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Managing Email - before it manages you - 3/1/2008
by Terry Monaghan
control when you deal with your inbox
Recent studies and news segments indicate that the average person receives 470 emails each week, and spends at least 15 hours a week dealing with that email. That is 18 weeks a year, just dealing with email (assuming a 2 week vacation when you don't check your email - yeah, right - so 19-1/2 weeks every year just dealing with email. And we wonder why we aren't more productive?)
E-Mail
How did something designed to foster productivity become such a beast?
More importantly, how do you deal with it so that it doesn’t eat up your day?
I want to let you know that I am not speaking theoretically here. Like the average person mentioned in the studies and the news stories, I personally receive at least 470 emails each week (not counting spam). But, I have tracked my time spent dealing with the inbox, and if I spend 5 hours a week, it is a lot! So, how did I get control? That’s what I am going to be sharing with you today.
Managing the inbox
Is it possible to get through everything that lands in your inbox each day? Yes, it is, and it takes some simple processes.
First, to clarify, when I talk about getting through everything in your inbox, I do NOT mean getting through all the work that may be associated with that email. This is different from when you are going to do research, when you are doing scheduled future action. This is solely about going through everything in the inbox completely each day.
Ok, so how can you get through the inbox?
Control when you deal with the inbox
Many people I talk to seem to think that they have to deal with each and every message as soon as it arrives. No matter what they are doing. So, they stop what they are doing and read each and every message as it comes in. Then, at the end of the day they wonder why they didn’t get anything done.
You may be deeply focused on a project, and then that beep goes off, and your concentration is broken. Or you are finally on a roll writing that proposal, and the shadow notice pops up on your computer screen and you lose your train of thought.
Think about it for a moment. Do you HAVE to read everything as soon as it comes in? What will happen if you don’t? How often has this happened to you? You step away from your desk (maybe you are even out of the office), and you get a message. Then you get another message asking why you haven’t responded to the first message, and so on. And, maybe you even get a phone call letting you know that someone just sent you a message, or they were wondering why you hadn’t answered. And on, and on.
So, the first step in controlling when you deal with your inbox is establishing a protocol for when and how you deal with email. What do I mean? Well, here is mine. I deal with my email first thing in the morning. And I have let people I interact with know that I will always respond within 24 hours of receiving a message. (Notice, that is not immediately.) And, responding within 24 hours doesn’t necessarily mean that I will have finished any action required in that period – just that I will be acknowledging the request. I have also let people know that if they are sending me something that may require immediate attention, they need to call me. I may not always be able to deal with it immediately, and if they call me we can figure out when it will be dealt with. That way they are not frustrated, and I am being responsive.
Now, I do know that some companies have established an email protocol that requires everyone to respond the same day, with few exceptions. And another firm I work with frequently, has a protocol that requires people to respond within 7 days (this is a company where most people travel most of the time, and this takes their schedules into account).
The point is, establish a protocol, and then communicate the protocol to anyone who may be impacted.
The next step is to schedule when you are going to deal with your email. Maybe first thing in the morning, right after lunch, and half hour before the end of the day. Or, maybe you want to dive right into the most important tasks you have set for yourself, and you know that if you check your email first thing, you would get put off track. So, then, check your mail an hour or so after you get into the office, or right after you finish that most important task. The point here is not that there is a right time to do it – it is that you can say when the right time is for YOU to do it.
So, what else can you do to take control of when you deal with your email? I am going to mention some very simple steps which will make a HUGE difference:
Turn off the notifying sound – stop having that sound interrupt you!
Turn off the notifying popup – eliminate that distraction (temptation)
Turn off the setting to automatically get mail every x minutes – if it isn’t coming in, it can’t interrupt you! (Now I can just hear you objecting – yes, but… Trust me, the email is still there, and will patiently wait for you.)
Use f9 (or whatever your software uses for a shortcut) – to download mail at the time your have scheduled for when you are going to go through it
Control what lands in the inbox
Rules – most software programs have the capacity to allow you to set up sorting rules. These can usually be set up to either run automatically (as soon as messages arrive, they will be diverted), or can be run manually. Personally, I originally set up my rules to run automatically, but then I discovered I wasn’t 100% reliable about checking incoming messages that were diverted into other folders. So, now I have no rules that run automatically. But, when pressed for time, I will run the rules to sort out the messages and then methodically tackle each folder they go into. Choose a method that will actually work for you. And, you can make the rules as elaborate or simple as you need.
