Email Tips: Turn off email alerts

by Kell

Do you rule your email or does your email rule you?

I remember when email used to be fun, years ago I we used to get 10 emails a day – but now most of us are stressed out at the size of our Inbox and the many emails we get per day.

It has been a long time since I have heard the words “email” and “fun” in the same sentence!

I do a lot of work in the area of efficiency and effectiveness at various work sites, and I find that most of the people I work with are bombarded with emails that interrupt them and take them off their most important tasks?

Do you find this? If so, then you are not alone.

One way to reduce the feelings of stress and overwhelm is to batch your emails (and do not check in between) and to turn of the email alerts that can interrupt you throughout the day.

If you use Microsoft Outlook 2007 then you you can go to Tools/Options/E-mail Options/Advanced E-mail Options.

Now you need to do three things:

1. uncheck the box next to “Display a New Mail Desktop Alert”


2. uncheck “Play a Sound”


3. uncheck Show an envelope icon in the notification area

Once you have done this you just click OK and close out of the remaining windows.

When batching emails I find the best times to check are at 11am and around 3pm. Yes, we recommend that you check your email two times a day.

This may be hard to do….heck if you were checking emails 40 times a day, then it is going to be a weaning process to get it down to two times.

The amount of times you check will also be dependent on the role that you have in your company.

Best wishes,
Kell