Email: the worst thing you can do at work
/If you, like most office workers, open your email first thing in the morning, then you might be setting yourself up for a horrible day and wasting hundreds of hours a year. The work email inbox is a "pandora's box" of nitty-gritty detail, gossip and distractions that are best dealt with later in the morning, and pressing the "send receive" button as soon as you slouch in your seat is the worst way to start your day.
These are the somewhat controversial views of Danish organisational behavioural expert and corporate consultant Rasmus Hougaard, who has taken his new way of working to international companies such as Sony, General Electric and Danish brewer Carlsberg.
"Doing emails first thing in the day is so ineffective," says Hougaard, "it is the worst thing you can do at work."