Ever find yourself thinking, “I need more email”? Ever feel disappointed because you don’t get enough in your inbox?
I didn’t think so. Personally, I get between 200-300 emails a day, as many of you likely also do. That’s enough email to completely paralyze you if you can’t deal with the volume effectively. You could spend your entire day working through your inbox, at the expense of the action items you actually have to do.
I’m continuing to work through the issue myself, but here are five pointers I’ve learned for managing the email deluge.
1. Read once
Ever find yourself reading an email, realizing you’re not sure what to do with it or that you don’t have time to deal with it, and just moving on to the next thing in your inbox? I know I have. Unfortunately, that leads to your inbox becoming a repository for difficult email, not a true inbox.
Try to force yourself to only read emails once. Once I’ve read an email, I take a leaf out of Getting Things Done
- Deal with it – if it’s going to take less than two minutes to handle, just do it
- Schedule it – file it in an “action” category and book time in my calendar to deal with it
- Delegate it – assign it to someone on the team to handle
- File it “to read” – lots of items are sent as “FYI.” I file these in an “information” category for review when I have time. This is a recent addition for me, as I was finding my “action” category was getting clogged with dozens and dozens of action items (thanks to the book Workarounds That Work
(affiliate link) by Russell Bishop)
- Archive it – file it in an archive folder for future reference
- Delete it – get it out of the inbox to keep things manageable
2. Pay attention to the “To:” line
The body of the email isn’t the only part that sends a message – the address fields also send a message.
If I see that I’m in the “To:” line of an email, I pay attention and look for action items. If I see that I’m in the “cc:” field on an email, I treat the email as an FYI and review when I have time. (In some workplaces, this may require a little expectation-setting with colleagues)
3. Ensure the subject line is relevant
This is an are where I know I need to improve – ensuring that the title of an email remains relevant to the conversation. In the past I’ve sent far too many emails with “FYI” as a title. It could be worse (at least the recipient knows it’s not urgent) but it would be better if it read “FYI – media coverage of XYZ”, “Deadline: Need feedback by Feb 18″ or the like.
In cases where the topic of the email changes during the email chain, change the title!
Keeping the subject relevant lets recipients know what the email is about, and whether they need to pay attention to it.
4. Avoid “reply all”
Does everyone in the email chain need to be on it? If you don’t need to include everyone on a reply, do them a favour and remove the unnecessary people from the chain. No-one sits there waiting for the next group discussion to erupt; you’ll also find that you get fewer emails as a result, as there are fewer other people to hit “reply all” at their end.
5. Default to other media
Many of us co-locate in offices for a reason. Other forms of communication are richer and offer more cues than email. If you have the option, walk over and talk to someone, or pick up the phone and call them. Not only will you cut down on email, you’ll get things done quicker.
This is especially important when something is urgent. Email is an asynchronous medium – it can be read later. In fact, it’s intended for that. I spend a large proportion of my time in meetings and not checking email. In that situation, an urgent request is likely to go unheard. If you need to reach someone urgently, pick up the phone or walk over to them. Don’t rely on them checking email constantly.
What else?
I know my system isn’t perfect, and I still struggle with the email deluge on a daily basis. You likely have your own way of managing the volume. What tips would you add to the list?
(Image: jon|k)
Four suggestions seems a little thin to me. I often get asked why people should use Twitter; here are 25 ideas for ways you can get value out of Twitter, with a mix of business and personal focus:
As time goes on and more people start to read my site (welcome!) I’m receiving more and more pitches from firms and other PR agencies. That’s fine with me – I’m in the business and I appreciate why pitching is necessary.
