If I've read the advice in one time management book, I've read it in a dozen: Never check email first thing in the morning. Only check email once or twice during the day. That little "ding" that lets you know when new mail arrives in your inbox is the enemy.
Rubbish. If you're a freelance writer, not checking email regularly is a habit that can cause you to lose both time and money.
Take what happened to me last Monday. On Sunday, I'd accepted a wordy, high-research, quick-turnaround job from a client. I woke up before sunrise on Monday morning, staggered my computer, and--just like all the time-management books advise--I put in two full hours of work before I checked my email. That turned out to be a big mistake, because if I'd checked first, I would have known that the client sent me an email late Sunday night canceling the project I'd just spent two hours researching.
As if that wasn't annoying enough--and it was plenty damned annoying--later that day, I missed out on an opportunity to bid on another well-paying rush job because, just like the books suggest, my email notification as turned off and I didn't get the message in time.
Enough. Don't get me wrong. I understand that we do need to take control of our days and be proactive instead of reactive. But I think that, as freelance writers, most of us also have to come to grips with the fact that our livelihoods depend on being able to meet our client's needs in a timely manner. The way many clients choose to communicate those needs is through email.
I've learned my lesson. I now check my email first thing every morning and at least once an hour throughout the day. It doesn't make more than a couple of seconds to sweep my eye over my inbox and separate work-related messages from personal messages. The personal ones wait until the end of the day, but the work-related ones get a prompt, professional response.
My new method may not be such a big hit with time-management gurus, but my clients love it. I love it, too. I'm in favor of anything I can do to improve customer service, and if I can spare myself a couple of hours of unnecessary work in the bargain, so much the better.
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