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Email is one of the most useful and time-wasting things you can do online. How many of us leave our email open all day? Do we really need to do that? I think not. Here are some tips for managing your email without it taking over your life.

Set a time for checking your email.

Checking your email a few times a day isn’t a bad idea, it’s when you check it constantly that you’re in trouble.

Instead of leaving it open, set some times when you know you’ll be able to deal with any new messages. First thing in the morning, before or after lunch, and before you finish for the day are times that work best for me. Find the times that work for you, and stick to them.

Don’t reply immediately.

This is a point I’m going to have trouble with - I’ve always liked to be able to reply quickly if I have the answers there and then.

But there are problems with this approach. Firstly, it can tie you to your email far too closely, meaning that people will start to expect a very fast reply - even if they contact you when it’s the middle of the night for you - and even if you’re working on something else.

Secondly, replying too quickly can cause confusion if the sender realises they forgot to mention something, perhaps a missed attachment or a quick comment to say “actually, don’t worry, I’ve figured it out”. Replying immediately would mean you reply to the original email before you received the follow-up.

Set a standard response time.

While I don’t think you should respond immediately, it’s a very bad idea to ignore emails or take forever to reply. Decide on a reasonable response time, and stick to it. e.g. within 3-5 working days.

if you have a contact form on your website (and you should), it’s OK to give a rough idea of your response times, but mention that they can change depending on complexity.

Consider alternatives for longer discussions.

I used to work with some people who insisted that email should be a last resort, and we should always aim to start with face-to-face conversations or a phone call.

For short queries, or queries of a technical nature, I don’t agree with this at all. I think it’s a lot better to send an email to get the details across. If it’s not a quick reply it could be discussed outside of an email.

If an email starts to go back and forth more than a few times, you may find it easier to try an alternative method of communication.

Keep your inbox tidy.

I know people who keep everything in their inbox - thousands upon thousands of emails. To me, it seems like sheer laziness to not sort things properly, but it actually goes further than that. If you keep every email you receive and you don’t sort anything, it’s going to get harder and harder to find emails in future.

Ask yourself - do you really need to keep all of those emails? Delete anything you don’t need, file everything you do need, and remove all emails from your inbox when you have dealt with them.

Those are my tips - how do you manage your email?

Do you plan your days carefully, or just do work as it comes in?

Doing things as they come in is a risky approach to work. While smaller tasks may be completed quickly, big projects will keep getting pushed to one side. The same applies to ignoring larger tasks in favour of the “easy” work, or the things you want to do.

Instead of feeling the need to take action as soon as a new job comes in, add the task to your to-do list and continue with whatever you were working on previously. With emails, let them sit in your inbox for a bit - don’t jump into your email straight away.

Every day, set aside some time to review your outstanding work. This needs to be a time when you will not be interrupted. Don’t go thinking you should be “on call” 24/7 if your job doesn’t actually require it. Divert your phone to voicemail, or turn it off. Close your email and instant messengers. Then start getting organised.

Use a proper organisational tool. Todoist is a simple but effective way to manage multiple workstreams. You can use dates, priorities and sub-projects to organise the things you need to do. If you don’t want to use Todoist (and I’d recommend that you at least try it out), find another tool that’s more structured than a sheet of paper or a Word document. I’ve tried both methods. Todoist is far better than a top-to-bottom list.

Reorder your tasks so they appear in a logical sequence. Give them dates so you can tell whether you’re on schedule or not. If you get ahead of schedule, reorganise the remaining tasks so they reflect the new dates. Reorganise if you get behind, too. This really helps you to stay on top of your workload.

Don’t get over-ambitious. Write everything down, but prioritise what you know you’ll be able to do on the days when you know you’ll be able to work. Keep it realistic, be ambitious if you can, but don’t go overboard.

Keep an eye on tasks that get out of control. What’s causing the delay? How will you know when they are completed? Could you break them down to stand a better chance of completing them? Ensure you communicate with your customers about any tasks that may overrun.

Set aside time to DO THE WORK! It’s all very well doing all this planning, and some days you may be very busy, but don’t say “I’m going to do this today” and then get caught up with phone calls and emails. There’s no excuse. Customers will get tired of your excuses if you keep putting things off until “tomorrow”. Tomorrow never comes.

Review and improve. Are you any good at estimating your timescales? Are you getting things done? Monitor your progress and consider whether you could be doing better. Continuous improvement is a vital part of working.

How do you manage your working schedule?

It's all very well to set your alarm, but will it actually get you out of bed?

If you don’t work from home, you’ve probably established a morning routine: get up, have a shower, get dressed, have breakfast, travel to work.

When you work from home, it can be a lot harder to get up. As there’s no travelling involved, you can get up later. You may find you don’t want to get up at all.

Here are some tips to help you get up every morning. These can be applied if you don’t work from home, but you might not have as much time to spare.

1. Winding down.

If you stay up late on the computer, then go to bed immediately after you turn it off, you may find that you don’t sleep too well. I’m speaking from experience on this one and I still do it a lot.

I find it’s a lot better to get offline at least 1 hour before you plan to go to bed, then maybe read a book, watch some TV, have a bath, or do whatever you do to relax. This will make it easier to sleep.

2. Scheduled sleeping.

Try to go to bed at the same time each night. Get up at the same time each day. Find out how much sleep you need. We don’t all need the same amount of sleep, and some people can survive on less sleep than others.

Use an alarm clock to ensure you get up at the same time each morning. Try putting it on the other side of the room if you turn it off and fall asleep, or if you keep hitting the snooze button.

3. Getting physical.

My wife does exercises in the morning before work. She finds that it helps to wake her up properly, plus it keeps her fit.

You could go to the gym, ride a bike, or walk the dog. I think that walking the dog would be a good reason to get up, I know our dog loves to go for a walk. Asking “Want to go for a walk?” works her up to such a degree that I can’t bail out on her.

4. Getting jobs done.

Managing your work is something I’ll be writing about in the future, but for now, it’s a good idea to not have “bad” jobs sitting around for too long. For instance if you know something has to be done but you don’t want to do it, leaving it until the next day will not make you want to get up.

If you have a to-do list of things that you need to achieve each day, or each week, it’ll make the days go quicker. And when the days go fast, you won’t be forcing yourself to endure another long and painful day - thereby helping you to get up.

5. Thinking time.

If having a shower every morning or going for a walk seems boring, set aside some things you need to think about before you can work on them. Then you can think about them as you do your “boring” activities. Alternatively, think about things besides work - just do what works for you.

Over to you.

Do you have any tips for getting up in the morning? How do you do it?