Managing Your Email Distractions
I ran a workshop last week and one of the topics that came up during our talk on distractions, was managing your email and email etiquette. Emails can be a great time waster and provide a constant distraction throughout the day. If you're going to make the most of your day then one way to increase your productivity is to limit the amount of time you spend on emails.
One of the first things to do is make sure you’re setting both yours and your client’s/customer’s expectations. How quickly do you really need to respond to emails? Does your work require you respond immediately or can you wait a few hours or maybe even a couple of days? If necessary, set an autoresponder so that people who email you will automatically be notified that you’ve received their email and you will get back to them within a specified time.
Set aside time in your day to read and respond to emails. A quick scan will identify the important, urgent, reading and junk. Set a time limit, say 30 minutes at a time to go through and respond to emails that need a quick, instant response. Clear the rest of the action emails in the remaining time, without addressing any new emails. Leave those until next time, along with emails that require a longer response.
Filters are very useful for pre-sorting emails into different folders, so you can quickly see what’s important or filter out reading and newsletters.
Only send an email to the person who actually needs to read it and make sure that if you need it actioning you’re clear about what needs to be done and when – don’t leave assumptions open to mis-interpretation. Don’t ‘cc’ every person you can think of, only include people that need to read the email.
Email is not 100% guaranteed to get where it’s going. Especially with spam filters getting more and more efficient/aggressive/ selective you can’t be sure that your email has been delivered. There can also be a time delay in hitting send and it turning up in the recipient’s inbox. Due to vagaries of mail servers and technology and email may take a few hours to get to it’s destination. If it’s urgent – pick up the phone.
Oh and switch off that email alert.
One of the first things to do is make sure you’re setting both yours and your client’s/customer’s expectations. How quickly do you really need to respond to emails? Does your work require you respond immediately or can you wait a few hours or maybe even a couple of days? If necessary, set an autoresponder so that people who email you will automatically be notified that you’ve received their email and you will get back to them within a specified time.
Set aside time in your day to read and respond to emails. A quick scan will identify the important, urgent, reading and junk. Set a time limit, say 30 minutes at a time to go through and respond to emails that need a quick, instant response. Clear the rest of the action emails in the remaining time, without addressing any new emails. Leave those until next time, along with emails that require a longer response.
Filters are very useful for pre-sorting emails into different folders, so you can quickly see what’s important or filter out reading and newsletters.
Only send an email to the person who actually needs to read it and make sure that if you need it actioning you’re clear about what needs to be done and when – don’t leave assumptions open to mis-interpretation. Don’t ‘cc’ every person you can think of, only include people that need to read the email.
Email is not 100% guaranteed to get where it’s going. Especially with spam filters getting more and more efficient/aggressive/ selective you can’t be sure that your email has been delivered. There can also be a time delay in hitting send and it turning up in the recipient’s inbox. Due to vagaries of mail servers and technology and email may take a few hours to get to it’s destination. If it’s urgent – pick up the phone.
Oh and switch off that email alert.
Labels: business, email, technology
1 Comments:
Interesting advice there. ... Here's another e-mail etiquette issue, if you're interested:
E-mail etiquette question: Thanks or no thanks?
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/17973
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