Time Management - Email Or Tennis?

Be wary of the choices you make when you are at your keyboard! A coaching client complained that she did not have time to play tennis. Together we examined some of the choices she regularly made about how to use her time. This is what we found. She typically spent about 45 minutes a day reading and responding to email that was not essential to her work or her life. It was 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there, no big deal. She read articles that people sent her, she looked at websites, read emails from several list servers she's on, wrote amusing responses to a range of people, and so forth.

Her 45 minutes a day, 7 days a week, added up to 5 hours a week on what she called "random email." In itself, this is innocuous enough. But she saw that by choosing to spend this time on "random email," she was by default choosing NOT to spend that time playing tennis. Five hours a week, aggregated, could translate into 2 ample tennis events for her, complete with a cool-down and shower. Once she saw the impact of her choices, she started choosing differently.

She taped a tiny graphic of a tennis racket to the corner of her screen to remind her. And she has stopped being such a profligate time spender at her keyboard. She recently emailed me when she had just gotten back from playing tennis. She wrote, "I am a much happier camper having tennis in my life again. And I don't for a moment miss reading those random emails!"

What about you? What are you sacrificing to your email habit?

Master Certified Coach Sharon Teitelbaum is an authority on work life balance and an expert life coach to busy professionals, high achievers, people at midlife, and working parents. Her book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance, is a strategic, tactical guide for maintaining a sane and balanced life, distilled from her experience coaching hundreds of people.

A sought-after keynote speaker and workshop leader, Sharon has addressed such diverse audiences as Harvard Medical School Faculty, financial advisors at Merrill Lynch, and Mothers' of Twins Clubs. She has been featured in national publications including The New York Times, Working Mother Magazine, and Forbes.com. Sharon works with individual coaching clients throughout the US and internationally by phone, or in person in the Boston area, and always offers an initial consultation at no charge. Married for thirty-plus years, she is the mother of two fabulous grown-up daughters.