*Bling* Another notification of an email dropping into your inbox. Your mind starts to wonder who it’s from. Unable to focus you click on your inbox, open the email and read. It’s a client with a request. You start thinking about how to answer, drafting a couple of sentences, before baaaaaaackspace. Remove it all. That was too formal, and you’ve known them for a while now. Tap, tap, tap. You’ve penned something more on brand and it answers their query. You hit send.

Bling! Another email. This time it’s a new enquiry. Ooh! It’s a project you’ve wanted to take on for a while. Tap, tap, tap on the keyboard writing out an acknowledgement of the message before you head off to your accounting software to write an estimate…

Do you feel like I am talking about you yet? Do you find yourself hours into your day without really getting anything done? Do you have a lingering to-do list that rolls over into the next day? Are you jumping from one thing to another without getting anything done? This is #relatable, or at least it was for me…Lucianne here, Soley Creative’s founder and I’m writing this post to tell you what happened to my productivity when I turned off my email notifications. Spoiler Alert: the results are pretty damn good.

Writing from experience, turning my email notifications off has changed my working day for the better. If you relate to the intro of this post, doing the same will probably help you too. Probably more than you anticipate!

I’ll be honest, the thought of turning the notifications off filled me with dread. Would I remember to check emails? What if something urgent came in? But I remembered, I chose to be self-employed so I could live by my own rules and being at the beck and call of (literally) any person who chooses to email me totally defied that. Wanting to run our own businesses doesn’t mean we need to be constantly available.

The distraction means you aren’t focused on your to-do list, and time can slip by while you jump in and out of that mailbox. You’re also probably not answering those messages in the most efficient or helpful way, as your typing quickly to get back to your to do’s, meaning more back and forth…and spending even more time.

By turning off notifications, we are ignorant of the messages coming in so our mind stays focused on the task at hand. This personally made me more productive, and able to tick more off of my to-do list than before. I also noticed the work I was producing was better, more exciting and got better results.

Realising that as my business had grown, the number of emails had also increased (logic!) and so despite not having this problem before, it was something that had happened due to my business’ success. That meant I was less worried about the immediacy of a reply, clients would wait if they were keen to work together and I would be able to keep delivering a high level of work to best serve them. Without the distractions, you are doing a better job for your clients and that’s important.

Setting a time in your diary to check emails, also helps with productivity. I found it was a weight off of my mind to know that twice a day, my calendar would flash up and remind me to check in on my inbox. It gave me a have a set time to focus on emails and writing answers, which often helped efficiency. There’s time to think and write, time to digest and time to file things. The result? Better communication, less back and forth and more organisation. In other words, working smarter not harder.

At Soley Creative, not only do we create amazing design work, but we are also here to consult, lending an ear to hear about any business pain points and offer a solution or find someone who can help. Being a solo entrepreneur can be isolating and we get it. Sometimes you need a sounding board or someone with an outside perspective to help soothe an issue. As they say, a problem shared is a problem solved.

We are now offering Power Hour consultations to talk through specific issues, whether they are design or business based and with our experience help you solve those problems, leaving you more productive, relaxed and focused on smashing your business goals. We can’t wait to chat!