Monday Morning Momentum™: Don’t Play Email Lottery

                                    

Welcome to Monday Morning Momentum!  Each Monday I lay out a simple momentum plan for you to follow: I help you focus on one thing each week that will increase your momentum in your career, business, and life.  Thanks for being here!  Best to you, David 

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Don’t Play Email LotteryÓ                                                                                   

How It Starts

After I waved goodbye to Dawn and the girls as they headed off to school, I went back into the house, grabbed my cup of tea, and sat down at the computer.  I went straight to my four email accounts and started reading all the email that had arrived over night.  Thirty minutes later, I had responded to just a third of them: I had to stop to drive to my office in time for a meeting.  But as I made my way downtown, I was still thinking about the emails I had read, but not answered.  I was not focusing my energy and creativity on my goals for the day.  I had broken my rule.

How many of you do this every day?  How many of you sit down at your computer and say, “Let’s see what I have waiting for me today?”  And when you’re honest with yourself, you catch yourself hoping that the emails are not delivering bad news or problems for you.  Most of you follow this routine from time to time, and many of you do it every day.

Other People’s Priorities

And here’s what you’re doing.  You are downloading other people’s priorities.  You go into your day without a plan.  You have not committed to an agenda.  You bow to the concerns of others, regardless of their relative importance.

Other People’s Moods

And each email comes with an attachment:  the mood of the sender.  Senders always convey their moods in their messages:  They transmit their worries, anxieties, frustrations, anger, and impatience. Thankfully, some senders also communicate joy, gratitude, optimism, and excitement.

But hoping that good news will appear each time you open your email is like playing the lottery:  You secretly hope one of the emails is holding your winning ticket number.   

Now, there’s nothing wrong with email:  It is a vital form of communication.  It allows us to connect with people all over the world inexpensively and almost instantly.

Losing Your Focus

The challenge is that if you have not outlined what you must accomplish during the day to advance your goals and dreams, you will get caught up in everyone else’s priorities.  You will push “your goals” off to another day while you handle the requests of others.  Following this strategy you will never build the momentum you need to live your best possible life.

The Impact On Others

And it’s not just about you.  When you fail to make progress in the key areas of your life, you feel frustrated and disappointed.  And when you feel this way, you create a wave of negative energy that touches many people: Your colleagues, your customers, your friends, and your family will be affected by your negative emotions.

This Week

Follow my rule instead:  Have a plan before you open your email.

Each day this week grab your morning beverage and review your goals.  And then ask these questions:

(1)    What’s important to you? 

(2)    What will help you move closer to achieving your best possible life? 

(3)    And what must you accomplish to delight your customers, and satisfy your stakeholders? 

Then look at your week and set your priorities for each day.  Then come up with a list of people you must call, and people you must email.  And decide on the best order to complete these tasks.

Then with your plan in hand, it’s safe to open your email.  You can determine if anything has arrived that trumps something on your priority list.  If it does, slide it into place.  If it does not warrant your immediate attention, wait until the end of the day to respond.

Respect your own priorities.  Believe your goals are worth pursuing.  And remember that there are people counting on you to succeed. 

Don’t play email lottery.  Set your own agenda and enjoy every day.

Invite Your Family and Friends to Join You

And if you want your family, colleagues and friends to join you on your journey, send this post along to them.  Have a great week, and let me know how it goes!

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And remember you can sign up for my newsletter, Monthly Momentum Minutesä, right here.

Comments

[David J. Pollay]

Hi Lil,

You make a great point about curiosity. And you're right: We serve ourselves best when we manage our curiosity by beginning our day focused on our own priorities.

Have fun Lil!

Best to you,

David

[Lil]

The night beore,I try to prioritize my tasks for the next day. I have every intention of following my list, but then it happens, my curiosity gets the best of me and I start reading emails. I am going to follow your plan; my own mood will improve when I put myself in charge of my own day. You have helped. Thanks David Lil

[David J. Pollay]

Hi Brenda,

I’m so glad! Have fun with it and let me know how it goes!

Best to you,

David

[David J. Pollay]

Hi Srdjan,

Good for you! The night before works great too! The key is just to have your plan ready to go when you sit down. And if it involves email, I will often draft a few emails (from MY plan) in a MS Word document before I open my email. I then open my email, copy in what I wrote, send them off, and then look to see what I need to include in my plan for the day.

Best to you,

David

[brenda515]

Excellent idea, David. It's going to be of value to a lot of people, including me.

[Srdjan Mirosavljevic]

This is so true! Every day I come to work and first I do is check my e-mails. This then creates "the mood" and my working day. As I'm working as a coordinator, lots of my work is connected to associate cases.

But then, I spent significant portion of my day in "firefighting", not having time to make my program grow.

I started making my daily tasks each night for the coming day. Showed some results, but "firefighting" will always be there.