Freelance Writing|Freelance Writer

Check your Email often

Have you ever heard about how unproductive it can be to check your email too often? While I agree with this to a certain extent, there are times when you need to be checking for new emails on a regular basis. Why do some people think that checking email too often is a bad thing? Simply put, they believe that this wastes time and decreases productivity. This can be true, but as a freelance writer you need to realize that going overboard and avoiding your email account can be a bad thing.

I check my many email accounts several times per day. This is the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do before retiring for the night. And as you can imagine, I check for new emails many times throughout the workday as well. What is the point in doing so on a regular basis? I do not like making my clients or potential buyers wait too long for a response. For instance, if a client has a question I want to make sure they get an answer at once. This not only makes them feel better, but it makes me look good because it shows I care.

How do you know when you are spending too much time checking your email? This is a difficult question to answer but keep this in mind: if your “email stalking” is holding back your progress in other areas you have gone off the deep end. There is nothing wrong with refreshing your email every hour, but the moment that this begins to effect how you work you need to make a change.

How many email accounts do you have? This will greatly effect how much time you spend checking for new emails. If you only have one account you can do this quickly enough. But if you have several accounts you are going to spend more time going through all of them.

Finally, keep this tip in mind: just because you check your email often does not mean that you have to respond to every message you receive. You want to read every message and once you do you can then determine which ones to reply to right away and which ones can wait until you have more time.

I believe it is important for freelance writers to check their email often. As long as this does not stunt your progress and productivity you have nothing to worry about.