You might think that managing your email is too mundane a topic when it comes to feeding your soul or expressing your higher purpose. My client Andrea discovered how important email can be. Conscious spirituality and waking up inspired don’t come only from meditating on the mountain or reading esoteric Rumi passages. Inspired success happens 15 minutes at a time, including how we handle email.
Andrea had a higher vision for what we’ll call her P Project. You know-- a passionate, higher priority that she felt pregnant with and needed to birth into the world. In spite of scheduling time to work on this, two weeks went by without real progress. We gave her an assignment I call “Spy on Yourself.” Each day for a week, she actively tracked what was taking up her time and energy. We discovered that her email pattern had become the tail that wags the dog, eating up too much time (rather than Andrea intentionally creating her day aligned with her true priorities). Most of us get seduced by the immediacy of email, and fall into pseudo-productivity. We’re not slacking while sipping a martini, but we’re not working on the highest priority, high-ROI stuff either. Email is like a bag of chips-- impossible to read just one. To break this spell, Andrea committed to specific email times for 20 minutes each. Within a couple weeks, Andrea was celebrating real momentum and joy in her P project. The idea of scheduling and containing your email is not a newsflash. (I chuckle, recalling Steve Carell’s character in Little Miss Sunshine sarcastically zinging Greg Kinnear’s character with, “Thank you for that brilliant revelation. How much do I owe you?”) You will create a real breakthrough if you understand your unique habits and replace your default pattern.
Get Inspired 30 Day Challenge:
1) Spy on yourself for a few days. About once per hour, write down how you are actually spending your time and energy (for your eyes only, so be honest). This will be eye-opening beyond just email.
2) Get in touch with what inspires you—what you’d love to invest more energy in. It’s easier to say No to checking email when you have a bigger Yes to trump the temptation.
3) Develop your new email strategy. Make adjustments for what really sticks. Take a bow for creating your day, vs. letting it run you.
Good luck! Now I have to go not check my email.
I’d love any comments or questions. Marian@WakeUpInspired.com
Named one of 50 top coaches in America, author of award-winning Wake Up Inspired, Marian Baker specializes in equipping growth-seeking, achieving women to create sustainable success and be the new kind of inspired leaders we need for better lives today and a better world tomorrow.
www.WakeUpInspired.com
Posted
Aug 19 2009, 07:12 PM
by
Marian Baker