How to Act Productive Tip #5: When in Doubt, Check Your Email

Photoby: Soctech

Here at Grad Hacker, we feel that simply being productive is not enough. What good is your inner, clandestine, productivity, if your bosses, colleagues, and you yourself don't really know the extent of just how unbelievably productive, busy, stressed, in a rush, and important you really are? For these, reasons, each weekend we will provide you with a tip on how to act productive.

Let's be honest, productive people get a lot of email, so they have to check it. How could they not? They're productive, so everyone wants a piece. These people often have scores of project they're working on simultaneously (think triple digits), each one producing multiple emails a day that need immediate checking and responding, and they're handling each one better you will probably handle any single project in your whole life. But don't feel bad, feel productive! Check your damn email already.

Most of us check email whenever we feel like it, respond whenever we feel like it, and somehow seem to make it through life with this level of mediocrity. Productive people, on the other hand, feel a deep sense of urgency, and can express this through digital communication like it's going out of style. These are the people that make others say to their friends, "Look at this, he responded to this email in 5 minutes," or "Woah, I sent this at 1am and she responded by 1:30!"They check email at work, at home, on dates, in bed, on the road, driving, biking, jogging, at the movies, at the beach, when they are in front of you and get to the counter at the burrito place that already has a long line. Bottom line is, they check that shit. If you want to be productive you should too. How do you know how often is enough? If you got to the end of this post without checking your email at least once, you're not checking it enough. Go back and try again.

Some good ways to increase your daily email checking: when you're stuck on a difficult project, go check your email; when you really don't want to work on something with a deadline, go check your email; when you get to work in the morning, definitely start by checking your email; when you have that awkward 20 minute break between events, go check your email. You get the point.