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Email charters can help reduce overload. Recently Chris Anderson TED curator created an email charter which has had a mixed reception see for example Lucy Kellaway in the Financial Times. There are parts of Chris’s charter I really like such as ‘short or slow is not rude’ and ‘tighten the thread’. The disparity might be due to different cultures.
Over many years we have developed an email charter which has indeed saved people many hours across Europe and the UK. For those with whom we have never had the plesure of working with, here is my Nine Ps of Email Best Practice. It was first published in Managing in the Email Office and forms the basis of my latest book Brilliant Email.
Of course to make an email charter really work assumes that those with whom you work also adopt the charter and change their email behaviour. Next week I will blog some ways we have used here at Mesmo Consultancy to help organisations change their email culture.
Meanwhile for more tips and hints how they help reduce email overload follow this weeks Tweets and make sure you sign up for our e-briefing of monthly tips and hints.
Tags: email best practice, email charter, email overload
Email overload eats into our day and uses time which we could devote to other activities. At a networking meeting today I asked several senior business executives what they would do with an extra hour a day. Here are there responses:
What would you do with an extra hour a day? That is what you can easily save yourself if you take control of your inbox rather than letting it control you and your day!
This weeks tips have focused on how to reduce the number of rounds of email ping-pong as a way of saving time see http://twitter.com/emaildoctor
Tags: email addiction, email best practice, email overload
Brilliant email etiquette implies that we acknowledge emails within an acceptable time frame (at least those which need an answer). For those emails which you know a substantive and proper reply is needed than plan the necessary work into your work schedule. They key is to manage their expectation whilst not putting undue pressure on yourself. Decide when you can reasonably make a proper reply and let the recipient know.
Simply tell them when you will reply but don’t add a line saying ‘ is this OK’. First, this leaves the door open for the sender to change your priorities. They will soon say if it’s not OK. Second, its asking for at least another round of unnecessary email ping-pong as the sender says ‘OK’ and you feel compelled to email back again.
Once you’ve acknowledged the email and planned when to deal with it make sure you keep track of the actions you need to take and also the email itself. You gaol should be to handle each email once and not have to keep looking for those ones which still need attention.
Implement a process which enable you to find it easily. For example, file it, place it in a pending folder or create a task from it. Choose a way which suites your way of working and managing your day.
Tags: email best practice, email etiquette, email overload
Provide time for the recipient is the eighth principle of my Nine Ps of Smart Email Management charter. Yet how often do we plan ahead and think about the recipient of our email? One of the commonest stressors cited by workshop participants is ‘the sender never leaves me sufficient time’ for a proper, well thought out reply.
Yet it’s interesting that when asked to compare how quickly a reply is expected, most delegates say internal emailers expect an instant reply whilst customer’s and client’s time fame is often far less demanding. In one organisation, senior managers said they were often very surprised at how quickly junior members of their team replied to their emails. When was the last time email response time formed the subject of a management team discussion?
Some email etiquette quick wins to reducing the pressure on people are:
If we are to chip away at this current debilitating culture of multitasking and feeling that everything needs our immediate attention, then email response times need to be discussed and a workable service level (response time) agreed.
This week’s email etiquette tips are on managing the response time.
Tags: email best practice, email etiquette, email overload
One cause of email overload is being a slave to email at the expense of other communications media. As Peter Drucker once said ‘the new information technology… Internet and e-mail… have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications.’ But is this at the expense of the quality of communications?
When was the last time you talked rather than emailed someone? Email is just one of a glittering array of communications media which range from Facebook, text and instant messaging to old fashioned talking be it either face-to-face or through Skype.
After text and IM, email carries the least ammount of contextual information. You have no idea whether I am crying or laughing. Some would argue that you can add emotions with emoticons. But these too can be misinterpreted and most business people regard them as unprofessional and sloppy.
A conversation is very often worth nine rounds of email ping-pong at the end of which the matter is probably still unresolved. Indeed, using an alternative communications channel can be a very effective way of reducing email overload.
Some tasks for which an alternative to email would be more effective include:
Why are we so locked into email? Is it cultural, personality related (eg introverts find email easier than talking). Is it generational (there evidence that Generation Y pefer social media to email)?
To check just how addicted you are to email use our Email Addiction benchmarking tool.
This week’s tips on how to reduce email overload are focused on choosing an alternative to email to ensure that you convey the right message right first time.
Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your opinion on why you feel we are so addicted to email which drives up email overload and also when you have found an alternative to email more effective.
Tags: email addiction, email best practice, email overload