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Showing items tagged with "email free vacation" - 10 found.

Top tips to reduce vacation email overload in 2019

Reducing the vacation email overload is one reason why many business people refuse to switch off during their holiday.  Nonetheless, all the research indicates that switching off from business email when on vacation improves your productivity and well-being.There are many ways to reduce and manage the vacation email overload. This is a topic we have written about on several occasions.  Here are five top tips for 2019.

Reduce vacation email overload

Before you go

1) Go for inbox zero before you go on vacation. Make time the week before your vacation to create a clean inbox.  Sort by person/project etc then use conversation mode to batch together all the email threads.  Flag any which need your attention on your return.  Then either delete the ones you really don’t need or move them out to a folder. Alternatively archive the lot (if you don’t have an automatic archiving system).

2) Treat your inbox as an information highway. Only let the really important emails into your inbox. As you clean the inbox, note the low priority emails you really do not need. Write rules to automatically folder them as they arrive (eg newsletters, cc’d emails, Out of Office messages etc.). Thus, keeping them out of the fast lane going directly into your inbox. Click here if you need help writing rules.

3) Set a simple clear Out of Message. Give the minimum of information to preying eyes (either cyber criminals or the competition). Just say you are out of the office with limited access to your email. Provide a point of contact for any urgent matters (having checked that the person is both available and happy to buddy up for you).

Set the OOO for one day before you go and two after your return.  This gives you time to clear up and catch up and look supper efficient on your return!

On your return

4) Triage the inbox to identify the really important emails. Again, sort by person/project and use the conversation view to group the threads. Deal with the important emails which need your attention.  Use the Pomodoro technique to deal with these in batches.

Accept that not all emails either need or warrant a reply. Once you’ve dealt with the essential ones, move the rest out into a holding (pending) folder. Check these at your leisure during the week. Then be ruthless, delete all the other emails which you do not need (eg conversations, cc’d emails).  If they are important the sender will soon re-email you.

5) Create templates of text and automation reply quickly. If you find several emails need similar words in the reply (eg a holding response) create templates of text to help you save time retyping the same text. Click here to see how to use Quick Parts in Outlook.  For Outlook users create a Quick Step for emails which need a repeat action, eg sending invoice to finance.

If you find these tips useful don’t forget there are many more like this on the Mesmo Consultancy Facebook and LinkedIn pages.  Why not join us on or both one of these social media platforms. Also, there is Mesmo Consultancy’s Smart Email Management Workshop.  Either click here or call us for more information.

Tags: Clean Inbox, email free vacation, inbox zero, Manage vacation email, out of office message, Reduce vacation email overload, Top tips to reduce reduce vacation email overload

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Vacation email overload: whether or not to put the inbox on vacation

Inbox vacation

Managing the vacation email overload possess the perennial dilemma of whether or to put your inbox on vacation too.  This article looks at how to reduce the vacation email overload.  it reviews the pros and cons and of having an inbox vacation.  It looks at ways to manage the post vacation email overload.  For example, how to pack your inbox properly so that you don’t drown in an email tsunami on your return.   It shows you how to have a really email free vacation, setting a safe Out of Office Message what to do if you feel you really must log-in whilst away.

Published in Executive Secretary Magazine March 2017

Tags: email free vacation, Inbox vacation, Managing email vacation overload, out of office message

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Email Free Vacation – will you have one?

It’s that time of year, many of us are either on or planning a vacation. The perpetual question is whether or not to have an email free vacation.

We found that 80% said that dealing with the holiday email overload is one of the most stressful aspects of having a vacation. More stressful even than loosing your passport. Hence why they did not dare have an email detox. As stress and mental health rises up the corporate agenda, the reasons for disconnecting are ever more pressing to preserve our well-being.

Organisations have adopted many ways to lessen the holiday email overload effect from an ‘Out of Office’ messages asking you to re-send the email when the other person is back to adopting an email free vacation charter. But what if your company has no such policy? Here are the top ten actions you can take by yourself to have an email free vacation and reduce the holiday email overload mountain.

Pack the inbox properly

1. De-clutter your inbox before going on leave. Clear out all the old emails and flag those needing your attention on return. Be ruthless, delete the low priority ones.
2. Use rules to divert all new low priority emails eg newsletters and in reverse highlight potentially important ones.
3. Set a safe and simple Out of Office message. Run it for a day before and after your vacation to allow time to chill out and then gear up smoothly.
4. Switch off work email feed on your mobile device if you use only one mobile device. Otherwise leave the work one at home.