Subscriptions – examine what newsletters, organizations, places are sending you regular messages. If the information isn’t useful, then unsubscribe (you can always sign up again at another time). If the information is useful, but you don’t need to see it as soon as it comes in, then set up a rule to sort all of them into their own folder which you can review at your leisure. For example, newsletters could be sorted into a separate folder, as could announcements from organizations in which you participate.
Junk mail – I am not talking about spam here. I am talking about those message you receive because someone hit “reply all” even when you didn’t need to be included in a response, or those alerts that come from friends and colleagues about viruses (usually bogus), or even the forwarded joke of the day or quote of the day. When there is unwanted mail coming from friends or colleagues, ask them to stop including you. If that doesn’t work (and sometimes it doesn’t), then set up a rule to sort all mail from that person into a separate folder or directly into the trash. For the mail that you get as a result of “reply all” – set up a protocol for people to pay attention to that function, and request that they only include those people who are directly affected in the response.
Going through the inbox
Read and delete – there are a number of messages that arrive that only require that you read them. You do not need to respond to them. You do not need to save them for future reference. You do not need to schedule any action on them. These types of messages may include acknowledgements, thank you’s, delivery or read receipts, etc. Look to see what these messages are for you, and be ruthless. Read and delete.
Read and respond immediately – this is for the category of messages that you can deal with immediately. Maybe someone had a very quick question, which you can answer without having to look up anything else. Or, your response may just be thanking them or acknowledging receipt of the information. Again, this may be different for everyone, but the point here is you can read the message, respond immediately and then either delete or file.
Read and schedule for future action – Any number of emails are related to ongoing projects or are requests for or related to future action. These are not messages which you can respond to immediately. That is, you may need to do some research, you may need to finish a piece of work, or there is some other action or actions you must take before you can respond. So, read them, and either immediately schedule the next action in your calendar, or put the message in a holding folder (a to be scheduled folder). Once you have scheduled the next action, then you can file the message in the project folder, the action folder, or whatever folder you have to store messages relating to work in process.
Read and file – For messages that are providing you with resource material, or which need to be kept in order to maintain a paper trail of some kind. Just read the message, and then file it where it needs to be.
Delete – don’t even read – I use this for that category of message that may appear periodically and they are usually notices about upcoming programs or seminars that I might be interested in. There are times when I know that I am not going to be taking any action on these invitations, and I also know that they will come again, so I just delete them. One question I ask myself is – am I going to set aside the time to attend? If the answer is yes, then I schedule it. If the answer is no, then obviously I just delete it. If the answer is maybe, then (not so obviously) I usually also delete it. Maybe most often means no in my world. If I am really not sure, I may file it in a folder called Look At Again Tomorrow, with the understanding that I will review whatever is in that file and decide either yes or no at that point. This gives me a day to think about something, which is usually sufficient.
I don’t recommend you take on all of these ideas at once. Just try one or two, and once they are integrated and familiar, add one or two more. I promise it will make a difference, and you will see results immediately!
Also, several times I talked about filing your emails. I know most of you have a system for filing emails, and I do hear from time to time that that system isn’t really working for you. I am not going to get into filing emails at this point, as that leads into a whole conversation about filing in general – which could be the topic of another telewebinar.
So, now I’d like to open it up to any questions you might have…
Questions:
What do you mean by establish protocols? I am expected to drop everything!
Really? How is that working for you? Protocols are just simple rules, boundaries if you will, that give you a routine to follow. And, when you communicate them, everyone else knows how you work, they stop wondering IF you are going to get something done, and recognize that you will get it done, and they will also know WHEN you will get it done.
What do you mean – read and schedule for future action? Do you mean I actually should put a note in my schedule about when I am going to do the work?
Yes, that is exactly what I mean.
How can I get rid of all this junk mail that keeps showing up?
Unsubscribe to newsletters, etc., that are no longer useful. Set up a separate email to use when you go online to order something. And, then set up a rule to send all that email into one place. Also, check the security settings in your email. Most programs have a way you can tell it to deal with email that might be junk.
Is email even the best way to get something done?
Maybe, maybe not. It depends. I suggest that if you need a paper trail – then use email. If you just have a quick question, communication, or note – consider a phone call or voicemail.
How can I sort through everything really quickly? Sometimes I just don’t have the time to go through everything.
Set up rules for a broad sort. For example, sort by project, or by who sent the message. Then you can go back to that whole category. But, you must schedule a time to review it, otherwise that folder becomes one more sinkhole.
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