Email as a business communication tool has taken the world by storm over the last decade. Over that time it has continuously encroached on more and more of our life to the point that now for many the first thing you do when you get up and the last thing you do before going to sleep is power up your smart phone to check and see what emails have arrived.
The constant connection helps us keep connected to the pulse of work but in many respects leads to an increased level of stress. Here are three tips for email management (some easier than others) that I have personally adopted which make a huge difference.
Turn off the new mail alert indicator (Quick and Easy but a Big Impact)
You know what I mean, that little icon in the system try that lets you know that you have mail or the even more noticeable “New Email Notification” popup in Microsoft Outlook which gives you a little preview of the message. At first thought, you would think this would be good but take a second to think about it. Every time you see that alert, your mind immediately starts to think, “I just received something — I wonder what it is?”. In a lot of ways it is like getting a birthday gift, you have to stop and open it to see what you received.
These interruptions may seem to take just a second to look at but reality (and research) shows that little distraction takes your focus away from what you were working on and as a result, it can take five minutes to get back to where your mind was before the interruption.
Action Step – Turn off the indicator for a week and see if you miss the interruption. This is the simplest thing you can do to have a huge impact on your productivity.
Check your email only 3 times a day
This might sound impossible, but after initially trying it for a few days it has become a standard routine for me. In my routine, I now check all my email (business and personal accounts) at 8 am and 3 pm, and my business email right after lunch. Outside of those times I have my email closed on my computer. It is amazing what this has done for my productivity — it allows me to focus on the most important task without getting sucked into the latest topic.
The biggest concern that I hear from people is that they could never do this because they get emails that they need to respond to immediately. My question to them is if it is really life or death that they respond within four hours. Unless your main job is to respond immediately to customer service requests, I would argue that the business need to respond immediately isn’t required. The individuals still have your phone number that they can call if they need you immediately. Just let people know you focus your email to only certain times and they will quickly understand and adjust accordingly.
Action Step – For the next week, choose three times during the day you are going to read and respond to emails and then turn off the program in between. You will go through a mild form of withdrawal at first but that will lessen with time.
Empty your inbox at least once a day
I realize this sounds impossible at first but with focused effort it is possible and once you are at zero and have your routine in process to keep it going you will be amazed. A large productivity issue occurs when you read an email and then let it sit in the inbox. That causes you to reread the same message three to five times on average before you act on it. What I have found easiest is to ask myself as soon as I read a message this question – “What is the next thing I have to do with this email?” It could be filing it, asking a clarifying question, scheduling time to work on it or deleting it. Any one of those four options will result it in moving out of my inbox.
This tip is the hardest of them all but the peace of mind it brings is amazing. You no longer have to worry what is buried in the inbox that you may be missing. Even if you are not able to get to zero right away, the small step of asking yourself what is the next thing you need to do for each message when you read it the first time will improve your productivity.
Action Step –During the next week, whenever a new message arrives, ask yourself what is the next step you have to take for that message. Just this step will keep your inbox from growing any larger and hopefully will give you time back to go and take care of some of the messages already in your inbox.
These are just some of the tips that have really helped me improve my productivity and implement a process where email is not controlling me. A great book that I highly recommend is “Getting Things Done
Hi Rick — Thanks for your comments. I think you have hit on the key point exactly. In the early days of business, messages went by mail or even boat where weeks could go by between responses. I realize in the new globally connected world that timing would no longer work but the number of occasions where a reply is needed within a few hours is much smaller than we initially think. Unless you are in a business where your responses are a matter of life or death I would argue that you should consider two things.
If you are involved so closely with approvals or guidance that individuals are sending you emails and then have to wait until you respond, you need to relook at your process. You want to empower those around you and remove yourself from the bottleneck. This doesn’t mean you give up control; instead you shift the process so that you can build in controls without creating the bottle neck. The second thing you accomplish by not responding immediately is to help coach and develop those around you to do a little additional planning. If they know that you are only going to check email a few times a day, they will naturally start planning ahead so that they get requests into you before your review.
Best wishes and please let us know your results.
Hi Sean,
I understand what you mean for the auto replies. From time to time I have “E-Mail Free Fridays”. They are Fridays where I turn on my out of office, and in the auto reply I say that I am in the office but will not be checking or responding to email at all that day. I then direct them to please contact me via phone or stop by if there is something they need to discuss. I can’t tell you how productive I am these days. I have a much richer dialog with the individuals that come by on those days and feel we get even more accomplished.
In a world of always emailing, even if the person is right next to you, I think there is great benefit in getting up from time to time to talk in person. Now I will say that you will go through some major withdrawal and have some nervousness at first when you can’t use email but it will subside. The key to success is to keep your commitment and not send any emails that day otherwise people won’t honor your “Email Free Friday” program. Give it a try and let me know how it goes
Hi,
This is a great posting, I am really enjoying LandC. As a person that has several email addresses I am certainly awair of how it impacts productivity. As far as the alert icon I have never had it turned on, checking my e-mail 3 times a day does decrease the amount of time I spend clearing away messages but I try to clear my inbox every time so when I log on I know what needs to be attended to. I am curious, being old enough to remember when there were no E-mails or instant messages why do people think or expect that an e-mail has to be answered immediately. Sure there are times when communication needs to be NOW but as far as e-mail the next day or even four hours later is better than snail mail. So short of offending anybody please don’t expect a response right away I might be taking time to smell the rain.
Tim: So part of me wants to include an auto-reply message that says I check emails only a couple of times a day — and that I should be texted or contacted via my assistant if something is needed more quickly. This clarifies the “get back to me asap” assumptions that are often in emails.
But then this would just create an unnecessary email in their Inbox, right?
Finally, I think there is a need to tell people that “thanks” emails may be polite, but they begin to clog up inboxes also.
Thoughts?
Sean
Terrific ideas, Tim! I look forward to trying them. Increasing productivity is so critical now. Thanks for sharing them.
Thanks Kate — Please let us know how the tips work for you. I also look forward to hearing what additional things Larry comes up with to fill all that extra time
Tim
Hi Tim,
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been feeling lately as if much of my work day is basically email transactions – ask a person about something, wait to hear what they say, take the next step (via email, of course), etc. Your post got me thinking that this isn’t what my work day necessarily HAS to be, but rather what I’ve let it become. Deep, right!? I am absolutely going to give this a try and already looking forward to what I will do with all my extra time.