Are emails taking over your life?

Clients that I have coached have often cited being overwhelmed by emails as a cause of stress in the workplace. Sound familiar?

It is very hard to be productive and creative whilst reading emails that are often of no relevance to you. Now more than ever we are inundated with emails from friends, strangers, colleagues and they not only clog up your inbox, they also waste your valuable time as you sift through to find the emails that are actually relevant.

How often have you missed a vital email which actually contains much needed information? If so then my top 10 tips below will get you organised:

1. Respond to emails as you read them, that way you only read them once. If you require further information, call the person directly and get what you need.

2. Set aside 15-30 minutes a day to sift through your emails.

3. Be ruthless and delete emails that are not relevant.

4. Spend a little time organising your email facility, so you can swiftly put emails into different folders.

5. If you have colleagues that CC you on everything, when it is not necessary then kindly ask them not to.

6. If you have an alert facility on your computer, iphone or blackberry turn it off. Choose a time when is convenient for you to read your emails, rather then being sidetracked from what you are doing.

7. Resist the temptation to read or respond to emails when not at work unless absolutely necessary. You may think this is harmless, but it makes it more difficult to turn off from work and be in the present moment.

8. Think about spam in the same way as you do junk mail which you receive through the post. Most of us hardly notice this type of mail and just put it straight in the recycling bin.

9. Try to resist the temptation to read emails that contain jokes or are chain emails as they not only distract you from working productively, but also eat into your time often without you realising.

10. Think before you press send. If you have written an email in haste, put it in your draft section and re-read it later in the day before you send it.

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.” -
Benjamin Franklin

The Power of Intention

“Intention is the starting point of every spiritual path. It is the force that fulfils all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love. Intention generates all the activities in the universe. Everything that we can see – and even the things we cannot – are an expression of intention’s infinite organizing power.

As the ancient Indian sages observed thousands of years ago, our destiny is shaped by the deepest level of our intention and desire. Once we plant the seed of an intention in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, our soul’s journey unfolds automatically, as naturally as a bulb becomes a tulip or an embryo becomes a child.” Deepak Chopra

The quote above eloquently demonstrates how powerful intention is. Therefore I urge you to set clear intentions and then watch how things almost magically appear to help you on your path. The key to this is for you to be pro-active. There is little to be gained from having clear intentions, but doing nothing to manifest them. Deepak has written extensively on this subject and more information can be found at his website: http://www.chopra.com/

What will you be doing in a decade?

As a new decade dawns, can you envisage where you will be in another decade? Look back over the past ten years and you will most probably feel that it has whizzed by. As the new millennium was rung in, did you have grand plans and resolutions? Have you achieved them? If so, congratulations, if not what stopped you? Lack of time, money, inclination, worry, fear, laziness, self doubt? Whatever it was don't lose heart, as it is never to late to make positive changes in your life. Coming up with great plans and ideas is one thing, but taking action to see the results is quite another.

Successful people clearly decide what they want and then do things each day to move them closer to achieving their goal. I particularly like the quote by Sir Ranulph Fiennes; "Decide what you want to be and once you have, go for it at once and with all your might."

Don't wait for the perfect time to start something that you are passionate about, begin it now. If you wait to long, life can pass you by and before you know it you may look back and say "If only I could have seen what I should have been."

Make a commitment to set aside a little time over the next few days to start planning what steps you are going to take to achieve all you desire in the coming decade. Regardless of whether it is to change jobs, have a better car, more money, bigger house, more time, give more to charity, you and only you can achieve it. Now fast forward in your mind to 2020 and think about how you will feel knowing that you have taken steps to achieve all you want. Know that you deserve all this. I am cheering you on from the sidelines.