Simple Productivity Booster: Disabling the Outlook Email Desktop Alert

This past week, Ed Gallagher, our Division VP, brought in a Productivity Expert from the David Allen Company. David Allen is the author of “Ready for Work”, “Making It All Work”, and “Getting Things Done”. Ed had recently attended one of his seminars, and then hired one of the author’s professional consultants for some 1:1 coaching. Ed was so inspired by the program and the benefits he got out of it, that he decided to have all of his Directors, Managers and Supervisors attend the same training.

I have to confess – as finely tuned and productive as I think I am, I learned a thing or two. One of my “instant gratification” favorites from the training was: disabling the Microsoft Outlook email pop-up … read on!

Our trainer was Chris McIntyre (great speaker, great trainer!) and he promised to teach us things about Outlook that we didn’t know. Impossible, I thought!

Microsoft Outlook is my favorite email tool (sacrilege from a Force.com Evangelist, eh?), mostly because it’s the tool used by every company I’ve yet to work at. I use all the features of Outlook and I mean all: email, calendar, contacts, groups, tasks, notes, journals, views, rules and alerts, forms, macros, VB scripts … everything. It’s my nature. I become extremely vested in the productivity apps that I use every day and have to understand every little nuance about them. But there’s a difference between knowing every little feature that a product offers, and understanding when and how to use those features.

One of the tips that Chris recommended early in the session: disable the email pop-up alert (which is enabled by default) triggered when a new email enters your inbox. Chris explained, “It’s a productivity killer, especially if you get a lot of email. And I’ve been looking at the way you all work the past few days … you guys get A LOT of email.”

He’s right. On a daily basis, there are probably 100+ emails that move through my inbox. “Think about it,” Chris continued. “There you are, working on that really important report for your boss. You’re in the zone, writing up the document and – tap, tap, tap. It’s like someone tapping on your shoulder or tugging at your shirt sleeve: the email alert. And it stays there for a while, saying, ‘Hey, look at me … it won’t take long. Just look. LOOK! I’m titled REALLY IMPORANT.’”

And every email that comes in to the inbox does the same thing. Tap, tap, tap.

Of course, I knew how to disable the feature already – I just always thought keeping it on was the proper thing. Afterall, these are emails! They are COMMUNICATIONS! THEY ARE IMPORTANT!!!

But they’re not, really. They are distractions. They steer my attention away from my primary focus. They may indeed by important, but they can wait. Because whatever I’m working on right now is MORE important. If someone wants to get a hold of me urgently, they can call.

So I disabled the email pop-ups (In Outlook 2007, right click on the Outlook icon in your Systray, and uncheck “Show New Mail Desktop Alert”; same process for Outlook 2010, but the displayed menu options are labeled differently).

Today was my first full run without the pop-up alerts. Wow … what a difference it made. While writing up a detailed enhancement request, I was amazed at how much better it felt to get through that whole hour, without a single email interrupt. It was like working in the office on a quite Sunday afternoon. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to be distracted by every little thing; we forget the importance and ease by which we can tune out the world, and how much our brains really need that.

More tricks on the way, as I review my class notes and embrace some of the other lessons learned.

###