Guest post by Andrea Costantine, andreacostantine.com

Every time I get the chance to go away and take a break I realize how trapped I am in “email prison.” The constant obsessive need to check my email repeatedly due to worrying that I am missing something, but what exactly I am not sure.

When I ask myself “why do I need to check email constantly?” and keep hitting that “send and receive” button, I don’t get an answer – I now believe because there isn’t one. There isn’t a need to check email incessantly, it’s only a belief that we develop over time.

I usually blame my constant email checking OCD habit on my ten years of mortgage processing work, where everything was needed right now or yesterday and that prompt and immediate attention to everything was just expected it was necessary. Not checking emails and responding to the fires could mean that someone wouldn’t close on their house tomorrow. Which may not seem like too big of a deal, but trust me, the mortgage business is a high-stress, fast-paced environment (despite contrary belief). Things are constantly happening and a last minute fire could mean delays in closing.

Okay, enough about that, I was just trying to blame something for my email prison that I’ve been working on breaking free from. You see this need to check email has really hurt my productivity level because as entrepreneurs we need to be working on the right things every day. But using email as a way of telling us what to work on, and being in reaction mode to everything comes in, instead of action mode to what is really important could be the death sentence to our business.

Regardless, if you find yourself like me where you are having those days where all you really did (if you get honest with yourself) was check email and react all day long. Nothing got done on that top priority to do list, and you felt flustered and literally all over the place, then it’s time to make some changes.

Here’s some things I’ve been doing to break free from “email prison” and some others you can try too:

1. Set designated times to check email. Morning, Afternoon, Evening and then stick with them.

2. Create an autoresponder to let people know that you only check emails periodically so they don’t expect an immediate response

3. Unsubscribe from any junk mail that you don’t want to read

4. Set up “Rules & Alerts” in your outlook so certain emails will go directly into the right folder

5. Turn off audible alerts for new emails

6. Turn off automatic send and receive checks

7. Close out your email when working on projects

Andrea Costantine is the ConsciousPreneur Connection Specialist, providing powerful resources to help entrepreneurs easily and effortlessly grow their business. Visit http://www.andreacostantine.com for your FREE ConsciousPreneur Kit.

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