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Email overload – reduce it by learning to use your email software

Have you ever been trained to use your email software to help reduce the email overload?  Here is a tool which we use constantly for business yet few people have ever been trained how to use the software properly.  Most say it’s intuitive.  But is it? Often it is far from obvious and especially to those who are not digital natives.

So how much time do you either wast hunting around for a function or becuase you did not know there was a function which could save you time.  For example can you:

• write rules to help you save time managing your inbox:
• add expiry dates to emails with a shelf-life (eg testing the fire alarm, cake to celberate my birthday etc) to save people time reading out of date email;
• switch off all those new mail alters which interrupt you and mean each task takes at least fifteen minutes longer complete:
• use keyboard shortcut keys instead of replying of the menu to save yourself about a minute an email?

To see how well you use Outlook use our Outlook IT Fitness Check . 

For users of other software eg Notes, Entourage and Groupwise, your software will have most of these functions so the Fitness Check will help you too.

It never ceases to amaze me that so few people receive any form of email software training.  Software is changed even upgraded and users are just left to ‘get on with it’.  The more foresighted do provide training and have found that one hour spent training can add as much as five extra hours productivity per week.

This week there are a series of email software time savers.

What is your experience?

Tags: email best practice, email overload, Email training

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