Emails and More Emails

Remember the days when we actually posted a letter via ‘snail mail’? Those days are long gone and speed of communication is the new king. Sitting in the court of this new kingdom is email. It has revolutionised communication, making it simpler and faster for businesses to communicate.

The average email user in business spends 2 hours plus a day dealing with email. So clearly we need to find ways of cutting down on email traffic and managing it more efficiently.

1) Bing! … the noise alert ‘you have mail’ has to be the greatest killer of productivity and concentration. Get rid of the email alert and focus on one task at a time, especially when it requires thought and innovation. Check your emails at specific times throughout the day to enhance productivity and output. For example, only check emails at the start of your day, just before lunch and at the end of the day. One in five people fall into the category of ‘email’ dependant’ and compulsively check email and panic when they can’t get access.

2) If you’re still not sure what to do after 2 emails revert to a really old fashioned way of communicating and pick up the phone and call the recipient and work out what needs to be done. Better still, if they work in the cubicle next to you, get out of your chair and go
and see them face to face.

3) Don’t use email as a medium to shy away from face to face confrontation. Email is best suited to simple communications, such as scheduling meetings and circulating minutes or updates. It isn’t a substitute for face-to-face or phone communications.

4) Needlessly long distribution lists are a major cause of email log jam. It may seem convenient for circulating a document to glean input from multiple people, but it can spark off an email frenzy that you will find hard to cope with.

5) Because email is quick and viewed as a less formal medium than letters or memos, people can be careless in their eagerness to reply. When a friend or colleague writes something about someone or something and accidentally copies in the entire distribution list - at the very least this will provide embarrassment; and at the worst jeopardise your career. As a simple rule, if you are going to send an emotional or ‘angry email’, write it, store it in your draft folder, read it again a few hours later and then re evaluate how you feel. Email may be convenient, but it’s also easy to misinterpret, lacking the visual clues or changes in tonality of face-to-face communication.

There’s no doubt that email can be a scourge on productivity and an added source of stress. Used inappropriately, it can even cause embarrassment and elicit unintended responses. But follow a few simple rules and apply a bit of self-discipline, and email can live up to its promise of being a fast and efficient communications tool.

That’s it for now – gotta go – more emails to send!!