When I work with clients on helping them develop strategies for getting more out of their time, the subject of email usually comes up as being a big distraction. Many people today seem to be up to their virtual necks in email. I know I tend to be. Digging out is not that big of a task, as long as you’re not a procrastinator and you have a healthy willingness to throw things away. If you find that you’re spending all your time answering e-mails, you might ask yourself : is e-mail something that’s helping you get your work done, or is it getting in the way of it?
Many people make the mistake of using their inbox as a filing system. These people are basically avoiding decisions. Try thinking of e-mail as you do the phone. You don’t leave 400 messages on your voicemail or answering machine, so why would you leave 400 messages in your inbox?
One suggestion is to deal with what you can the first time you see it – if you can deal with it in less than 2 minutes. The rest of your emails fall into 2 categories: those that require more than 2 minutes and those that represent something you’re waiting on from others. You can create 2 separate folders: Action and Waiting For, and move the messages into them. Of course, then you have to remember to check those folders.
Process your email at the time of day when your energy is lowest. If your best thinking is in the morning, that’s not the time to be dealing with email.
When you send an email, give it a precise subject line. Make sure your message is succinct. Review and edit your email before you send it – not just for spelling and grammar, but for content. Make sure you’re saying what you want to say, and in the right tone you want to say it. Remember that email can be forwarded. The Internet is not private. A good rule of thumb is: If you can picture what you’ve written on the front page of the newspaper, then you can be reasonably sure that it’s okay to send.
Obsessively monitoring your email is another pitfall. If you feel like you’re checking your messages too often, you probably are. Schedule some specific times each day to check your inbox – ideally no more than twice a day.
As with any technological convenience, it does have its advantages. We just need to make sure that we’re controlling it – not the other way around.