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Reduce Business Email Overload in 2019 – Top ten tips

Here are my top 10 tips (and resolutions) to reduce business email overload in 2019.  These tips will enable you to take control of your inbox instead of allowing it to control your working day.  This will enable you to improve your performance and well-being and reduce the risks of an email borne cyber attack through stupidity.

1. Educate colleagues (internally and externally) not to expect an instant reply.
2. Avoid sending ‘naked’ emails (ie ones with no proper salutation and sign-off).
3. Never send an email when under the influence of alcohol, drugs.
4. Always attach first then write the email content.
5. Clean out the inbox regularly and move out all emails more than one month old.
6. When using your mobile device on the move as a diary etc, lock the screen with a photo of the day’s schedule.
7. Use ‘Google Translate’ when sending emails to an international audience to check the content translates properly.
8. Reduce the number of emails you send by at least 20%.
9. Limit the number of times your inbox is checked for emails each day.
10. Have a digital detox at least once a fortnight.

What are your New Year’s resolutions to reduce the level of business email overload in 2019?

Tags: 2019 email overload resolutions, Business Performance, Email born cyber crime, Google translate, Naked emails, Reduce business email overload

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Business Email Overload 2019 Part 4 – thinking outside the inbox

As IORG Social Media Chair, for the past four weeks my theme has been whether or not business email overload will still be a problem in 2019 and if so can we reduce it. Thinking outside the inbox will a key way to reduce business email overload in 2019. (A shorter version was published on the IORG website).

Thinking outside the inbox is neither easy nor intuitive,   There are now multiple excellent other ways to communicate electronically from instant messaging via Skype for Business or What’s App to sophisticated collaborative tools like Slack or SharePoint.  Sadly, what often happens is that organisations adopt alternatives to email with no clear guidelines on what to use when. With no clear conventions and frameworks all that happens is that email overload turns into a severe attack of information overload because now you have at least three if not four or five different channels to check.

In the absence of organisational guidelines, here is a simple framework which others with whom I have worked have found very useful.  Its called the PNPD Framework for Thinking Outside the Inbox

For any form of communication, there are basically four factors to consider when deciding which medium to use.

1. Privacy – what level of privacy is needed?
2. Numbers – is it one-to-one or one-to-many
3. Permanency – do you need an audit trail of the exchange?
4. Delicacy – how important is it to be able to see the other persons reaction as you converse so as to moderate what you say accordingly?

Here are two examples of how to apply the PNPD framwork to think outside the inbox to reduce email and information overload.

Scenario 1 – Conversation

Private between two people, delicate but a permanent record of the final discussion will be needed (eg performance appraisal, salary negotiation, disciplinary meeting).

Best option – conversation (face-to-face if possible otherwise virtual) followed up by an email confirming the discussion.

Privacy is high: Numbers are low: Permanency is high: Delicacy is high.

Scenario 2 – Instant messaging

A public message for several people if not the whole office which if not seen here and now is of no relevance later. It does not matter how people react. For example, testing the fire alarm, cakes for your birthday.

Best option – Instant messaging.

Privacy is low: Numbers are high: Permanency is low: Delicacy is low.

For more information on the PNPD Thinking Outside the Inbox Framework see Taking Control of Your Inbox.

It is my view that email is here to stay and the real challenge is how to manage our use of it better.  Clearly one way is to manage the actual flow of email traffic in and out of your inbox more efficiently.  In relation to the former this means being brave and thinking outside the inbox and consciously choosing to use an alternative.

What is your view?

Tags: IORG, Reduce business email overload, Taking Control of Your Inbox, Thinking Outside the Inbox

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Business email overload 2019 Part 3 – fast or slow lane to your inbox

A constant problem associated with business email overload and hence information overload is picking out the important emails from all the dross. Deleting the less important ones often results in deleting those you really wanted, especially when using a mobile device.  They key is to remember it is your inbox and no one (at least no email) should arrive without your permission.

See the path to your inbox as an information highway along which emails travel but you and you alone decide which travel in the fast lane and arrive directly in your inbox and which travel in the slow lane via a width restrictor (folder).

Over the next week if you truly want to reduce your business email overload intake, do an inbox audit to benchmark your email intake using this simple five step exercise.

