UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson
College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s latest column in The Free Lance-Star is entitled, “How to Handle Your Email.”
WE LIVE in a world of instant gratification.
When I think of my childhood, I remember having to wait until 6 p.m. or 10 p.m. to watch the news on television to learn what was going on in the world. But now we learn about something seconds after it happens.
We once had to wait, with great anticipation, for our favorite show on Thursday night. And the cliffhangers for those shows? We had to wait an entire season to find out what happened! In the age of Netflix, we can binge watch season after season in a weekend. We don’t have to wait for many things today.
Emails are a blessing and a curse when it comes to instant gratification. Most people will tell you that, in order to manage your time well, you should block out times of the day to attend to your emails. For example, maybe you begin the day cleaning up your email box from the last time you responded. And then later in the day, you attend to them in another time block (say, 2–2:30 or at the end of the workday). I know a few people who follow this model successfully. Read more.