My email was getting behind. My project turnaround time was growing. My husband ate pizza for dinner two nights in a row.

I was feeling very frustrated. How did it all get so out of control? I know there was more work because several program launches for clients were happening at the same time. I was also trying to get it all done before we went camping for Labor Day weekend.

But, I can usually fall onto my time systems. Into my head popped a conversation we had in my Project Class about email. Email is quick, fast and there might be a few easy to do tasks in there. Much easier than working on a daunting to do list.

So I was popping into email in between every single task. I’d answer some emails then maybe do an email task that was pretty easy. And back to email.

My projects and important work weren’t being touched because instead of following my to do list I was falling into the email trap.

Immediately I went back to my email processing schedule. Email processing, not email checking. Email checking without processing tends to waste time.

I answer simple emails during processing time and more time consuming emails I put on my to do list for the next day. Quickly I started to catch up on my backlog of tasks because I was no longer interrupting myself by checking email.

When I wanted to go into easy email, I had to remind myself to do what was more important.

Has email sneakily started taking over your time?

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You can learn about my time systems in my Change Your Relationship with Time class.