Recently I finished reading “Eat That Frog!” by Brian Tracy. A wonderful little book (a little over a hundred pages), featuring a total of twenty one  chapters full of tips, tricks and methods to overcome procrastination and lessening distractions in your life. One of the chapters in the book was about emails and how we are flooded with useless emails, which we have to wade through every day. I followed the advice in the book and after a week, I can tell you that it really helped me. Here’s what I did.

The ever growing trash box

Bye bye newsletters!

If there’s one thing we’re getting a whole lot of these days its emails. Last week this became very apparent to me when I started judging each incoming email. I was reading each one of them and thinking whether I really needed to have that information. It turns out I was getting around ten, sometimes even double that amount of newsletters. But the thing is, most of these so called newsletters are nothing more than discounts and offers from (web)shops. That’s a lot of deleting emails I’m not going to read fully, and what’s more, most of these offers were really tempting. Since I’m trying to save money and only allow a little bit of budget to buy entertainment, it’s really hard not to give in sometimes. Especially on LEGO sets, or video games.

Unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe

The thing is, many things that are on offer, or discount, are often offered at low prices. One of the best examples was the newest Magic: The Gathering sets that I could get a pre-order discount on. When I checked afterwards the boosterpack boxes were still on discount at that shop. So much for a special offer, eh?

Hit this button whenever possible! Unless it’s an actual newsletter you need 😉

This week I vowed to unsubscribe from all newsletters that I received that don’t necessarily contain actual information that I want to have in my inbox. I think I’ve hit the unsubscribe button over thirty times! That’s thirty (or sometimes even more) emails less per week that I’m getting in my inbox. Which means that whenever I see new emails coming in now that it’s an actual email I want to read!

Less notifications = less stress

Besides unsubbing from a lot of newsletters I also turned of all notifications from my mailboxes. No more bleeps, no more screaming numbers, or pop-ups. I just check my email several times a day. That way I can focus on what’s really important, without feeling that constant stress of needing to answer emails I get. I think one thing we’ve forgotten in this digital age is that emails are a good way of sending each other messages, but their priority should probably weigh a little less. No one’s going to die if you don’t respond to an email the second after you read it.

Technology is here to serve you, not the other way around

I love computers and gadgets. Most of all I love video games, which I still think is one of the best things to come from all of this technology. But you should always remember that all this wonderful technology is here to serve you, not the other way around. You’re not and should never become a slave to your emails, direct messaging services, etc. So whenever you need to focus on a big project, make sure you close everything down, turn off all sounds, notifications, pop-ups, etc on your computer, but most importantly your cellphone! Put it aside, and only allow yourself to look at it when you’re done, or when you’re taking a break from work. You’ll notice you’ll get so much more done. I’ve been working like this for quite some time now, and it really works wonders!

I hope you liked these tips, and I really can’t stress enough how much I loved reading “Eat that Frog!”. It contains a whole slew of other tips and I really recommend it to anyone who wants to work harder, with less distractions.

Now don’t forget to hit like and subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss out on any offers and… Just kidding. 😉

Happy working!

-Jeffrey