E-mail Limits

Steve gives me the smack down when I start to lose sight of priorities and I begin to drown in the swamp of time-sucks. The number 1 time suck this quarter has been e-mail. I'd better figure out how to balance my time with e-mail NOW as a student, before my inbox swells past the hundreds when I become a dee-are (Dr.). These days, I read and answer around 50 - 100 e-mails daily on the scoliosis mentoring program. I spend my time e-mailing during boring lectures, during my brief lunch hours, when I wake up in the morning, and when I get home from school. It takes somewhere around 3-4 hours a day. Steve asked me to compare the amount of time I spend reading the Bible to the amount of time I spend working on this Scoliosis program. True that I won't spend 8-10 hours a day reading the Bible...that's what Steve does because that's his J-O-B. Mine is to be a chiropractic student / chiropractor. Those lines get blurry sometimes. But, I ought to throttle back on the e-mail time.

So, here's my new plan:
45 min in the morning and 1 hour after school per day can be spent on e-mail. I have a strong feeling that I'm about to free up a lot more time for studying for national boards. I think if I give this time management strategy a 5 day trial, I'll be pretty pleased with the results. The next seminar isn't for another 3 months, there's no urgent rush to plan, and network, and e-mail my life away.

Steve sets me straight. That's his job. He's a Rhino. He's my coach. And, he's my best friend.