In this day and age of technology our main vehicle of communication is through email. But sometimes email can be a pain, especially when you are trying to get a lot of work done or trying to do other things online. Is answering your email killing your productivity?

While a fair proportion of the email you receive may be unsolicited spam, if you’re in business, you probably receive anywhere from fifty to thousands of emails that need to be answered each day. But here’s the thing- they don’t have to be answered immediately! If you need time in the morning to read the news or your favorite blogs, then go to those websites first before you even sign-in to your email. Don’t respond to your email “on demand.” If you’re using an email program that announces the arrival of new email, turn off the program’s announcement features, such as making a sound or having a pop-up screen announce the arrival of new mail. Answering email on demand, or even looking at it, can seriously interfere with whatever other tasks you’re trying to accomplish. Instead, set aside a particular time each day to review and answer your email. Schedule the hour or whatever time it takes you to answer the volume of email you get, and stick to that schedule as regularly as possible.

Also, don’t answer your email at your most productive time of day. If you get more work done in the morning, and have more down time in the afternoon, then wait until later in the day to respond to emails. What time of day are you the most productive? Scheduling less demanding tasks such as answering email outside of your “best” working time will help you make the most of your working day.

Hopefully these tips will ease your stress in relation to emails. While it’s important to respond to emails in a timely manner, replies should not come at the expense of getting actual work done. Oh, and don’t forgot the basics of email etiquette.