Are hundreds of emails every day necessary?
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
When we open our email box in the morning at work, what often happens is that we are literally overwhelmed by emails of any kind.
Leaving out the problem of spam, which can be easily eliminated with filters or accounts which directly deal with it, many other emails still fill our mailbox and we don’t know how to respond to them.
How can we solve the problem?
There are just some simple rules to follow:
1. Make order. What I suggest as first thing to do is putting everything in order from the beginning. If the problem is out of control, take some time to reorganize the emails you have already read, those pending, those you still have to read, and label as much as possible, organizing every single entry in the best way.
2. Archive. Create groups for customers, partners, internal mails or projects, but try to follow a clear structure which you can replicate also in your mind, so that you know exactly what is under control and what is not. Archive everything that has been concluded. Do not wait for a whole project to be closed before eliminating every single email: go on step by step and archive them little by little, without leaving them in the “Income” folder. In this way, also the management of your projects will be clearer and you will feel relieved from the very moment in which you see the volume of your mailbox decrease.
3. Train. The organization of your mailbox is only a part of the problem; what you must absolutely do to avoid getting crazy everyday again is training your interlocutors to be concise and summarize as much as possible in one only mail.
Instead of wasting time in neverending, useless exchanges of emails, use quicker methods of communication, such as instant messaging, conference calls, telephone. Use emails only to send a report to everybody and fix what has been said.
4. Give the example. Of course, the first effort must be yours. Avoid sending emails at all times, to your partners, employees or collaborators. You risk being oppressive, both towards those who are interested in your business and with the ones who are involved directly. A worker who is continually bombarded with emails cannot concentrate on what should be his priority. Remember that spam is not only what comes from undesired sources: bombarding for petty reasons is considered spam as well.
5. Separate. Avoid using the same account for work and for extras such as for example the subscription to social networks, campaigns, trials of new services. Completely separate the two worlds so that you will have very few distractions and will not concentrate everything in a single place, which would easily become clogged.
