I think there are many of you that are addicted to these things. I know I was at one point. Email controlled my life. I’m OK now because I figured out how I could control email and not have it control me.

Let me make something perfectly clear right off the bat. I would have a very difficult time conducting my business as well as my personal life if it were not for the internet. Almost everything I do all day long consists of being online. But without imposing certain rules and guidelines, being online would be an uncontrollable mess.

Maybe the easiest way to illustrate this would be to describe some of the problems that I had and how I solved them.

Problem #1: Feeling the need to check my email frequently.
This was a problem, because as I sit at my desk during the day, my email would make a sound every time I received something in my inbox. My natural response was every time I heard mail arrive, I would stop whatever I was doing and read it. This would lead to a loss of productivity because I would be bouncing back and forth between things I was doing and nothing would get done right.

Solution: I turned off the sound of new mail arriving and I check for new email only at designated times during the day. It is totally by my schedule and no one elses!

Problem #2: Feeling pressured to respond to email immediately.
OK, so not only was I checking my email too often, but I always felt compelled to answer people right away. Again, this was cutting into my productivity and my life.

Solution: Again, I decided to answer email on my schedule and my schedule only. Someone asking me a question in an email does not mandate an immediate response by me. Of course, as a courtesy, I make every attempt to be timely, but I no longer drop whatever I’m doing to respond!

Problem #3: The email novel writers!
There is a small group of people who have nothing but time on their hands who attempt to write a very long descriptive message, send it to me, expect me not only to read it, but respond to it as well.

Solution: I normally respond with a very short phrase such as “Thanks a lot… very interesting.” Normally they get the hint quickly!

Problem #4: Other email wasters.
These include forwarding jokes, videos, attachments, and all of the other crap that makes its way around the internet.

Solution: I don’t ever look at any of these things so DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME sending these to me.

Now, just a few words about the web. If you need to do something on the web, get online, do what you need to do and GET OFF. It is so easy to fall into the trap of following hyperlink after hyperlink and before you know it, hours have gone by and you have wasted a good part of your day with non productive junk.

Oh... and one more thing. That is online instant messaging. I use it only to stay in touch with my kids at school and nothing more!

The internet is vital to our lives, but don’t let it control you. And if after reading this, you still feel you have a serious habit that you cannot break, call the hotline at 1-800-GET-OFFLINE.

See you soon!