Managing email anxiety

5 Books For Reducing Email Overload

Great insights from the top productivity experts

There are so many comprehensive resources out there for those looking to enhance their email, but for those looking to go on the defensive, are there any resources to help battle overload?

Short answer, ‘Heck yes!’

Many of the best resources recommend fixing your email from its foundations before going on the offence against the flood of email.

We’ve brought together a few of our personal favourites to help you combat email overload on a daily basis. These are all written by some of the leading productivity experts who’s managed to be at peace with their inbox.

Here are those recommendations:

Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done

by Jocelyn. K. Glei

Unsubscribe is a modern approach to combatting emails and clearing your inbox. The premise of the book explores the effect of emails on your productivity, discussing anxiety, stress, and routine. Jocelyn explores all of the methods and techniques to help eliminate workflow issues with email.

This well-crafted read is worth your time and shouldn’t take you long to gobble up. All of the read is applicable to your day to day productivity, from work to your personal projects, and perfect for freelancers too.

Buy the book here | goo.gl/J8W8Mo

Author | Jocelyn K. Glei

How to be a Productivity Ninja

by Graham Allcott

Graham Allcott, the genius behind “How to be a Productivity Ninja” and MD of Think Productive, who deliver workshops on productivity, spent a long time developing this book. This book doesn’t just skim the surface when it comes to your productivity, daily routines, and habits, it goes very deep into how you can change that using actionable tips and recommendations.

There’s a brilliant section about how to combat email stress and reach inbox zero, it’s very process orientated, but will definitely help your progress. It’s a great textbook pick-up too allowing you to pick it up and down whenever you see fit to tweak an area of your productivity.

Buy the book here | goo.gl/6dcWDX

Author | @grahamallcott

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9–5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

by Tim Ferriss

The 4-Hour Workweek is a very popular book written by Tim Ferriss around 10 years ago now. It’s still a business classic. Tim discusses the potential of streamlining your life, using practical time-saving routines and set-ups.

His email section has been widely regarded as “extreme email management”, allowing access to external virtual assistants to manage his email and many more detailed ways to use email. But Tim’s advice is sound, there’s many tips and tricks you can gather from this segments of email that will help save you time, reduce stress and manage your online time, something I read every 2–3 months to improve on my existing email tips.

Buy the book here | goo.gl/VVXP5f

Author | Tim Ferriss

The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy

by Chris Bailey

In true Tim Ferriss fashion, Chris Bailey spent some time experimenting with his productivity. Pursuing a handful of experiments with his products over a few years, during this time, he interviewed specialists like David Allen (GTD) to compile advice.

Chris combatted many blockades when experimenting, from challenging his sleep patterns to reducing his online communication time, this book is full of learnings from his experiments and is a great present for anyone looking to advance their productivity. We guarantee that you’ll have a whole new perspective on email after reading this book. Chris also puts out regular insightful blog pieces too, so the read continues beyond the book.

Buy the book here | goo.gl/4RNwIU

Author | @wigglechicken

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

by Charles Duhigg

Charles Duhigg applies a lot of sociology in this book. Charles explores what human behavior lead us to negative and positive results, discovering the potential of habits and implementing them in our daily routine.

Although this book doesn’t directly address email tools, it explores the opportunity of thinking outside the box on routine topics like morning routines, energy levels and work ethic, all of these areas will lead you to adapting your email routines.

These recommendations aim to help you think about email from a different angle, we all know email is one of the most functional resources to help us get more done, but it’s great to approach the topic with some useful advice in order to streamline your efforts.

Buy the book here | goo.gl/aJZMpN

Author | Charles Duhigg