My inbox doesn’t have hundreds of e-mails anymore!

Some executives get hundreds of e-mails a day. Many report taking more than an hour everyday just erasing garbage and separating the messages they will read in the future. Years ago, I also had that routine! Everyone understands that this activity is extremely boring and unproductive.

In many enterprises, the e-mails “war” is a way for departments and colleagues to blame others for problems and also for subordinates to “delegate up” their issues.

With the development of my career, each time less e-mails arrived to my inbox, until I had only a small fraction of the e-mails my colleagues received.

I reached the point of finding that strange and asking myself whether I was doing something wrong. By consulting my colleagues, I drew the conclusion that it was the opposite. I monitor very closely everything that happens in my department and the others consider me very well informed within the organization.

I therefore came to the conclusion that the amount of e-mails is not directly correlated with the amount of information you have.

This discrepancy drew my attention and I decided to start trying to understand what I had done to arrive to this situation.

The method I structured, initially in an intuitive manner and now in a more systematic way, was to classify every e-mail according to its type and what measure should be adopted when facing it. I will explain:

• “Worm” e-mail: the one that has more than 5 replies and rejoinders. Usually there is divergence implanted. Continuing to handle this by e-mail rarely will solve the issue! To stop the messaging “ping-pong” and solve the issue, it tends to be better to schedule a meeting with all involved or simply to leave your seat and talk to them.
• “I exist” e-mail: the one in which you are put, many times in copy, without having anything to do. It can be the report from someone’s action or result. This type of e-mail is normally sent by someone, who wants to advertise his or her activity, because of insecurity or as an internal marketing strategy. Among all kinds of e-mails, it is the easiest to sort out, because you can simply ignore it. If it comes from your team, you can talk with the person and reinforce their work or tackle their insecurity, which leads to this sort of e-mail. They can be used as indicator of the need to boost the self-esteem of the ones, who send them.
• “Flying monkey” e-mail: This is a dangerous kind of e-mail! It’s the one in which someone subtly tries to transfer a problem to your shoulders, as the name explains. It’s normally written to delegate an issue to another department or colleague. For that reason, the language is friendly and calm and can be confused with the “I exist” type. It is easily ignored, especially if you have an inbox with 300 e-mails. You will only know later when someone tells you “I sent you an e-mail!” and by then the monkey is already on your shoulder. In the future you’ll be able to identify this person as a monkey thrower and be aware when receiving an e-mail from them, especially the gentle ones.
• “Unconcerned question” e-mail: This e-mail is the one you write or receive to ask something trivial to a big group of people, for example who’s available at 5pm for a call. This always generates a geometric multiplication of other e-mails: agreeing, disagreeing or suggesting. If you’re the boss, don’t ask questions by e-mail! If you received the question from your boss or colleague, don’t take part in the proliferation of messages and answer personally or by phone.
• “URGENT: my house is on fire” e-mail: This kind of e-mail is very common in the corporate business. There are 1001 kinds of announcements of catastrophes in these e-mails: we are going to lose the client, the factory is going to stop, we are going to be fined etc. This e-mail is absurd, because in our private life it would never occur to us to call the firefighters by e-mail, if your house is on fire with you inside. However, in the companies these e-mails thrive! That’s because, yet scandalous, this type of e-mail also has the purpose of the “Flying monkey” kind of e-mail: hold the other accountable for the problem. The good part of this e-mail is that it’s easy to identify! Between bold letters, strong words and red writing, you can hardly miss it in your e-mail forest. Resist answering, although it’s difficult to take the pressure of replying, clarifying, responding and explaining. Endure! Call immediately and if you don’t manage, simply reply: “I’m trying to contact you on your phone for us to sort out this important problem”. If you respond to it, it will be transformed into a “worm” e-mail, and in this case a “radioactive worm”!
• “Court sentence” e-mail: This may be the hardest of all e-mails you can get. It comes from above and brings an order, feedback or reply, which your superior didn’t have the guts or interest to pass on to you in person. If you get one of these e-mails stop and think. Structure yourself to reactivate your relation with your superior. This type of e-mail is the kind that ruins lives, and you don’t want to get many of them!

Classifying e-mails in this way allows you to take action for each e-mail you get, according to its type, systematically lowering the amount of e-mails you receive and the size of your inbox.

Understanding that quite often you are the one at the origin of so many e-mail is also very important. Therefore, lower your anxiety, don’t reply hastily, avoid asking questions by e-mail (specially to big groups) and handle issues personally by phone or, even better, in person.

There are companies in which, to worsen the problem, there is an expectation that you ought to answer your e-mails immediately. My recommendation is to resist, if you can. If not, call. And do it right away! The person who sends you an e-mail on a Sunday at 5pm and expects an immediate answer is not always willing to assist you by phone at that time! If you’re systematic you’ll see that your efforts will be rewarded with the disappearance of these inconvenient e-mails.

But after all what are e-mails for or what kind of e-mails are productive?

In my vision, e-mails serve to exchange and register information and the most useful are always the ones, which are already expected by the receiver: a regular report, the minutes of a meeting, awaited documents, the conclusion of a conversation carried out by phone or at a coffee break. The best of all begin with “As we spoke, follows… “

This is only my experience; I’d love to know yours! If you like my article, share it!