What’s your strategy for dealing with email? For many years, I didn’t have one. I simply checked my email all day long. It reminds me of a quote from Seneca’s book, On The Shortness Of Life:

“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”

What is the first thing you do when you started working this morning? Chances are high you checked your email. Most people let their agenda schedule their day.

Email is nothing more than someone asking for your time; do not let them steal your time by immediately responding to emails. Before you realize it, you are working on other people’s schedules.