How To Ignore Your Email Without Losing Your Job

One of the simplest ways to be more productive during working hours is to reduce the time you spend on maintenance tasks like checking your e-mail. These tasks break your concentration on more important work, and a recent study from UC Irvine suggests that checking your e-mail less often can help reduce stress and raise your level of concentration at work.

Yet whenever anyone suggests we check our inboxes less often, our first response is often "Oh I'd be fired if I ever tried that." For most of us, e-mail is the primary form of communication in our personal and professional lives. Ignoring it for most of the day seems like a recipe for disaster, and of course if you simple delete everything and close your e-mail account entirely it probably will be.

Still, by approaching e-mail management strategically and learning a few tips and tricks most people can get away with checking e-mail just once or twice a day without missing any important information. Sound impossible? Here are the steps you can take to master your inbox and keep e-mail from taking over your life.