Writer's Digest

NOTES FROM THE MARGINS

ere’s my confession: Every morning when I open my email, I feel guilty. At the end of the day, when I close my email and turn off my computer, I feel guilty then, too. No matter how hard I try, I feel like I can never answer emails as quickly as I want to. I can’t remember if I heard the following suggestion in a career class, or if my first managing editor shared it with me, but during my first job as an editor, I set a rule for myself to answer every email within 24 business hours. Years later, this is still my goal and not hitting it is the source of my guilt.

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