1. Review each email you receive and assign it a basic priority – high; medium or low.
2. For the emails you want, decide whether they travel in either the fast lane direct to your inbox or the slow lane via a folder.
3. Write rules for all those which are to travel in the slow lane to divert them away from the inbox to a safe holding place.
4. For all the low priority emails try to find a way to stop them arriving in the first place (eg unsubscribe, tell the sender to remove you from their list).
5. For all the high priority emails decide whether or not you need to be alerted when they arrive. If so implement a suitable mechanism.

You must be absolutely ruthless otherwise at the end of the week you will still be suffering with business email and information overload and your inbox will remain heavily congested.

This blog is part of the series being written for IORG on whether or not business email overload will still be a problem in 2019.

Tags: Business email overload, Inbox audit, Reduce business email overload

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Business Email Overload 2019 Part 2 – who’s creating it?

Suffering from chronic business email overload? Like many business executives, you probably receive about 50 to 70 emails a day which is one new email every six to nine minutes. What if you could reduce that to a more manageable number eg 40 to 50 and use the time for other more productive tasks? That is a common question posed in Smart Email Management workshops. Is it even possible?

The answer is yes.  But to do so you must first identify who is causing the email overload.  Heaven forbid, could it even be you through your leadership style and email behaviour?

Three quick and easy steps to enable you to identify the business email overload culprits.

1. Sort the inbox by person to identify the top five senders.
2. Review the content of those top senders’ emails. Is it Cc’d emails; Reply All; emails directly to you; unnecessary but maybe polite responses to your original emails eg Thanks.
3. Determine why they send you so much email. For example:

• Are they replies to emails originated by you.
• Do they feel you need to be kept in the loop.
• Have you asked to see everything they send on certain topics (because they are perhaps new joiners).
• Are they email chains related to the same topic which would be better discussed but you rarely have face-to-face meetings with the sender.

Now you are in a position to reduce your business email overload.   Five possible quick ways are outlined below.  Which ones you choose depends on the outcomes from the review above..

Five ways to move forward and reduce business email overload immediately

1. Making more time to talk to people.
2. Sending fewer emails yourself.
3. Re-affirming your trust in individuals who persist with the Cc to you on their every action.
4. Stepping back as a whole and delegating more.
5. Initiating some basic principles of email best practice, which include when to use email and when to use an alternative such as instant messaging and talking.

Thus the key culprits causing email overload may not be solely the other senders.  In part it might just be you, through your management style and over reliance on email.  This is the part which is harder to change.

Do you want to create more time in the day by reducing email overload through techniques like these?  Contact us now to discuss how our Smart Email Management workshops, coaching and webinars can help you and your colleagues.

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Business Email Management: Articles of Note November 2018

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Einstein

After writing for over a decade about business email management to reduce business email overload it is sometimes hard to find material which adds anything new to what we know about how best to manage email to save time, improve well-being and performance.  Often it’s the same tips and hints and studies just packaged differently. Over the last few weeks three have stood out.

1. Self promoting emails

Have you ever thought of using your Out-Of-Office message to promote yourself in your absence?  For example, after telling the sender you are out of the office, then add a line about a recent success story, article about you, research paper etc.  This is the latest trend being pushed by Harvard Business School to help you stand out in the ever crowded digital communications world.  They suggest that research show that creating a positive view of yourself may help develop better more long standing network relationships. The jury is out on this one.  Is it worthwhile or do such self-promoting emails actually have the reverse effect?

Do tell us what you think. Copy of Taking Control of Your Inbox for the best comments (for or against).

2.The state of email security?

In the last twelve month most organisations have seen a significant increase in email born cyber attacks and especially phishing attacks. This useful e-book (from Mimecast) highlights the status of email initiated cyber crime and provides advice on how to limit such attacks. Key is a robust training programme.  This is something we, Mesmo Consultancy, would be pleased to talk to you about.

Meanwhile for some quick here and now tips to reduce the risk of cyber crime click here.

3.IORG Information Overload Day Webinar 2018

This year’s theme was cognitive science, addiction and information overload. One of the most interesting sessions was by Anne McGhee Stinson on ‘Neuroscience and Information Overload’. Specifically she talked about how our brain changes according to what we do and pay attention to. Her session is about 12 minutes in.  Towards the end there is also a panel session which includes Dr Seeley on dealing with email addiction.  Again if this is an issue for you or your colleagues why not call us to discuss how we have been helping other organisations.  Click here for a quick check on your own personal level of email addiciton.

Tags: Business email management, Business email overload, Email Addiciton, Email born cyber crime, email cyber crime, email security, IORG

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