Customer Reviews

Never Check E-Mail In the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The last reviewer must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed the morning he decided to review this book, because even the cover of Never Check Email in the Morning states that it was "Originally Published as Making Work Work"...and does it really matter anyway?!

I can honestly say that Ms. Morgensterns' book has had a huge impact on my life...at work AND on my time off. First and foremost, her advice about never checking email the first hour of the day is genius. My first thought...wishful thinking. Being in sales I was initally hesitant to believe that this was possible in my position, and that I would lose out on client opportunities if I didn't check email immediately. But when I actually understood what my email addiction was keeping me from, was when I finally decided to give it a try. And I was AMAZED at the results. Because I am now able to use my first hour on strategic planning, my sales and client retention have actually increased!

But don't get me wrong, this book has much more to offer than email advice. In fact, any one of her "grab and go" strategies will directly increase your productivity and improve your relationship to your job. More than anything, her simple strategies allow you to take back control of your workday, which in this fast paced world seems to have slipped away. And possibly more importantly, she recognizes the need for a work-life balance, giving us permission to leave work at work and use our time off to refuel ourselves with what's most important to us.

I thoroughly recommend this book! It will not disappoint.

I read this book with some trepidation since I've read lots of organizing and efficiency books over the years. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this one, since it offers nine "competencies" that all should master, and number one is "Embracing your work/life balance". With this as the foundation, she builds all other competencies on this one. So, when discussing competency three (Choose the Most Important Tasks) or competency five (Control the Nibblers), they aren't described as in typical efficiency/organization books. Typically, these types of tasks are encouraged to allow us to 'get more done', but in this book, taking control of these types of issues is encouraged to allow us to achieve the ultimate goal of work/life balance, instead of making us more efficient cogs in the corporate wheel.

A nice approach, and well done.

Lets start with the bad. The book is mostly stuff you've already heard or is completely obvious to you. Morgenstern's advice for organizing information is to 'do what works best for you'. Gee, thanks for the hot tip.

The book starts with an address to those who work far too many hours. I work an average number of hours but if I can be more efficient I'd like to see if I can make that number smaller. So I read the first part and didn't really get anything from it. As the book progresses she gets into how time is wasted and how to avoid the things and people that waste your time. This is the heart of the book's message because time is our most precious commodity. That's why I found it counterintuitive that the author's language was... far from concise; I was surprised by the amount of text devoted to the biographies of her clients. When you say something like, "meetings can be a large waste of time," we understand what you mean. You don't need to illustrate that point by telling us about someone who worked a lot of hours and attended many pointless meetings. Remember, our time is precious and this isn't exactly Literature; you would think Morgenstern would be more conscious of how much of our time she's taking.

Toward the latter half of the book Morgenstern meanders into a topic that begins to contradict her earlier ideas. When she was describing situations that waste your time she hit on the idea of other employees wasting your time. But towards the end she gives us examples of people who don't make enough time for other employees and so one can only conclude that the unifying message is don't give too much time but also not too little. This is in all capacities the same advice for how to organize your data: 'do what works best'. So in the end Morgenstern hasn't really come up with solutions. She addresses a variety of different problems people have but her advice in the end is always the same: pick your head up, figure out what's important and do it without wasting your time. Again, not a very profound message and not one that should take 272 pages to explain.

Now on to the slightly more positive. The title of the book is quite provocative and an excellent advertising scheme. Sorry to those of you who didn't realize it's the same book and now own two. The title can be explained as follows: If the first thing you do in the morning is check your email then there are any number of ways that you'll be diverted from your critical tasks to deal with all the little things your inbox has for you. Email creates a false sense of accomplishment for people because in the span of an hour or so you're likely to deal with a large number of different issues (likely half of them are personal) and so you feel like you've accomplished quite a bit but now that it's almost time for lunch you really haven't done much at all (including writing a review for this book on amazon). You've been in the office but you probably haven't done anything that makes money for your company - anything worth telling your boss about.

Lets face it. For a number of jobs not checking your email in the morning is absurd. The underlying idea, however, is that at work you spend too much time multitasking and not enough time getting that really important job done. Multitasking slows total productivity and it hurts the quality of each individual piece of work. The real skill to learn is to avoid clicking that forwarded link for a youtube video.

So Morgenstern recommends that you do one thing at a time and that you plan when to do these things based on when you have energy during the day. She also tells you to let others know your schedule so they'll be more accommodating. This again, depending on the job may be totally unrealistic but I guess if you're in charge you can set whatever rules you like.

If anything in this review is unclear to you then perhaps you should buy the book but if it all makes sense to you then you're better off looking elsewhere. You're welcome.

Ironically a book on time management and organization takes 72 pages to get to the first time management tip, "focus on tasks that are closest to the revenue line". The first chapters are wordy cliché discussions such as work life balance, develop an entrepreneur mindset...blah blah blah. I found myself skimming the paragraphs looking for any specific original material. She has endless bullet points and numbered lists that are shallow random thoughts that read like a collection of Oprah magazine articles. Even worse are the self indulgent verbose romance novel examples, including this gem from page 165 "A news writer for a national trade magazine, Claire was a five-foot-one dynamo transforming her industry. Working alone, she was a one-women wonder, churning out cutting edge stories from an office as wild as her mane of curly black hair. Claire's eyes sparkled with a sense of adventure, and her face was always on the verge of a huge, warm smile....." This dribble goes on for 3 more long paragraphs. Morgenstern undermines her credibility with these exaggerated fairy tale descriptions. She should purchase a copy of Strunk and White Elements of Style, save us the sophomoric prose and write a 50 page concise, focused time management and office organization book. A terrific alternative is 4 hour workweek by Timothy Ferris which covers many of the same points in a more compelling, concise and convincing manner.

