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Business Email Overload 2019 Part 1 – will it still be a problem?

After writing about business email overload for the past decade, it still amazes me to hear executives complain about receiving over 70 emails a day but still having done nothing to identify why and what can be done to reduce email overload.   This includes the whole spectrum of employees from CEOs to PAs.

Should I be surprised? After all many have suggested that email is nearing the end of its life and will be overtaken by collaborative tools and social media.  Yet the data from Radicati suggests otherwise with email volumes set to rise by 4% in 2019.

Business email overload is generally a symptom of a wider personal, team or organisational failing.  For example, lack of ability to focus on the task in hand, prioritise, insufficient opportunities to talk to one’s boss so instead we email, a need to cover one’s backside, no clear e-communications guidelines as to what to use when and so it goes on.

These are some of the more common underlying causes of business email overload which I have observed over the last decade. There are several easy ways to reduce the time spent dealing with unnecessary emails and these include:

• Identify who are the key culprits filling your inbox and why they are doing so.
• Prioritise which emails your really need to see and when.
• Learn to use the email software to help not hinder you.
• Recognise what is the organisational culture and it’s effect on email traffic.
• Think outside the inbox.

As I take over the Social Media Chair for IORG for November (from my colleague Alfonso Aranda Arias), these are some of the issues I will address in a series of Blogs and Tweets.

Tags: Business email overload, email overload, IORG, Radicati Group

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