For recruiters, time is
literally money. Getting things
done fast and effectively is a key component in the daily habits of the most
productive recruiters. Unfortunately,
for even the most productive of us, time wasters often creep into our day,
stealing productivity and by extension our money.
Surprisingly email is one of
the biggest thieves of productivity. While electronic mail is probably one of
the greatest inventions in this century this nifty tool it can also rob us of
our productivity. How?
- Checking email can take 30 minutes or more. Have
you noticed that when you open your email you often spend more time
checking mail than you originally intended? I know I have.
One way to fix this is to limit how much time you spend checking
email. Before you open your email account, decide in advance exactly how
much time you will spend reading and responding to messages. That will
force you to focus on only the important items.
- Checking email too often. Email has an immediate
feel to it, therefore many people feel that the must check and respond to
each email they receive as soon as they get it. They also believe that
they must check their email every few hours or ever few minutes if you
have a Blackberry. These little interruptions eat up the time in your day. Here's a suggestion: Check email
once or twice a day and have an auto responder that says something like
"I check email at 3:00pm everyday. If this is an emergency call
me."