It’s taken me 3 years to get to this point, but I’m finally able to “turn off” my business e-mail in the evening and on weekends. This has been a very liberating thing for me. I stick the e-mails in a “To Reply” folder and address them first thing in the morning the next business day.
Of course, the downside is when there is a flood of e-mails over a weekend that all get backed up. For some reason this weekend there were a lot of folks on the net checking out Tasks Pro™ and looking for custom WordPress development. I spent about 3-4 hours today just replying to e-mail. That really cuts into the old development time.
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jenz adds this Comment:
It is rather hard to get into the mode of only checking your email during business hours so congratulations is much deserved. I have noticed that if I reply outside of business hours, my clients then expect me to be available 24/7. If I stay strong and only email during business hours, my clients respect that and the 1am “emergencies” no longer occur (as much).
February 6th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Geof F. Morris adds this Comment:
Glad that you’re cutting the cord, dude.
Yes, getting cranked up first thing can suck, but that’s life for us 9-to-5 drones. And before you say that I don’t get much overnight mail, let me note that 1) yeah, some of my customers do check email late at night and 2) I work international stuff.
The real key is to not be at a point where you let email be an interruptor for you during the business day. Well, if you have the kind of job that allows that. Mine sure doesn’t; I have to live in the stream of data. But then I’m a project office person, and my job is fundamentally foofy.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:29 pm