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