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One hours training returns about five hour extra productivity. Yet according to a recent survey from the UK Commission on Employment and Skills 40% of UK companies spent nothing on training last year. This supports Mesmo Consultancy’s observations on how poor people’s level of skills is with their email software. Here is the tool which is used most in day-to-day businesses and yet ask people which of the key time saving features they can use such as filters and colour to manage their inbox and on average only 50% know how to use these functions.
Training is the key to improving productivity and competitiveness as has been observed by many including ourselves. Indeed attending a short ninety minute email best practice workshop can help you find up to an extra sixty minutes a day. When was the last time you provided your employees with any email training? Do they use their email software properly to improve productivity or so poorly that they are often the source of unnecessary demands on the IT Help Desk.
Click here to check your level of Outlook IT Fitness and see where you could be saving time. If you need some help call us and we would be pleased to talk through how providing email best practice training (to use both the email and calendar functionality) can improve business productivity.
Tags: email management training, Email training, Outlook IT Fitness
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
If you still have any doubts about the extent of email overload take a look at this recent Infographics from Online It Degree. Email is now the biggest drain on our own and our collegues productivity. Mesmo Consulatncy’s own data collection from our clients shows that we waste up to 21 days per person per year. Moreover email overload is often a major cause of stress. Figures from the USA now show that absenteeism through stress in rising.
Created by: OnlineITDegree.net
However investing ninety mintes of your time in one of our Brilliant Email Master classes has helped many business reclaim up to 45 mintes of the time lost through email overload.
Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy has spent the last fifteen years coaching and training people from a wide range of organisations and businesses to use email more effectively to improve personal and business performance and manage the risk associated with cyber crime. Monica is a Visiting Senior Fellow at Cass Business School City University and Bournemouth University Business School. She is passionate about helping people to save time by using email effectively and has written several books on the subject, the latest being Brilliant Email. She runs regular workshops and masterclasses on email best practice.
Tags: email management training, email overload, email stress
You receive an Out of Office Message, what is your natural reaction next time you want to email that person? Aside from a touch of jealousy as they are on leave and have escaped the daily dose of email overload, you just send them another email.
Is that the best email behaviour for those serious about stopping email overload and reducing the resulting wanton waste of time (estimated now to be half a day week).
One in five business users now receive in excess of seventy email a day. Yet our own and that of others research shows that less than a third of all incoming email is ever read. Take a week off and there will be at least 350 emails waiting for you.
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| My notebooks from our sponsor BomoArt |
There is a very high chance that your email will either be missed or redundant by the time its read. However the recipient may not know that and so more unecessary emails flood back into your inbox.
Be innovative. Don’t firing of more emails. Instead write down the things you want to email the person about and either send them one email on their return or and better still talk to them.
Now watch the email traffic go down along with the email overload. You might even find you too reach the empty inbox status more quickly.
This is part of an ongoing series of notebook stories to reduce email overload – see also my recent column in TechRepublic.
Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy has spent the last fifteen years coaching and training people from a wide range of organisations and businesses to use email more effectively to improve personal and business performance and manage the risk associated with cyber crime. Monica is a Visiting Senior Fellow at Cass Business School City University and Bournemouth University Business School. She is passionate about helping people to save time by using email effectively and has written several books on the subject, the latest being Brilliant Email. She runs regular workshops,webinars and masterclasses on email best practice.
Tags: email management training, email overload, empty inbox, inbox zero, notebook stories, out-of-office messages
Can pen and paper help stop email overload and reach inbox zero? Yes. No, I am neither mad nor suffering from the first stages of dementia. Keep a check today on how many times people ask you to do something (from arrange a meeting to join them for lunch):
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| My BomoArt Daybook |
Walking around any office, going to a meeting and I see most people with a notebook and pen in addition to all the technical gizmos. We seem to use the traditional writing tools for doodling (when the meeting is boring) and making our own personal notes but rarely for jotting down what someone has asked us to do. Why? One reason is because we want a record so we can play cover my backside. Many such emails are unnecessary and just drive up the email overload and hence reduce the chance of reaching inbox overload.
Email is just one of a multitude of communications and organisation tools one of which is the traditional notebook. Picking the right tool for the right purpose is key to saving time dealing with your email.
If you are serious about stopping email overload and reaching the inbox zero status quo, then next time someone asks you to do something, take ownership and make a note in your own day book. Don’t ask them to send you an email. It smacks of playing politics and laziness. Here is my beautiful day book (from BomoArt) which goes everywhere with me.
Tags: email management training, email overload, empty inbox, inbox zero, notebook stories