Death by a thousand e-mails!

Like many people I speak to, I once found myself being constantly distracted by e-mails. I felt like I needed an empty inbox (literally) before I could start work. Have you ever found yourself being a slave to e-mails?

E-mails are great but they can’t be allowed to consume us or be used as a pseudo instant messaging tool. If we let e-mails take up too much of our working days it is all too easy to find yourself at the end of the day without actually doing any "real" work.

If you’re treading water what do you do? I found the following worked for me:

Plan, plan, oh and plan your days

I structure my days as round high, medium and low priority items. It is important you plan the high priority tasks for when you are at your best. Generally speaking most people operate at their best in the morning. Therefore, I plan my high priority actions for then, following this most will dip in performance around lunch, I find going for a run clears my head and sets me up for the afternoon. Therefore, I perform low priority task in the middle of the day and medium in the afternoon. Why is this important? If you don’t have an understanding of what is and what is not important you will not be able to establish if an e-mail should or should not be dealt with and by when.

Based on the above I typically, spend 30 mins scanning by inbox first thing, to check nothing has exploded that I need to deal with. I’ll then take a quick review after my run, and finally I set aside a dedicated time slot at the end of the day to reply to the medium emails.

However, you approach your day, the key really is to be the gate keeper of your time, structure it so you are not a slave to e-mail. Before I did the above I lost days.

Don’t overdo it.

Keep it short, you are not writing a formal letter (most of the time). Be polite but to the point. If you need to write an essay to convey your point you should be meeting face to face, video conference or phone. Put key points on separate lines and remove the fluff, you are not only saving yourself time but the person on the other end.

Have you been CC’d or BCC’d

As an experiment, I once setup a rule to auto forward all e-mails where I was cc’d to another folder. I then read these e-mails at the end of the week. Shockingly 90% of these e-mails fell into two categories; 1) I didn’t need to know about it 2) it was resolved without me being involved. Therefore, I tell people if you want me to action something don’t cc me.

Body language is 60% of human communication

It is far too easy to miss-interpret the written word and see a "tone" which did not exist! When you are giving feedback or points of improvement you should do this face to face, then follow up in an e-mail. It also helps build relationships with your team. People value human interaction.

Wait! Do you really need to click send?

What would happen if you don’t send the e-mail? If you send unnecessary mails you are part of the problem. Speak to people, call them, work over to their desk, it is not only good exercise it is often quicker.

Don’t say I’ve just e-mail you!

I often have people e-mail me, then 30 seconds later, walk over and say; "I’ve just e-mailed you" If it is that important, just come and speak to me and we can have a proper meeting. Rather than spend 20 mins writing and e-mail, 10 mins explaining it to me, then having me spend 15 mins reading it.

Focus on what is important

Your inbox is not your actions list, your day will be wasted reading and performing "quick 10 minute" none-important tasks. Don’t let people in your business dictate your to-do lists for the day. Is that e-mailing really helping achieve your goals?

The above saved my life! OK, I’m exaggerating, but following these principles has helped me a great deal. I’d be interested in any other tips or advice that have worked for you in the battle against e-mail overload.