The email free vacation

5. Establish a disaster recovery plan. In case of a real emergency leave a contact point.
6. If you feel you must check your emails, allocate specific times eg end/beginning of the day.

Unpack the inbox on your return

7. Spend the first half hour talking to colleagues to see what has been happened and hence which emails need you immediate attention.
8. Attack the inbox. Block out one/two hours for the first few days to clear the important emails. Use time management techniques like Pomodoro or apps like Saent to stay focused.
9. Utilise the email software functions to help save time, for instance creating templates of text for responding (Quick Parts in Outlook) and Quick Steps to move and flag emails for action later (remembering managing the sender’s expectation).
10. Stop after three/four days. Move the rest out to a folder and leave them.   By then if you still have not cleared all the really important emails it’s time to reflect on what are your real priorities.  This is akin to declaring email bankruptcy which is used very successfully by many (to defuse the holiday email backlog) on the basis that if it is that important someone will soon re-email you.

Do you have any tips to share about dealing with the email free vacation challenge? There is a free copy of either Brilliant Email or Taking Control of Your Inbox for the best response. Email us your suggestions by 10 August.

Tags: Email Bankruptcy, email free vacation, email overload, holiday email overload, Mental Health and Email, Pomodoro, Saent, well being

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Limit the business email overload after taking time out

About to take a few days out of the office?  Here are give top tips to avoid coming back to a chronic attack of business email overload.

1. Reduce the current inbox to as near to inbox zero as possible – see 2 and 3 below.
2. Check for any important emails which if left unattended will be urgent when you return. If there are then either deal with them now or send a holding reply which allows you time on your return to deal with them.
3. Move out all the remaining emails over a week old. They are past their sell by date and if they are not, rest assured, someone will re-email you.

You should just be left with emails needing attention on your return. You could be bold and move these too into a folder ‘awaiting action’. Now you have an empty inbox. How does that feel? To keep the inbox clean and de-cluttered see item 4.

4. Set up rules to move automatically both essential and non-essential emails to folders eg newsletters, circulars, out of office messages, emails on which you are cc’d, etc. This also means that emails from key people are all in one place on your return and easy to find. Your inbox should then just contain important emails but un-planned for emails.
5. Set a safe and simple Out of Office message. Take care not to leave the door open to prying eyes and cyber criminals. You might be bold and suggest the sender re-sends any important emails on your return as all emails will be automatically deleted. Such a practice is far more common than you think.

Now go off and relax safe in the knowledge that you have taken adequate precautions to reduce a chronic attack of business email overload.

For more guidelines like these see Brilliant Email and Taking Control of Your Inbox (the latter is especially relevant for PAs and EAs who manage someone else’s inbox.

Tags: Brilliant Email, Clean Inbox, email free vacation, inbox zero, out of office message, Taking Control of Your Inbox, Vacation Email Overload

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Articles of note – August 2015

Not surprisingly most articles which have caught our attention relate to the challenge of whether or not to disconnect whilst on holiday.  Here are a few which should give you food for thought about why and how to go for an email detox and disconnect.

• How to switch of from work when you go on holiday.  A good read with excellent advice on what to do before and during your holiday.
• What obsessive-compulsive phone checking is doing to your brain.  In a word – destroying it.  We have been saying this for years based on UK data.  Now an American psychologist has proved it conclusively.  All the more reason to switch off whilst on leave.
• Going on vacation – don’t pack your email.  Taking an email free vacation gives you space to relax properly, work on relationships which will benefit from some TLC and think more at a higher level.
• Hotels offer you a digital detox.  If you don’t quite have the will power to switch off yourself, then find a hotel which will help you have not just email free vacation and completely disconnect.  Scary.
• You’ve got mail (all the bloody time).  And its not just business related, but social matters too. Draws on the work of various leading email management gurus with tips and hints on how to switch off and calm down.

And  just in case you are careless with your Out of Office message.

• Cyber insecurity: when 95% isn’t good enough.  This reinforces the fact that the weakest link in the battle against cyber crime is us the human being.  More often than not a breach of security begins with an email and our careless email behavior.

So before you take your vacation, be sure to set a safe and simple Out of Office message which discloses as little information as possible.  Then switch off and have a proper break to re-charge the batteries.

Tags: cyber crime, Digital detox, email cyber crime, Email detox, email free vacation

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