Taming Email

Email is the number one distraction for most people at work! People complain of burgeoning in-boxes from recipients expecting an instant response, address lists including unnecessary recipients, and large volumes of unsolicited emails. Our society in general has placed a high value and unrealistic expectations on immediate access and response. Taming e-mail means training senders to put the burden of quality back on themselves to use better judgment when sending emails, minimizing the number of words in a message, being more descriptive in the subject line to summarize the gist of the message or action needed, making action requests clear, and determining who needs to receive the message rather than copying everyone.

It wasn’t long ago that SPAM mail was the biggest email problem, however, with added filters and spam-blockers the numbers have decreased thus making it a little easier to manage. Fortunately, these messages are easy to spot and can be deleted pretty quickly! Regrettably, the number of emails received on an average day continues to increase. Better management of the inbox and improved decision-making will help. Also, putting some systems in place to help you manage your email overload will make a recognizable difference. Here are a couple of quick tips:

• Only check e-mail at defined times each day.
• Train people to be relevant so that they only send you emails when they pertain to you.
• Answer briefly while providing context upfront in your message as to the nature of your reply.
• Send out delayed responses by inserting a scheduled delay in when your typed response will actually be sent.
• Ignore it and trust that if it’s important you’ll hear about it again.
  Organize your follow-up list and respond based on priority.

What are your techniques for controlling your inbox??