Aim for email-free mornings and don’t open email for the first two hours of your day.

That’s it. That’s the tip.

Academia is an environment steeped in constant, ad hoc, unfiltered communication, accompanied by a deluge of incoming requests for your time and attention. It’s so easy to start your working day by opening your email, responding to messages, and firefighting small issues. But before you know it, hours have slipped past without any meaningful progress on the work that advances your research and scholarship.

I know what you’re thinking. “I can’t possibly wait two hours before opening my email. What if there’s something urgent waiting for me?”

I have a few responses to that concern:

• If it was really urgent, it would be a phone call, not an email.
• If it’s not that urgent and you don’t need to answer the email immediately, then it won’t make a difference if you respond at 09:00 or 11:00 (or 15:00).
• No-one is sitting at their desk waiting for you to respond to their email. If they are, see the first point above about it being a phone call instead. Most people fire off an email and if we’re honest, are probably vaguely irritated if you respond immediately.

Reclaim control of your schedule by setting aside the first two hours of your day for high-value work. Instead of surrendering your morning to your inbox, set aside focused time for the deep work that drives academic success. Whether it’s writing, analysing data, or preparing high-quality teaching materials, prioritising your high-impact tasks leads to significant long-term gains.

Email-free mornings avoid letting your inbox dictate the outcomes of your day.