Overwhelmed by Emails? Here's the Fast Fix
If you’re running a business, chances are your email is open all day long. Every few minutes, there’s another ping demanding your attention. You probably think this makes you look responsive and on top of things, but the reality is quite different…
Keeping your email constantly open is actually hurting both your productivity and the quality of service you provide to your clients. There’s a simple solution that takes just minutes to set up, and it can transform how you work.
Why you shouldn't have your email open all the time
You might think keeping your email open shows clients you’re quick to respond. Or maybe you feel this way you’re staying on top of everything. But a constantly open inbox is actually the opposite of productive, and it’s preventing you from giving your clients the best service possible. Every email notification breaks your concentration. If emails are coming in every few minutes, you never get into proper deep work. This means the quality of what you’re delivering to clients suffers, you make more mistakes, take longer to complete tasks, and feel constantly stressed.
When you’re trying to work on important client projects while emails keep popping up, you can’t give either task your full attention. Your clients deserve focused, high-quality work, not rushed responses sent between other tasks.
There’s another problem too – instant email responses show clients to expect immediate replies. This creates unrealistic expectations that become harder to meet, putting you under even more pressure to constantly monitor your inbox, then it affects your focus, your work and the domino effect starts.
Take Back Control of Your Inbox in Minutes
The solution is simpler than you might think. Email plugins can hide incoming messages and release them to you at specific times you choose. You decide when you want to see emails – once a day, twice a day, or whatever schedule works for your business.
For Gmail users – Look into plugins like “Inbox When Ready” or “Batch”. These hide your inbox until you’re ready to process emails. You can set specific release times, such as 9am, 1pm, and 5pm.
For Outlook users – Try “Boomerang for Outlook” or explore Outlook’s built-in focused inbox features. These can batch your emails and deliver them at set intervals throughout the day.
Cross-platform options – Tools like “Freedom” can block email notifications across all your devices during focused work periods, letting you concentrate without interruptions. The key is consistency. Choose specific times to check email, perhaps morning, after lunch, and end of day. Outside these times, your email stays hidden, allowing you to focus completely on client work.
This approach doesn’t make you less responsive, it makes your responses more thoughtful and your work higher quality. When you’re fully focused on a client’s project, you can provide better insights, catch potential issues, and deliver work that truly helps their business.
Your business partner from Oxford & Wantage
Transform chaos into clarity in your business
Overwhelmed by numbers? Our Oxford accountants combine expertise with the latest technology to keep your business running smoothly
The Hidden Cost of Email Interruptions
You might not realise just how much these constant interruptions are costing your business. Every time you stop what you’re doing to check an email, you’re not just losing those few seconds – you’re losing momentum on whatever task you were working on.
Think about it this way, if you’re preparing a client’s VAT return and get interrupted by an email about office supplies, it’s not just about the 30 seconds you spent reading that email. It’s about the mental effort required to get back into the complexities of tax calculations. You might need to re-read sections, double-check figures you’d already verified, or spend extra time making sure you haven’t missed anything important.
This fragmented attention doesn’t just affect individual tasks, it affects your entire day. You end up working longer hours because everything takes more time to complete. You might find yourself staying late to finish work that should have been done hours earlier, simply because your attention was scattered throughout the day.
There’s also the stress factor. Constantly switching between emails and important work creates a feeling of being behind, even when you’re actually getting things done. Your brain struggles to prioritise when everything feels urgent, leading to that overwhelming sensation that many business owners know all too well, and the ironic part is that clients often prefer quality over speed. They’d rather receive a well-thought-out response to their query after a few hours than a rushed reply that misses important details or requires follow-up questions.
Most emails aren’t as urgent as they seem. That supplier invoice or software update notification can wait a few hours. Your clients will notice the improvement in work quality, even if responses come slightly later.
At Joanna Bookkeeping, we help business owners across the UK create better systems and processes. Whether it’s streamlining your workflow, implementing efficient accounting software, or helping with tax compliance, we’re here to help you feel more in control of your business operations.
Book a free discovery call with our Oxford and Wantage-based accounting and bookkeeping team and find out how we can help you work more efficiently and serve your clients better.
Your Accountant in Oxford
Oxford Office
Joanna Bookkeeping
The Wheelhouse Angel Court
First Floor, Angel Court
81 St Clements St
Oxford
OX4 1AW
Connect
joanna@joannabookkeeping.co.uk
01865 591952
