Don't let emails control your day...but what about our phones too?

'Don't let emails control your day...but what about our phones too?'

When working with clients and chatting with peers, one of the most common challenges is with around managing their emails. As we continue to see an increase in email usage, there is a pressure on colleagues to keep on top of their inbox, so that they are on top of their work. It is not unusual for work colleagues to now receive 100+ emails a day, everyday. But why? Is it an easy option to deliver a hard message or request? Is it to prevent being blamed for something, as everything is in writing and therefore is a written record? Is it just habit, or time-saving? 

Whatever it is, for many of us it can end up that our emails are controlling us, rather than the other way around. I have supported others in changing their approach to emails, whether that be in terms of their alerts, when and how often checking their inbox, and ways in which can quickly scan and sort emails by those that are urgent and important. From experience, on average only 10% of emails received require timely action. The hardest thing with emails is our own mindset. When the emails are piling up, it can play on our mind and cause anxiety, or the fear of missing something important. Ultimately, the time spent on emails becomes at the detriment of time spent with the team, or/and spending hours at home in the evening just answering emails. From a healthy and productive work perspective, getting control of your emails is a great practical step to take to free up the mind and create capacity to do more value add work, spending time with your team and focusing on great customer service. Emails can stops us being present, if we let them.

So, if it works at work, then can we adopt a similar approach to the rest of our life? Even as someone who is very aware of the importance of human connection, and being in control of our own destiny, I will on occasion catch myself aimlessly scrolling through my phone rather than enjoying being present with people I love. It is a powerful urge to check our phone every few minutes or every time it beeps, but why? Is it the fear of missing out? Maybe. Or is it just now habit. 

With anything which can become habitual, the best way to address this is to remove any triggers and focus on prevention as opposed to cure. Don't get me wrong, mobile phones are great for many things and are now an almost essential part of our daily lives. It is the rest of it which is not so healthy. So, in the same way we use coaching to change our mindset and approach to emails at work, so that we regain control, the same can be done with phones in our personal life. Changing mindset and habits is easier if we change our routine, our triggers. Think of the gym - we all know the importance of exercise, and can tell ourselves to change our mindset and make sure we exercise 2/3 times per week. But, we need to make some changes to reduce the chances of us finding a reason not to do it.

The same can be said with our phones. A couple of weeks ago, I caught myself aimlessly scrolling through my phone rather than being present with my two children. Upon realisation, this is not a nice feeling. I didn't purposely do this. It starts with a phone call or work email which is important and needs attention quickly. This might take 5 minutes. The issue is that once we engage our phones, we see notifications, icons and almost sub-consciously start thinking, lets just check WhatsApp, Facebook, BBC News and so on. Before we know it, another 30 minutes or more has passed. So, just over a week ago, after a lovely family day out, the kids were shattered, and my wee boy decided he needed a nap. As he lay there cuddled in to me, snoring away, my mind wondered back to earlier that week when I was aimlessly scrolling through my phone. So, whilst enjoying the cuddles, I decided to make a change. In the same way I have helped myself and others manage their emails, I decided I would do the same with my phone. Much of our lives are on our phones now, and as a self-employed businessman I need to often have it close by. Therefore my challenge was to cut through the rubbish and just be happily distracted by my phone when it was important enough to grab my attention. 

In under two hours, I made changes which put me back in control. I am already loving these changes and feeling the benefits, both personally and professionally. And these small changes are so simple to do. Below are 5 of the changes I made which you may find useful or worth trying:

1. Review and change all Social Media notifications. I was receiving alerts for which felt like everything, which I think is the standard settings. I changed these settings to only alert me when I receive a new interaction, connection request, new message or comment on a post. Therefore I don't miss anything important, but the rest of the noise is removed.

2. In terms of notifications mentioned above, these are subtle too - an email is received or a number appears on the app icon. I turned off the whistles, flashing lights and long stream of notifications on the locked screen page!

3. Other than LinkedIn, I moved all of my Social Media Icons to the second page of my phone. Therefore it is not staring me in the face every time I use my phone, and therefore removes temptation. When I am wanting to take a quick photo of something great on my phone, I don't want to see notifications which take me away from that moment. I know some people have gone a step further and deleted the apps, so need to login via the internet browser. 

4. Have put on night-time and do not disturb settings on my phone, which effectively means the phone goes in to shutdown. This has been a big one, as this has stopped me doing the thing I wanted to change most...checking my phone as the last thing I do before going to sleep. What a terrible habit and contributor to a busy mind and poor quality sleep. My fear was would this stop family contacting through the night in case of emergency. There is a great little feature which allows you to put in details of people who if they call, message etc it will overrule the do not disturb setting. This helps gives peace of mind.

5. Use my laptop for social media when possible. Of course, when there are things of importance, then I will respond or action on my phone during the day. However, other than that I try to check in on Social Media twice a day, where I give myself time to read, enjoy and interact with any posts or articles of interest. This way, I actually take the time to read more and learn more, rather than just blindly scrolling through.

So, I guess you can say I have coached myself as I spotted a desire for a change I wanted to make. 

It is time to take back control of our lives! 

Scott Newby

Managing Director

t: 0131 564 0237 

m: 07488 376 493