All you and I can truly manage in a demanding day is where we choose to put our focus and energy moment to moment. The default Outlook email alarms and alerts conspire to interrupt this focus every time a new mail arrives.

Dr Pavlov was right! He, as you know, is the guy who, among many other wonderful achievements gave us an experimentally proven theory of ‘Conditioned reflexes’ using dogs, bells and food!

Given that Dr Pareto was also right, in that the 80/20 rule is ruthless, 80% of the new email alarms that destroyed your focus (no matter how briefly) contributed No / Low value to those moments.

Here’s how to kill those Pavlovian Email Alarms in Outlook 2007 (2010 below) and regain focus and control over your priority workload:

  •  In Outlook go to the top toolbar and hit ‘Tools’ then select ‘Options’
  • In the ‘Preferences’ tab, in the ‘Email’ area hit ‘Email options’
  • Half way down the next dialogue box hit ‘Advanced Email options’
  • In the area ‘When a new item arrives in my inbox’ kill all the Pavlovian alarms – Yes, even the one allowing you a pretty email icon in the bottom right of your screen.
  • Click ‘OK’ 3 times to exit the Rules box.

You are now liberated and you can choose when to go into the inbox to process your new mails. The price of freedom, however is eternal vigilance, so we must weld other processes and bahaviours to this if we are to move from inbox slavery to mastery.

Here’s how to kill those Pavlovian Email Alarms in Outlook 2010 and regain focus and control over your priority workload:

  •  In Outlook go to the top toolbar and hit the ‘File’ Tab
  • Click on ‘Options’
  • In the navigation panel on the left hit ‘Mail’
  • Uncheck all the Pavlovian boxes in the ‘Message arrival’ area
  • Click OK to exit

You are now liberated and you can choose when to go into the inbox to process your new mails. The price of freedom, however is eternal vigilance, so we must weld other processes and bahaviours to this if we are to move from inbox slavery to mastery.

Call or mail me to learn how to use this liberation, alongside other proven processes and approaches to managing competing priorities whilst keeping your inbox at zero.  Or see what other people say about their results from our support, then get in touch.