I had my first email in 1996. It has now gotten to a point where sometimes I can have as many as 10 or 15 email box checks a day. That’s not the only thing I use. There’s also Facebook, Twitter and Feeds. And it’s not just the Desktop. I do it on my laptop, iPad and iPhone too.
Every time I have a creative block, or I hit a wall in my research, or I want to pretend as if I’m not procrastinating, I escape to my box. It makes me feel busy. I check emails when I’m not working too.
I realize now that this is hurting me. And it’s hurting the people I love. It has happened more than once that while I was talking to a friend on the phone I was also writing an email. Not to mention when I talk to my mom. One time I even checked my emails during sacred Wednesday-date-night with my husband. And one particularly low-point time, on the way to the shower after sex.
They say it takes 21 days to break a habit. I was not able to find any scientific proof of that.
In the next 21 days, I will check my emails only twice a day: noon-time and end-of-the-work-day-time. I will feed my RSS needs once a day in the evening and satisfy my Social Networking addiction not more than once a day.
It’s been 1 day since my last repeat email checking.