We have all felt the compulsion to monitor our inbox for incoming high priority messages or actions. You can kid yourself that this is work but it is not. Not efficient impactful work anyway. It doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t require too much thought.
You get that dopamine hit of doing something. But it isn’t really something, replying to a menial email with a one line response is not why you are paid the big bucks. Avoid the urge to check email too often, IT IS FAKE WORK.
The email inbox is a quasi ‘to do list’ but it is a very inefficient task management method. Which is nothing but an anxiety making thing. I mentioned in a previous post about the #TwoMinuteRule and that might help. The two-minute rule is say a task will take less than two minutes, do it right now. If it will take longer, write it down and move it to a proper to do list.
Whenever I note an action or an e-mail reply I have drafted #TwoMinuteRule. Every time, a moment of hesitation, “it’s fine, I can do this later” #TwoMinuteRule. If you can follow this rule, your life would be better. Your brain would be less cluttered and you could focus on the bigger picture.
Sea's The Day 