HOW MANY EMAILS DO YOU RECEIVE?
Tignum Account Master
The better question is actually, how many times per day do you check your email and how often do you get interrupted by phone calls, text messages, IMs and colleagues just coming by your office? Researchers at the University of California in Irvine found that the average amount of time an employee can devote to a project before being interrupted is 11 minutes. You might be indifferent to this because you think you have mastered multi-tasking. In actuality, researchers have found neurological evidence that the brain cannot do two things at the same time. Your brain basically switches between tasks (the exception are automatic processes in your body like breathing).
Dave Crenshaw talks in his book, The Myth of Multitasking about how switching impacts your performance and reduces your effectiveness. After a switch, you have to go back to your old task to review where you are - and the more complicated the task the greater the cost of this switch. Basex Research estimates an average of 2.1 hours of lost productivity per person per day due to interruptions. So here is my question to you again: How many times per day do you check your email? Please share with us your email strategies and the email etiquette of your company.
By Jogi Rippel
CEO // Founder