Why I've decided to battle my 13 year email addiction
publication date: Apr 18, 2008
Hi
I'm feeling REALLY uncomfortable . . .
My skin is itching, I'm getting hot and cold
flushes and butterflies in my stomach . . .
I've decided to face up to my worst addiction! To
conquer it means making a radical change in the
way I live and work. You see, there's one thing
that I do each day that I know is reducing my
effectiveness and wasting precious time that
could be better spent elsewhere . . .
Let me confess this to you now - I've been
addicted to email for 13 years!
I can't go more than 10 minutes without checking
my inbox. I have been religiously checking my
inbox every few minutes throughout the day for
years. It has become an ingrained part of my
working day. It has become so automatic I don't
even think about how much time it actually takes
up and whether it is actually a good use of my
time.
It certainly breaks my concentration. Even though
I may be trying to write or read a report, I
unconsciously end up clicking my send/receive
button and wait for the new mail to pop up. I read
somewhere that if you break your concentration
from a project, it can take at least another 7
minutes before you can regain your train of
thought.
OK, so the majority of my business is conducted
by email. I mean I'm sending this email to you
right now and I am a huge advocate of eletters!
Email really is a marvellous tool for keeping in
touch. But it is also a curse - perhaps the greatest
single distraction of the modern world.
So starting this morning I have gone email cold
turkey and will not look at an email until noon.
I'm going to check my emails just twice a day
(rather than the 50 or so times normally!). Once
at noon and then again at 4pm. This is to make
sure I get the most responses from the previous
emails sent.
Even now (it's just after 11:00am) I'm getting
itchy. I have to consciously resist grabbing my
mouse and opening up my yahoo account to see
how many more emails have come in.
What has caused this change?
Well, I woke very early this morning (4:30am)
and rather than lie in bed and stare at the ceiling I
went downstairs and started reading a new book -
The 4 Hour Work Week (Escape The 9-5, Live
Anywhere and Join The New Rich) by Timothy
Ferriss. This has been a New York Times
bestseller over in the US and has just been
published over here to great acclaim.
In a nutshell, it gives specific techniques to
leverage your time and actually achieve more by
doing less.
Tim's belief is that it is not the money that we all
crave, but the freedom and mobility that usually
accompanies greater wealth but without the bonds
of working silly hours.
Anyway, as part of this grand plan, Tim looks at
time management and urges the reader to strip
away the unnecessary distractions - with email
being an obvious first choice.
As Tim says, 'The most important actions are
never comfortable . . . there is a direct correlation
between an increased sphere of comfort and
getting what you want'.
How true! Stepping beyond what feels
comfortable in life allows us to take risks and
form new experiences. It can help us to become
more confident of stepping into the unknown.
And as we are seeking new ways of making
money, that journey is not always going to be
easy, so surely it's better to prepare ourselves - to
become more assertive without burning bridges,
to find solutions instead of problems, to be
proactive rather than reactive.
So what can you do today that makes you feel
uncomfortable?
Tim has some wonderfully bizarre challenges that
include:
- Eye gazing: practice looking at strangers
in the eye until THEY break contact
- Get phone numbers: being sure to
maintain eye contact, ask for the phone
numbers of at least two attractive
members of the opposite sex! (Alas,
Heloise has banned me from this one!)
- Say 'no' to all requests for 2 days
- Stop asking for opinions and propose
solutions instead
- And my personal favourite . . . Lie down
in the middle of a crowded public space
for about ten seconds and then get up and
continue what you were doing before as if
nothing had happened!
The book goes into a lot more detail with
techniques to make these a little easier. Highly
recommended!
************************
Have you checked out the Ultimate FX Predictor yet?
************************
Launched last Friday it has been the most popular
thing I have ever done. In fact we ran out of
copies within 24hrs! Thankfully we have now
managed to get new sets in.
Anyway, as I thought, the glowing testimonials
are already starting to come in . . .
Paul Wilson wrote: "I have received your
TUFXP and have watched the CD's in one go, I
found them very easy to understand and was
ready to go the following morning. So, I dipped
my toe in the water (with caution) for the first
time Wednesday, a cautious 10 points. This
morning, another (very quick) cautious 14 points
- and at the time of writing it's moved another 30+
points.
I have traded Forex before, but could get bogged
down in too many technical indicators - this
comes as a refreshing change, I guess that's why I
was so cautious . . . how could something so
'simple' work without all those complicated
indicators - long may it continue!"
And WH told me:
"In the last week . . . (well only four days to be
accurate) I have a real excitement burning within
me! 13 trades followed with 10 winning giving a
very big 151 pip plus . . . and this was with no
real effort . . . magnificent!"
If you want to see what is causing all this
excitement, just click on this link:
http://www.on2url.com/app
Righto, must dash. It's almost noon now and I can't
wait to open my inbox and get my email fix! ;-)
Nick
I'm feeling REALLY uncomfortable . . .