My career had reached a point where I felt like I was running on an ever-increasing treadmill: the harder I ran, the more it would speed up. I was spending 16 hrs/day at the office, miserable, perpetually stressed...

...this book honestly saved my career (and, I'm not kidding , possibly my life -- I really think I would had eventually had a heart-attack if I would have kept up my former pace!!).

TRULY useful, TRULY practical book. She even has great side-bars on "Is it me, or is it them?" to help you figure out if YOU are the problem (are you being inefficient?), OR if your managers/company are to blame (are they being unrealistic?). This adds an (I hate using this word, but here it comes) "empowering" element to the book, ON TOP of all of the amazing practical advice...if it's "them", then you know that you're not going crazy...stand up to them and demand better treatment!

If you feel your career moving towards 24/7-mode, slipping out of control and taking over your life, health and emotions...please do yourself a favor and read this book!!!!

"Never Check E-Mail In the Morning" is not about e-mail, it is about time management, self-discipline and productivity in general. The book helps you in self-assessment, helps to embrace your work/life balance, to develop entrepreneurial mindset, to choose the most important tasks, to create the time to get things done, to control the nibblers, to organize at the speed of change, to master delegation, to work well with others and to leverage your value.

Like other popular self-help books, "Never Check E-Mail In the Morning" has no "references" section, which I don't like. Once you have completed this book, you have no direction what to read next. Julie Morgenstern, the author of many time management books and a monthly columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine, and a guest on television and radio programs, probably supposes that you will continue with her further publications.

When the author writes about e-mail and the productivity issues that relate to e-mail, I fully agree with the author. She offers to break counterproductive habits and stereotypes related to our way of emailing. She covers the problems related to e-mail much better that "Hamster Revolution" by Mike Song.

I highly recommend "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and "Time Drive" by Gleb Arkhangelsky in addition to this book.

Small or large, the tasks and responsibilities every organization must complete to be successful are pretty much the same. But employees of smaller businesses have a wider range of responsibilities than the more specialized staff of larger firms. Small business employees--and their owners--continually are confronted by many more types of tasks requiring attention. Additionally, smaller businesses tend to "run lean" with limited back up if someone is absent. These factors tend to foster an unfocused and inefficient workplace.

This book offers employees in such situations with insights and strategies that show them how to be more productive and efficient. If done well, it will also result in better work life balance and a less stressful workplace.

Two caveats, particularly for management and business owners:
1. Woefully inadequate attention (in this book) to the value of planning as the most effective way to minimize "fires" and "the tyranny of the urgent";
2. No apparent consideration for time and attention necessary for maintaining the culture and values of the company (e.g., customers always come first, or great performance every time or measure twice, cut once, etc.)

This is a great book. It is an easy read, (even fun), and unlike all of the other organization books I've read, I feel like Ms. Morgenstern has actually been in the workplace. Her ideas are practical and realistic. I came away with real strategies that really work. I highly recommend it for anyone who feels they are missing the "organization gene".

(I liked it so much I bought her book for organizing the home, "Organizing from the Inside Out", and found it equally helpful.)

Nearly a year ago, I bought Never Check E-mail in the Morning and implemented the practices prescribed throughout the book into our busy real estate office. We were drowning in in our crazy workloads, and struggling under the pressure of always being available to our clients. With e-mail and BBs you can never turn off, especially in real estate where it's completely client-based. Morgenstern's techniques really revolutionized the way we did business and helped us to better manage clients' needs and our own sanity. Her strategies are so practical and address all the problems of working in a 24/7 global market. I definitely recommend it!

Julie Morgenstern's Never Check E-Mail in the Morning has changed my whole workday and work life! Anytime I tell someone that I don't check my e-mail first thing in the morning and how it has changed my day - they gasp in horror! I want to control my day and decide what to work on first before my e-mail box starts demanding attention. I love 2 thoughts that Julie talks about - #1 "Ask yourself, If tomorrow flies out of control, what ONE task (not two or three) would I be thrilled to get done - what can I do to earn my salary by 10am?" and #2 "If you knock it off first thing in the morning, the relief buoys you up all day long, literally energizing and boosting your productivity as you tackle the rest of the items on your to-do list." This is so powerful and can totally alter your day. The other concept Julie talks regarding e-mail is to actually set times to check your e-mail throughout the day so you are not having your day controlled and guided by other people. Next thing you know your day has slipped away by other people's agendas.

The first chapter has advice I am still trying to implement in my life. It's all about embracing your work/life balance. "Think of creating a personal life as an investment in your work. If you refreshed and balanced, you will have more energy and be more productive." says Julie Morgenstern. I so struggle to find balance and stop working and have fun. I used to play tennis every week and I used to run every day. I need to find more balance and make myself a priority again. Giving myself time for fun will make be better at working, better at my job, and better with my clients. It's just so hard to carve out time, but that's what I need to do! I need to make appointments with myself and for myself.

I could go on and on. This book is a must-have resource I have at my desk and read it over and over. It is 240 pages filled with relevant and practical advice. Definitely the best $15.00 I have spent on a book this whole year!