Not Always Online

With email, instant messaging, texting and mobile phones, we’re always reachable. Being available always can be a problem. Here are a few tips on how to detach your self sometimes and get a little time to get work done. Your email client doesn’t need to be running when your computer is turned on. People sending email doesn’t expect an instant answer. Turn you mail client off, and start it when you switch to ”mail processing mode”. Turn it off again once your done. While the little pop-up notifications may be practical, they do break the attention away from the task being done, when the mail arrive.

Most people doesn’t need to check mail more than once an hour – and often far less.

If you’re using Instant Messaging (IM), use the status-settings to indicate the state you’re in. ”Available” means it’s okay to disturb you, ”Occupied” that there should be a good reason to disturb you and ”Do Not Disturb” actually means you’re offline.

If you co-works and friends respect the status settings in your IM-client great – if not try using it as a mail client – leave it on only when it’s okay to be disturbed.

With a constant flow of interruptions, even simple tasks takes much longer than they should. Instead of accepting these interruptions, think about how you want to use them, instead of being their slave.