"How I eliminated a year's worth of stress that was killing my career, business and home life, and how you can too!"
By Wayne McKinnon

How many days do you leave the office feeling unfulfilled because you didn't accomplish what you set out to do?

When you are at home, how often do you get stressed because your spouse or your kids are always interrupting you while you try to finish off the day's e-mails, and you know that you should be spending your time with them instead of on the computer? Aside from all of that, when do you make time for you?

Stress is one of the biggest killers in our world today. According to the US department of labor, the duration of stress related absences were four time greater than any other non fatal injuries and illnesses. While there are many high stress jobs, in the office it is at its highest among technical, sales, and administrative support professionals, but managers are also susceptible.

Top Five Causes of E-mail Stress
Since 1998 when I wrote my first book on the subject I have been continually surveying my clients to get to the root of the problem, and what I have found is that it all boils down to these five things:

Messages arrive too quickly or you have too many messages in one day .
Messages pile up from one day to the next so your pile just gets bigger
It takes you too long to figure out what to do with each message.
You are too busy responding to email messages to complete any meaningful work.
You can't find information when you need it

If you have identified other causes I invite you to submit your theories, but the real question is why are we allowing email technology to get in the way of effective communication, and more importantly your productivity, health and happiness?

According to a leading psychologist...
As reported in the book "The Evolving Self," the types of activities that people report as most rewarding involve:

a clear objective
a need for concentration so intense that no attention is left over
a lack of interruptions and distractions
clear and immediate feedback on progress towards the objective
a sense of challenge (the perception that one's skills are just barely adequate to cope with the task at hand

When was the last time that you can say that you have actually spent time well, time when you have a clear focus on the task at hand?

The problem in today's workplace...
The problem is that technology and specifically e-mail violates all of these rules of happiness. I have seen even the most strategic thinkers become distracted so often by e-mail that they can no longer function at a high level and instead tend to spend their time "interrupt driven," and responding to the next thing that comes into their inbox instead of focusing on what they had planned to do.

Have you ever felt this way yourself? If so, read every word of this article and discover techniques that motivate you to save at least an hour a week while preserving your mental health.

Begin by Turning off your email.
That's right, turn it off and leave it off until your next scheduled email checking interval. Some jobs require people to be on call but most don't. Sure it would be convenient if all of the people someone needs throughout the day were sitting by their side, but that's not a realistic expectation.

You need to allow yourself to get into a "state of flow" where you can accomplish more than you ever imagined.

Is there is more to it than that?
If it were that easy there wouldn't be a problem, would there? Actually, yes there would be because most people aren't disciplined enough to stick to the plan. But there are also a number of other causes that you should be aware of.

Why has the problem not been solved?
I have been working on this problem since the early 80's and I can assure you that technology is not the solution to your problem, although that is where most people look for a solution.

So why organizations leaving it to their technologists to solve this problem?
I wondered that myself but the more I worked on this with my clients, the more I realized that there is very little management will to make the necessary changes. Here is what I mean:

While helping organizations like yours improve your bottom line I have had the opportunity to uncover some of the biggest causes of business obstacles, and the impact of e-mail is huge!

Unfortunately the problem is not being addressed by many organizations, and those organizations that do attempt to improve the situation tend to leave it in the hands of the technologists.

I don't want to slander anyone here, that is not my intent, but according to a recent survey, getting technologists to think like business people is a huge issue, so aside from improving a few keyboarding skills, these are not the right people to provide much help. Solving the problem has been left up to individual employees, and that means you and you deserve help!

Let’s face it. In today's business world we all need email to do our jobs, but we also all need our own coping mechanisms and "best practices" to eliminate the stress of e-mail overload.

So what can you do?

There are two components to the solution. One is strategic and one is operational. By operational I mean work habits and routines. Like almost everyone I know, I am also susceptible to falling in to bad work habits if I am not careful. You might be too.

Make a deliberate effort to step back and evaluate how you are spending your time
Every year (and a few times in between) I evaluate how I am spending my time and how I can use it better. Do like I do. Give yourself a mini refresher course and update your thinking. I have written about high level strategies elsewhere, so in this report I will address the operational changes that I use to make me instantly productive. This routine will help you developed very strong personal and business skills that you can apply to your own situation whenever you need help.

"How I eliminated a year's worth of stress that was killing my career, business and home life, and how you can too!" By Wayne McKinnon How many days do you leave the office feeling unfulfilled because you didn't accomplish what you set out to do?

Top Five Causes of E-mail Stress Since 1998 when I wrote my first book on the subject I have been continually surveying my clients to get to the root of the problem, and what I have found is that it all boils down to these five things:

Let’s face it. In today's business world we all need email to do our jobs, but we also all need our own coping mechanisms and "best practices" to eliminate the stress of e-mail overload.

So what can you do?

There are two components to the solution. One is strategic and one is operational. By operational I mean work habits and routines. Like almost everyone I know, I am also susceptible to falling in to bad work habits if I am not careful. You might be too.

Fortunately for you I have documented many of my methods right here so that you can help yourself.

"How I eliminated a year's worth of stress that was killing my career, business and home life, and how you can too!"
By Wayne McKinnon

How many days do you leave the office feeling unfulfilled because you didn't accomplish what you set out to do?

Top Five Causes of E-mail Stress
Since 1998 when I wrote my first book on the subject I have been continually surveying my clients to get to the root of the problem, and what I have found is that it all boils down to these five things: