The Exploding Inbox: A Short Story & A Helpful Hack
Tahira Jamani
I help professionals overcome anxiety and burnout | Emotional Intelligence & Mindfulness Expert
Yesterday I did a quick tally at the end of my day and realized that I received 85+ emails in my inbox. Anyone else? 🙋🏽
I also realized that I actioned probably 96% of them (yes i just made this statistic up but it feels accurate) and thought to myself, how the heck did I crush through so many?
Well first of all it’s helpful that I really enjoy the work I do with both headversity and The Chain Reaction so I look forward to what comes my way, but another secret and hack that I’ll reveal is that I practised mindfulness with my emails. Yep you read that right!
Mindful-based-email-crushing is achieved by these steps:
Step 1: Pay attention to the email you're reading at that moment - and only that email.
Do not:
Basically, focus on the important task at hand and minimize other distractions.
Step 2: Action the email.
This means reply, sort, flag for later, complete the task from the email, or delete...or anything else you can do to move it one step forward.
Step 3: Let the email vanish from your mind.
This will help you to move onto the next email with your full attention.
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Step 4: Take a deep breath and start back at step 1.
Lather, rinse, repeat...
Sounds simple right? I challenge you to try this whether your inbox is exploding, or not.
The fact of the matter is we spend so much time being distracted; jumping from one task to another, thinking about several things at the same time, staying connected on multiple platforms.
Our mental muscle of focus has weakened, and the muscle of distraction is super jacked!
Being distracted is our default operating system, and most of the time we don't even know it.
If you try this hack, let me know how it goes. Either you'll reach your 96% email-crush-rate, or you'll wash a ton of dishes, there's no losing.
Before knowing the mindful-based-email-hack >>>
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mindful- based-
email-hack
LEADERSHIP COACH | NPO STRATEGIST | GRANT EXPERT | CAPACITY BUILDER
3y"Our mental muscle of focus has weakened, and the muscle of distraction is super jacked!" You nailed it Tahira. Great advice.
Executive Coach | Search Inside Yourself Teacher | Speaker | Author | I help Executive leaders and organizations build the mental resilience to shift from burnout to balance, igniting optimal fulfillment and wellbeing.
3yGreat hacks and pretty entertaining too! Thanks for sharing, Tahira Jamani!
Restoration and Wetland Ecologist, P.Biol
3yHa love that meme! The struggle is real. If it's not incoming emails it's meeting requests or the team chat distracting me from my work. Thank you for the reminder to stay mindful and focus on one thing at a time! It's so easy to forget in this noisy world.
Looking to Invest or Acquire Distribution Companies in Western Canada
3yYou have helped me improve my relationship with my 3 email accounts, thank you!! 😁