How to avoid the post holiday avalanche of emails

The out of office reply is all too familiar – but it doesn’t seem to stop people sending emails does it? After all, you’ll see it when you get back! But will you?

If you’re one of many I’ve come across who suffer from literally hundreds of emails waiting to greet them on their return, you’ll know that it may well get lost in the melee! 

And sadly, it takes so long to organise or respond to everyone, that by the time it's all sorted and you’re back on top of things, your holiday is a distant memory and you may wonder whether it was worth going away in the first place.

So, if we all follow a few email protocols, I wonder if we could in fact reduce the number of emails that pass between us, and free our minds and inboxes of unnecessary messages.

Here’s my take on how to cut the inbox clutter:

The "out-of-office" - a good idea, or a risky one?

Before we tackle what to do when you get back, there are a few schools of thought on the benefits, or otherwise, of using an out-of-office notice to let senders know that you're away.

One major concern is your out-of-office notice tells the senders of automated spam emails that your address is a genuine one. If they don't get a response, they'll move on elsewhere but if you do reply, then your address will be permanently on a list of inboxes to target. It's worth bearing in mind.

So how to avoid this? If you have an assistant or colleague you trust, you can give them editing rights to your email and let them reply to genuine emails and keep your inbox tidy while you are away. Most email programs also allow you to select auto-replies only to people who are on your contact list already.

The next, more drastic, step (but it works for Daimler...)

Take one step further and the next logical move, one which is encouraged by German vehicle manufacturer Daimler, is to automatically delete all emails sent to you while you're on holiday!

Admittedly it’s a brave step, but if you think about it, it's quite sensible really. You set up an out-of-office notice to say that the sender's email is being deleted, that they should contact your colleague if it's really important, or that if you are the only one who can help then they can get in touch with you on your return when you're back in the office in a few days' time.

Hey presto! The routine, unnecessary notices are deleted. A colleague will either deal with the important ones if they're urgent, or they'll be sent afresh when you get back (by which time the situation may have developed anyway, meaning correspondence is up-to-the-minute rather than being out of date).

Your first few days back will then be spent with an inbox which is as clear as your refreshed and focused mind, letting you concentrate on the tasks people need you for.

Tactics for email management

If automatic email deletion is one step too far (and I can see why you may think so) then the key tactic to use is organisation, through clear choices.

I like to think of email organisation in the same terms as those days before digital communication. So you could try imagining returning to work with a huge pile of post on your desk. What would you do with it all?

Make some clear choices when you first look at each. Perhaps your tactics could fall into one of these five categories:

• Toss it = delete it (for junk mail, and most emails which you have been cc'd into)
• Delegate it = forward it to someone else (essential admin, or tasks which a member of your team can look after)
• Do it = act now or plan for action (then archive it) - more on this shortly
• Follow it up = temporary home (more substantial tasks which need dedicated thought)
• Archive it = permanent home (important but non-urgent correspondence, for filing)

The "Do it" category is a key one here, as assuming many of the emails in your inbox can be quickly deleted these are the potentially time-consuming ones. If you get time, take a look at this article and specifically the Reading Email section, half way down. It talks about an approach called the Two Minute Rule, pioneered by David Allen, which suggests you should just get those quick tasks done, as you read them, even if they're not high priority.

So, to summarise: get that quick stuff cleared out of the way, delete the junk and routine messages you've been cc'd on, delegate the admin and unimportant tasks, archive the stuff you want to file, and mark the important tasks for follow-up.

There, you've done it! Your inbox is mostly cleared, with the priority tasks nicely organised and the rest looked after by other members of your team.

Now try and hold on to that holiday feeling for as long as you can - that clarity of mind is priceless and it's a great way to get the best out of yourself in the workplace.

If you have any tips or tactics for managing your post-holiday inbox please share them, I’d love to hear more.