Stop letting 30-second emails steal 48-hour weekends
Readtime: 3 minutes
Imagine this:
It’s Saturday morning. You check your inbox “just for a second” and see a message about a problem you can’t solve until Monday.
It’s not a long email. It’s not something you need to act on today.
But it gets into your head.
You think about it later that afternoon, when you’re with friends. You think about it again on Sunday morning. You rehearse your plan to deal with it tomorrow while you’re lying in bed on Sunday night.
The email only took 30 seconds to read.
But it stole your entire weekend.
And here’s the part most people miss:
It didn’t steal your time.
It stole your attention – which is far more expensive.
The truth no one teaches us
We talk about time like it’s our most precious asset.
“Guard your time”
“Use your time wisely”
“Time is the one thing you can’t get back”
But that’s not quite right.
Of course, time is valuable.
But unlike time, attention doesn’t automatically regenerate.
You can have twelve free hours and still enjoy none of them if your mind is somewhere else – thinking about an unresolved problem, replaying a conversation, or mentally checking an inbox you haven’t even opened.
This mental pre-occupation with work is something that I’ve found difficult to master.
And it has a huge impact on whether your time off actually feels like time off.
You can lose money and make it back.
You can take a break from working hard and then ramp up again.
You can even fall behind on sleep and catch up.
But once your attention has been captured by something, especially something unresolved, you lose the value of the moment you’re in. Not just once, but repeatedly, until that open loop is closed.
As I mentioned in my newsletter on the Triple ‘R’ Method, this is because our brains hate open loops. They will keep returning to a problem until it feels resolved.
And that robs you of presence. Of restoration. Of enjoyment.
So even if you have time off, if you don’t also have attention off, it doesn’t count.
So, What Can You Do?
Here are three simple but powerful ways to protect your attention:
1. Create a Clear Off Switch
Have a cut-off time each evening or weekend for checking emails and messages.
Mine is 8:30pm. It’s probably later than it should be but it kind of works most of the time. (I appreciate that is quite caveated language…!)
Unless something very specific is going on, I won’t normally check anything after that. This gives me time to wind down.
And on the days I don’t do this – I can pretty much guarantee my sleep will not be as good.
If you haven’t yet, set your own off switch. And use it most of the time.
2. Make Unavailable mean Unavailable
As I wrote about in How I Stopped Working on Holiday, don’t say you’re off but then check your inbox "just in case”.
This approach works equally well for evenings and weekends too, not just holidays.
If you're checking messages out of habit, you're not off, you’re on call.
Instead, tell people that you’ll generally be unreachable in the evenings and on weekends unless something is both urgent and important, and give them a specific way to reach you (like text, not email). Very few things will actually meet this bar.
3. Identify Attention Leaks
Ask yourself: What’s taking up space in my head, even when I’m not working?
Make a quick list and write down the very next action that needs to be taken on each item.
Not the full project.
Not the ideal solution.
Just the next step.
This closes the loop, just temporarily, and gives your mind permission to let go.
A pro-tip on this is to do this every Friday before you finish up work for the week. It will stop any Sunday Scaries too.
The bottom line
Attention is the currency of a meaningful life.
Most people guard their calendars, but leave their attention wide open for anything to walk in and take it.
But your attention is the part of life you actually feel.
So give it to the moments that deserve you.
And don’t let a 30-second email steal a 48-hour weekend ever again.
Thanks for reading.
See you next week,
Mostyn
P.S. I made a 9-minute video about what happened when I stopped playing it safe at work. It’s here if you feel like being a bit reckless too…!
P.P.S Want me to increase the performance and engagement of your team? The start of next year is getting busy – now would be a good time for a call.