My skin is itching, I'm getting hot and cold
flushes and butterflies in my stomach . . .
I've decided to face up to my worst addiction! To
conquer it means making a radical change in the
way I live and work. You see, there's one thing
that I do each day that I know is reducing my
effectiveness and wasting precious time that
could be better spent elsewhere . . .
Let me confess this to you now - I've been
addicted to email for 13 years!
I can't go more than 10 minutes without checking
my inbox. I have been religiously checking my
inbox every few minutes throughout the day for
years. It has become an ingrained part of my
working day. It has become so automatic I don't
even think about how much time it actually takes
up and whether it is actually a good use of my
time.
It certainly breaks my concentration. Even though
I may be trying to write or read a report, I
unconsciously end up clicking my send/receive
button and wait for the new mail to pop up. I read
somewhere that if you break your concentration
from a project, it can take at least another 7
minutes before you can regain your train of
thought.
OK, so the majority of my business is conducted
by email. I mean I'm sending this email to you
right now and I am a huge advocate of eletters!
Email really is a marvellous tool for keeping in
touch. But it is also a curse - perhaps the greatest
single distraction of the modern world.
So starting this morning I have gone email cold
turkey and will not look at an email until noon.
I'm going to check my emails just twice a day
(rather than the 50 or so times normally!). Once
at noon and then again at 4pm. This is to make
sure I get the most responses from the previous
emails sent.
Even now (it's just after 11:00am) I'm getting
itchy. I have to consciously resist grabbing my
mouse and opening up my yahoo account to see
how many more emails have come in.
What has caused this change?
Well, I woke very early this morning (4:30am)
and rather than lie in bed and stare at the ceiling I
went downstairs and started reading a new book -
The 4 Hour Work Week (Escape The 9-5, Live
Anywhere and Join The New Rich) by Timothy
Ferriss. This has been a New York Times
bestseller over in the US and has just been
published over here to great acclaim.
In a nutshell, it gives specific techniques to
leverage your time and actually achieve more by
doing less.
Tim's belief is that it is not the money that we all
crave, but the freedom and mobility that usually
accompanies greater wealth but without the bonds
of working silly hours.
Anyway, as part of this grand plan, Tim looks at
time management and urges the reader to strip
away the unnecessary distractions - with email
being an obvious first choice.
As Tim says, 'The most important actions are
never comfortable . . . there is a direct correlation
between an increased sphere of comfort and
getting what you want'.
How true! Stepping beyond what feels
comfortable in life allows us to take risks and
form new experiences. It can help us to become
more confident of stepping into the unknown.
And as we are seeking new ways of making
money, that journey is not always going to be
easy, so surely it's better to prepare ourselves - to
become more assertive without burning bridges,
to find solutions instead of problems, to be
proactive rather than reactive.
So what can you do today that makes you feel
uncomfortable?
Tim has some wonderfully bizarre challenges that
include:
- Eye gazing: practice looking at strangers
in the eye until THEY break contact
- Get phone numbers: being sure to
maintain eye contact, ask for the phone
numbers of at least two attractive
members of the opposite sex! (Alas,
Heloise has banned me from this one!)
- Say 'no' to all requests for 2 days
- Stop asking for opinions and propose
solutions instead
- And my personal favourite . . . Lie down
in the middle of a crowded public space
for about ten seconds and then get up and
continue what you were doing before as if
nothing had happened!
The book goes into a lot more detail with
techniques to make these a little easier. Highly
recommended!
************************
Have you checked out the Ultimate FX Predictor yet?
************************
Launched last Friday it has been the most popular
thing I have ever done. In fact we ran out of
copies within 24hrs! Thankfully we have now
managed to get new sets in.
Anyway, as I thought, the glowing testimonials
are already starting to come in . . .
Paul Wilson wrote: "I have received your
TUFXP and have watched the CD's in one go, I
found them very easy to understand and was
ready to go the following morning. So, I dipped
my toe in the water (with caution) for the first
time Wednesday, a cautious 10 points. This
morning, another (very quick) cautious 14 points
- and at the time of writing it's moved another 30+
points.
I have traded Forex before, but could get bogged
down in too many technical indicators - this
comes as a refreshing change, I guess that's why I
was so cautious . . . how could something so
'simple' work without all those complicated
indicators - long may it continue!"
And WH told me:
"In the last week . . . (well only four days to be
accurate) I have a real excitement burning within
me! 13 trades followed with 10 winning giving a
very big 151 pip plus . . . and this was with no
real effort . . . magnificent!"
If you want to see what is causing all this
excitement, just click on this link:
http://www.on2url.com/app
Righto, must dash. It's almost noon now and I can't
wait to open my inbox and get my email fix! ;-)
Nick