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Top tips from Mesmo Consultancy (and Associates) on how to save time and improve business and personal performance by ‘Taking Control of your Inbox’ and using proper business email etiquette.
As you trawl through your inbox on returning from leave are you wasting time sending unnecessary emails? Mimecast found that only one in four emails is really necessary. A recent Mesmo Consultancy survey found that senior executives felt that on average 44% of the emails they receive are not needed.
You return from leave to a severe attack of email overload as your inbox is overflowing. The temptation to scan the inbox and fire off a few replies will be hard to resist. Now you have little or no chance of creating an empty inbox as the chain mail syndrome kicks in. Here is a seven point plan to help you clear your inbox quickly and take some steps to reducing not only the holiday email overload but move towards inbox zero.
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| Seven steps to reducing holiday email overload |
The result – no email overload and you should reached inbox zero by reducing the rounds of unnecessary email ping-pong. Now you have time to turn your attention to other important tasks.
Do you have any tips to share about dealing with the holiday email overload backlog?
Tags: email overload, empty inbox, inbox zero
Forget the inbox and the email overload, pick up a book to rejuvenate your brain and creativity. Then the only dilemmas are real book or Kindle and what’s on the list? Here is what is in my beach-bag for the summer break. And, yes they are in traditional printed media format despite being a bit of a gadget girl. Somehow I still prefer to turn the pages of a book rather than read from a screen. Which do you prefer?
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen. An unusual book from the originator of the theory of ‘disruptive innovations’. This is not one of those how-to books but rather a thought provoking book which stemmed from Christensen’s own battle with cancer a few years ago. This may not shift business thinking as did his Innovators Dilemma but it might shift your own perspective on your own life.
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| Holiday reading |
What Matters Now by Gary Hamel. Again not a paradigm shift book like Hamel’s earlier works. This is an impassioned plea to re-think what will make or break your business over the next five years in this climate of unstoppable change. It could form the basis for creating your business road map.
How Much is Enough? by Robert and Edward Skidelsky Will buying the latest gadgets and fashions makes us any happier? Skidelsky and Skidelsky present a view that suggest many have sufficient money and should think more about working less and focusing less on being consumers and more on our real values (assuming we know them).
Mindfulness: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world by Mark Williams and Danny Penman. Its part of my quest to stop email overload and addiction through stepping back and creating time to think and see outside the box.
Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill – for both the content the extraordinary quality of writing.
Proust’s Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini – a mixture of literary history, a mystery story and one man’s passion for all things Proust. Short but beautifully written.
What’s on your reading list for the summer break? Will you use a Kindle or carry the real thing?
“Beauty can’t amuse you, but brainwork – reading, writing, thinking – can” Helen Gurley Brown
Tags: email overload
Starting with an empty inbox before going on leave is an excellent way to reduce email overload. Using the 4 Ds principle, set aside a few hours to clear out your inbox.
Handle each email once and use the simple 4Ds to help you decide what to do with it:
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| Inbox Zero |
The key is simply to make sure you don’t just leave emails lying unmarked and open in the inbox and relying on your memory to remember what needs attention.
More in the next blog on creating an empty inbox and reducing the email overload before taking leave.
For more daily tips and hints on reducing email overload follow me on Twitter as the ‘EmailDoctor’ or check out how Mesmo Consultancy can help you with our tried and tested workshops.
Tags: email overload, empty inbox, inbox zero
Removing yourself from distribution lists and CC’d email is a powerful way to reduce the volume of email traffic through your inbox and reduce the email overload. Clearly if its an external newsletter the obvious way is to unsubscribe. But what about all those internal (or external) lists about matters which do not really interest you? It is no good just ignoring the email as that just leads to more of the same. Here are some tried and trusted responses which people have used in different situations and which demonstrate good email etiquette too.
1. Taking yourself out of the loop when someone asks you for help but you are the wrong person.
The gentle approach – forward the email with something like:‘Could you help Frankie? By the way, I don’t need to be copied in unless there is a problem.’
The blunt approach -reply directly to the sender with something like:‘Thanks for contacting me. The person who can really help you is John whose email address is ….. I suggest you email them directly.’
2. Getting yourself off a distribution list.
The gentle approach:‘Thanks for keeping me posted about developments with the Widgets project. Glad to hear it is progressing well. I am no longer involved with this aspect of the business. At the same time I’m trying to reduce the volume of email traffic through my inbox. Please can you help me by taking my name off the distribution list. Many thanks.’
The more direct and blunt approach: ‘Thanks for copying me in on developments about the Widgets project. What do you want me to do? If you are not expecting any input from me, please can you take me off this distribution list.’
What techniques and words work for you? What is your company policy on matter like this one?
Tags: corporate email etiquette, email best practice, email management training, email overload
The latest Ofcom report revealed that we now use our mobile phone more for sending text messages, email and social networking than for talking. How very very sad. This data presumably based on social communications is mirrored by how we communicate at work. Choosing the wrong communications media is often one of the major causes of email overload.
Go into any office and all you hear is the clatter of the keyboard. Nobody talks any more. Gone is art of conversation. Text and email are lean thin communications channels devoid of all emotions and feeling. Moreover they are blinkered and present tunnel vision as discussed in a previous blog.
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| Ways to communicate effectivley from ‘Brilliant Email’ by Monica Seeley |
You miss the opportunity to pick up all that extra rich information and gossip, for example what other project the client is working on, who is about to be fired, potential budget cuts. When you talk (face to face or by phone you can sense from the tone and facial expression how the other person is feeling. This additional information is as I was taught key to developing the client relationship (and indeed any relationship).
Email is often the cover up for much deeper problems a point made by Lucy Kellaway in her ‘Dear Lucy’ column today.
The Ofcom report highlighted the increasing use of mobile phones for social networking above talking. Is it little wonder that a recent CBI report found many young people lacked adequate business communications skills.
There is a time and place for text messaging. It is great for short ephemeral messages eg train delayed. However we must remember it is only a messaging systems not a full blown rich communications medium.
Your goal should always be ‘right message right first time and especially if you want to improve business relationships and as a spin off reduce information and email overload.
Tags: email etiquette, email overload