The dreaded achilles heel for many leaders, managers, bosses … email, electronic communication, social media … shudder…

McKinsey Study shows that 60% of the work week is spent engaged in electronic communication, such as social media, email, chats or messenger, etc. Of this time 30% is spent reading and answering emails. Further to that study is that people check emails 74 times a day! In researching this, it’s estimated that 9 min 30 sec is spent checking emails but then it’s another 23 min to resume productivity on the job! Times that loss of time by the hourly wage of the person doing this and subtract it from the bottom line. It adds up.

Don’t get me wrong, emails and communication is important, but there’s a time and place for it. You MUST set rules and make scheduled times each day to do emailing and computer stuff…

Ok… so, are you ready for the list of what to do? Implement these ideas in your business, personal life and see your bottom line increase. Seriously, just a few tweaks like the ones of been sharing lately can help you improve your productivity and your teams too. It’s not hard work that makes a company a success; it’s structure, focus, limiting distractions that will make it better.

Hard work can be a limitation. Think smarter and the doing will become simpler.

Ready for the tips and tricks of a more productive day? Ok, here it is:
– Turn off ALL notifications on your devices
– Schedule time blocks to check emails, answer messages, make phone calls, etc. AND stick to that time!
– Do not use email for URGENT requests, or time sensitive items. Pick up the phone and call that person or
– Stack questions and needs for the next team huddle
– Time yourself on emails
– Use strong filters to save hours of scrolling and sifting through junk, unimportant stuff

If you are sending an email to your team, staff, etc here area few tips to help improve their time efficiency and productivity:

1. Make your subject line descriptive of the 1 topic or call to action per email
2. Close the loop

Tony Hawk says, “ To have every communication have closure. To not leave open segues for someone to come in after the fact and change the program or bring the idea or discussion back to zero.”

3. Write in bullet point, or at least get right to the point in the email and make it simple and vertical. Easy to skim through.

4. Be direct. If a reply is not needed then put at the top “No reply needed” or if you are directing the email to a few people then each point that is required to be answered by a specific person should be noted, for them to reply to YOU and NOT a “reply all”. If you are required to answer an email, don’t reply all… seriously, you don’t like your time wasted reading through other people’s responses when they don’t pertain to you, so don’t do it to them. (Golden Rule works every time)

5. And you don’t have to respond to EVERY email. Not all emails need a reply.

6. Institute a Team Disconnect Day in the workplace.
And I’ve lost a few of you, haven’t I? You don’t know what I mean by this… well, here, let me show you how it works:

• Rapid response is sometimes required, but it can become debilitating, especially if the emails from other people take you off track from your priorities even for a few minutes. Time is money, remember.
• Someone else’s priorities can quickly get in the way of YOUR priorities turning the regular workday into a nightmare of stress.
• By Disconnecting for a day, you will OWN the day fully and have the psychological pull to check messages all the time.
• If your team does this on a regular Disconnect Day then you’ll notice over time the productivity increased, the shorter and few internal emails.
• Even doing this once a week, you are allowing everyone a mini digital detox day. It’s quite refreshing. Trust me, I do it!

As Nate Johnson (A-Team member of Darren Hardy’s company) said, “A Disconnected Day is the phone booth in which Clark Kent gets to change into his spandex and be Superman for a while before going back to his normal day to day grind at the Daily Planet.”

A lot of people who have done these few things, have realized just how addictive these “tools to improve our lives” have actually become a detriment to our business, life and health. Time to take back our lives and live them better, more productive and efficiently. Start reconnecting with people and stop hiding behind devices.

Here’s to your most productive and prosperous week ever!