One of the most important inventions in the business world is that of Push Email. Millions of Blackberry users have enjoyed instant notification of emails for years now. Productivity has soared, and everyone lived happily ever after. Right?
Well, not quite. Everytime your Blackberry ( or Treo, or iPhone, etc ) goes bleep, you stop what you’re doing to check it. No matter how deeply involved you are at your current task, chances are that you’re going to check and see why your phone bleeped. Once you’ve checked the email, and realized that it’s probably not absolutely urgent and mission-critical, it’s time to get back to work. But since you’ve been interrupted, you have to figure out where you were, what you were doing, and get back into the groove.
Not good.
Banish push email from your phone
Unless you’re a United States senator, or in charge of a nuclear power plant, it’s time to turn off push email. That’s right, get rid of it. Whatever email schedule you choose ( once per day, three times, 5 times, whatever ), you probably don’t need instant notification of emails. Unless you always act on an email right away, it’s simply a distraction to know about it right away. If someone needs to urgently get ahold of you, they probably have your cell phone number to call or text. If he or she doesn’t have your cell phone number, chances are pretty good they can wait.
Imagine a day without constant bleeping and chirping. One less distraction to interrupt you from getting some work done. You’ll get more done in less time, and you’ll be less stressed when you’re done. Go ahead, take the plunge. Turn off push email. Just for one day – see how you do.
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Email is my wife and I’s for of texting. We already pay for the data plan on our phones and didn’t want to spend extra on a texting plan as well. Having push email on our phones allows us to instantly communicate without constantly checking our inboxes. Other than the emails she sends me, I agree that push email seems like a waste of time as most emails I get do not require immediate attention.
That’s a great use for push email – and one that is worth having! An easy setup like that, which saves money – sounds pretty simple to me.