Just read The Low-Information Diet: How to Eliminate E-Mail Overload & Triple Productivity in 24 Hours by Tim Ferriss this morning. Eye opening, I have to admit.

Lately I realized more and more clearly that I am infected by a dangerous kind of information obesity. This includes reading/replying to too many emails, having too many browser tabs opened at the same time (easily up to 30) and having more than sufficient concurrent tasks at hand.

So what to do about it? Ferris suggests:

• Only check your mailbox twice a day (maximum) and when doing it process all your mails in batch mode, so all at once.
• You don’t have to reply to mails that don’t contain questions. Set the right expectations of your communication partners!
• Enable your coworkers and colleagues to work independent of you. There is no need to ask for permission for every small thing.
• If replying to mails, provide different solutions for different scenarios. Try to anticipate what might happen so that you have to send less messages to reach the same outcome.
• Practice speed reading. It is easy and helps instantly.

All in all: Prioritize the cirtical few over the trivial many.

So thank you Mr. Ferriss for your insights. I will for surely put your book The 4-Hour Workweek on my wish list for Santa. Should be an interesting and short read :)

Link List
The Low-Information Diet: How to Eliminate E-Mail Overload & Triple Productivity in 24 Hours
The 4-Hour Workweek