Why Its Not Always Smart to Avoid Checking Email in the Morning

Why It’s Not Always Smart to Avoid Checking Email in the Morning Why It’s Not Always Smart to Avoid Checking Email in the Morning It has become a business cliché to recommend steering clear of your email inbox first thing when you roll out of bed. Yet whether you’re conducting a job search, running your own business, or reporting to a boss, there are some compelling reasons to do just the opposite. Let’s explore those reasons for job seekers, self-employed workers, and traditional employees, respectively. Heres why you shouldnt always avoid checking email in the morning: First Alerts for Job Seekers Searching for work is a competitive business. Regardless of if you’re targeting a full-time spot or pitching for a contract gig, once you’ve applied to a position, your next objective is timely responsiveness. If you’ve applied to jobs online and could be contacted by prospective employers about your application’s status via email, then you might easily miss the moment by saving your initial email check for the afternoon. A recruiter or hiring manager may ping you to ask about your same-day availability for a phone screen or other communication- and if you snooze, you lose. This point can be particularly critical for freelancers and contractors who have applied for opportunities. With a world full of service-provider options for employers to choose from, another candidate’s choice to respond first thing to a potential new client may land them the business before you’ve even opened your email. Client Communications for Entrepreneurs Even once you’ve won a client’s business, you can never rest on your laurels as a freelancer or independent worker. Entrepreneurs must continue to hustle and stand out to create a competitive edge, or else risk being outperformed by a rival service provider. By checking email early on, you’ll be able to see and respond to client requests, answer questions, and accept assignment offers before someone else does it first. If your client is in a pinch and needs a project turned around quickly, you could miss out on the chance to snap up the job by delaying your email check too long. Your client (or potential client) may assume that your lack of responsiveness in the first hour or so after contacting you indicates your lack of availability or interest in the offering, and may move onto the next provider on his or her list. Boss Basics for Employees If you report to a supervisor, the advice to hold off on incoming email until after lunch may seriously backfire on you. Avoiding morning email may cause your boss to view your performance negatively, particularly if he or she values responsiveness. While some bristle at the idea of letting other people’s agendas dictate the day, when you work under a boss, this is really part of the job description. Your boss’s early email messages may be required reading to help your map out your day’s top priorities. Without seeing these emails at the start of your workday, you may find yourself missing the latest information that your boss has directed to you that morning, which you need to successfully complete your tasks. So before deciding whether it makes sense to save your email for later, think about your top constituents and how you can help them reach their goals (and thus your own by association). If your potential employers need a timely response from you to consider you for work, your clients need to see responsiveness to offer you a project, or your supervisor needs to know that you’re up to speed with the day’s work priorities, then saving your email for later on could ultimately jeopardize your career.