Email Management
While email is a valuable tool and allows for much quicker communication, due to its ease of use it is also susceptible for misuse. Misuse comes by way of unnecessary emails clogging up your inbox and significantly taking away from productivity.
Coming up with an email strategy requires a plan that you follow consistently, as well as messaging your new strategy to any key stakeholders. If you have work deliverables, like we all do, mismanagement of your emails will certainly mess with your productivity, but more importantly it will become an avoidable stressor. There are many different strategies you can implement, you just need to find one that is comfortable for you, as well as one that aligns well with your organization. For example, some people check their email twice per day. Some organizations may require more timely responses from their staff and so running this by your team is recommended.
For me I try to keep it simple. I turn off any email notification noises and work through tasks from start to finish before checking email again. If a task/project runs longer than a couple of hours, then I'll take a break and check emails for any updated action items. Contrary to what many say about checking first thing in the morning, I do check my emails first thing in the morning as this provides me any updated action items for the first half of the day.
Once I have a general strategy in place, there are two ways I try to manage it.
1. Communicating your email preference, as needed, to coworkers
At one organization I was getting so buried in emails I had to ask my coworkers to stop cc'ing me unless there was an action item for me. If there was an action item for me, I asked for it to be laid out very clearly what the request was. The habit was to cc everyone on pretty much everything and I was spending far too much time reviewing the email to see what I needed to do.
Every organization will be different, so you have to evaluate your organization first before you can decide on what you want and don't want to get. i.e. some cc's are a critical function to some departments.
2. Practice what I preach. Essentially any time I send an email I try to think about the recipient.
If you have regularly set meetings with co-workers, resist the urge to send all your thoughts on an email. Add it as an agenda item to be discussed at your meeting if it's not critical. Not everything needs an immediate response, even though we tend to think it does.
Don’t write a story. Unless it’s a cyclical update that your team expect, long winded emails quite frankly are disrespectful to your team. Usually it’s not deliberate, but you have stolen time that can’t be replaced. If you are writing a multi-paragraph email it may be the time to stop and instead add your point(s) to your next scheduled meeting, as it is a safe bet there is one right around the corner.
We can't avoid emails, and you likely spend a good amount of your time managing them, but we can have a plan to be more effective. If it is stopping you from completing your deliverables, then a larger organizational discussion may be needed.
