Inc. Magazine

Richard Branson reads emails once a day while hiking, unlike Mark Cuban who checks constantly. Experts say most professionals waste 2–3 hours daily on inboxes. Limiting checks, setting autoresponders, unsubscribing ruthlessly, and hosting “office hours” can reclaim time and reduce stress. You don’t need billions to benefit.

Why Richard Branson Checks His Email Only Once a Day

Author: Jessica Stillman

When Business Insider recently asked Mark Cuban to talk through his daily routine, this is how he responded: “I read and respond to emails. I work out. I read and respond to emails. I do a couple Zooms. Then I read and respond to emails. Then I eat dinner. Then I read and respond to emails.”

Compare this to another recent interview with a billionaire entrepreneur, Virgin founder Richard Branson. When asked about email, he claimed he only checks his once a day, usually while out on a hike. “Somebody will come with me and read them out to me and I’ll dictate replies, so I’m sort of achieving two things at the same time,” he explained. 

I have a question. Which approach sounds better to you? 

Richard Branson’s email strategy

Mark Cuban is worth around $6 billion and seems to be having a blast with his life. So far be it for me to criticize his approach to email. It seems to be working great for him. If checking email all day is working for you too, then feel free to stop reading now. 

But if you read about Sir Richard’s single daily email check out under the big, blue sky and thought, ‘If only,’ then I’d like to insist that radically cutting down on how much time you spend in your inbox is possible. 

Clearly, few entrepreneurs have the luxury of a dedicated email reader/transcriber. That sounds almost as luxurious as the private Caribbean island Branson owns. But several far more down-to-earth CEOs, authors, and assorted experts claim that with a few strategic changes, even we everyday mortals can come much closer to Branson’s once-a-day approach to email. 

How much time do you waste on email? 

The first step to adopting a more Branson-like email regimen is to face up to just how much time you’re currently wasting going through your inbox. Estimates of how much time the average white-collar professional wastes on email every day vary, but they’re all huge. 

One classic study estimated 30 hours a week. Another McKinsey analysis found the average professional spends 28 percent of their day on email or 2.6 hours every day. Other research suggests that it takes your brain 23 minutes to fully focus again after the interruption after even a “quick” email check.  

And sorry, you’re probably not an exception to these findings. Install an app like Rescue Time that monitors how you use your time if you want confirmation. Or, to get a gut sense of just how much of a time suck email is in your life, force yourself to limit the number of times you check your inbox for a few days.

Time use expert and author Laura Vanderkam ran this experiment and wrote about the experience for Fast Company. 

“When I didn’t check email until 10:30 a.m., but started working shortly after 6 a.m., I got a lot done. I wrote and edited whole chapters. I would have written those chapters anyway eventually, but they would have taken a lot longer,” she found. 

Try an autoresponder 

If you try this experiment yourself, you’ll probably realize something similar. Unless you have Richard Branson’s level of resources and control over your schedule, you’ll also probably run into logistical challenges. How do you overcome them? 

First off, there’s no need to be an inbox extremist. Yes, Richard Branson’s single daily stroll-and-email approach sounds lovely. For most of us, just significantly cutting down to a smaller, fixed number of email checks is a massive improvement. Don’t beat yourself up for not reaching an unreachable standard. Choose a goal that’s realistic for you and work towards that. 

Now that you’ve set your target, entrepreneur and author Tim Ferriss suggests setting up an autoresponder to inform people of your email schedule and give them an alternate way to contact you for urgent issues. 

Here’s an example for inspiration: “Due to my current workload I am only checking email at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. If you need anything immediately please call me on my cell so that I can address this important matter with you. Thank you and have a great day!” 

You might worry that will just displace the your problem from email to another form of messaging. But just having this reminder should nudge your correspondents to consider whether their message is actually urgent. Hopefully, many will answer no and patiently await your reply. 

After all, research shows recipients tend to think emails are far more urgent than senders actually intend them to be. 

Be ruthless with low value email 

Compressing a ton of email processing into a couple of massive sessions isn’t much of a victory. You’re aiming is to reduce the total amount of time and brain space eaten by your inbox. That means you’ll also want to reduce the total amount of email you get. 

One great way to do that, according to Zarvana CEO Matt Plumer is to take a more ruthless approach to all the sales offers, social media alerts, and newsletters cluttering your inbox. “According to data from Sanebox, 62% of all email is not important,” he points on HBR. Even just deleting each low value email individually can really add up. 

Plumer advocates for a ruthless, three-part approach to all that clutter instead: “automated filtering for newsletters you actually use, unsubscribing from those you don’t, and blocking spam and other emails that keep coming after you’ve tried to unsubscribe.”

Consider office hours 

Finally, if you email load has a lot to do with co-workers pinging you for check ins, questions, or advice, consider holding “office hours” each week, either over Zoom or in-person. During these fixed times anyone can pop in and ask you anything. 

“It’s a simple idea, but it can reduce the number of attention-snagging back-and-forth electronic messages in your professional life by an order of magnitude,” claims author Cal Newport. 

He borrowed the taregy from his experience as a computer science professor. “Us professors, of course, have long used this strategy to moderate student interaction into more sustainable patterns that work better for all parties involved,” he explains. 

Yes, you can get closer to Richard Branson levels of zen 

I am not going to claim that these tips will instantly make your relationship to email as relaxing as Richard Branson’s. Sorry, for that I think you need all the help and time billions of dollars can buy. But I also don’t buy that we’re all doomed to a constant deluge of messages and pings. 

With a few changes and some determination, you can make your email routine far saner and less time-consuming. Maybe take another bit of inspiration from Branson and go for a walk outside with some of the time you save. 

Credits: TCA, LLC.