On a daily basis, one of the first things I do in the morning is check my email, whether it be on my phone, my iPad, or my laptop. While this might seem surprising, given that I am Generation Y, I find that my email is more important than any other notification I receive. Why? Not only is email how I communicate with the majority of my clients or professional contacts, but it can be a great resource for professional and personal development.

I’ll admit that I’m guilty of signing up for newsletters and then putting them in my newsletter folder to read later. Most of the time, I don’t get back to them until I have absolutely nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon. Ironically, this happened this past Sunday while I was doing some “housekeeping” on my laptop. However, when I started to look through all of the newsletters I had received, I wished I would have taken 5 minutes to have read them on the day I received them. There was a vast amount of useful information right at my fingertips that I wasn’t even aware of because I couldn’t take 5 minutes out of my day to deal with it.

How do you turn your email account into a resource? Here’s how:

1. Subscribe to newsletters that are useful to you or your business.

Don’t waste your time with newsletters that you know you won’t read or only hold slight interest for you. Subscribe to sites that directly deal with your daily activities as a business professional.

2. Change the preferences to meet your time allowance.

Let’s be honest, no one has an hour of their day to read each and every newsletter in their inbox while completing all of the other tasks they have to do in a day. But if you can set aside 15 minutes each day to read these resources, then do so. Change the preferences to send weekly newsletters instead of daily.

3. Utilize these resources when implementing ideas into your business strategy.

If there is a particular article that stands out to you, then print it out and use it for ideas! What’s the point of receiving resources if you don’t use them?

4. Share these resources on social networks.

Become a resource for others by providing useful articles online. Your followers and friends will find more value in what you post.

Don’t dread looking at email in the morning. Look forward to seeing all the resources that can come from your inbox. What newsletters or emails do you enjoy reading ?

Guest Blogger | Jenn Lisak

Jenn Lisak is a Marketing Consultant and Client Advocate for DK New Media, responsible for content and infographic development, social media strategy, and managing and advocating for her clients. She writes and speaks on content marketing, infographics, and social media.