While we all think that we can multi-task, the reality is that we can only focus on one thing at once. One of the biggest interruptions is the ‘new email’ alert in Outlook. But it can take at least five minutes to find your focus again after being interrupted — so if you receive a lot of emails throughout the day, that can have a huge impact on your productivity.
At Happy, we recommend using the 321zero method — checking your email three times a day for 21 minutes at a time, and getting your inbox down to 0 each time. For those of us who have to keep on top of their inbox as part of their job role, we recommend checking and responding to emails once you have completed a task.
In this short video, Nicky explains how you can turn off the email notifications in Outlook so you can focus and be more effective.