The way we use emails is chocking our productivity. Email has become an invasive intrusion, binding us to our screens: the japanese knotweed of work.
Researchers say we spend about 28 percent of our time actively managing email, that’s over a quarter of every day.
For most of us emailing is not our job. Email is supposed to be just a tool to help us fulfil our job, but instead it slows our productivity right down. My Crazy Busy session polls reveal that email is viewed as one of the top two hijackers to getting work done. I’ll tell you the other one at the bottom.
How have we ended up spending so much time reading, re-reading, responding and searching through emails?
What could we do instead with that time?
We are always-on. We see an email and feel pressure to respond immediately, even though most messages can be dealt with later. The pressure is even more acute when working from home. We reply to emails straight away to prove we are working, when we should be off-grid and recharging our batteries, or getting on with something impactful.
We shouldn’t have to be always available to prove we are thinking about our work.
Emailing is an energy depleting activity
Some people resort to one of two strategies to cope with their email:
- They strive for in-box zero, compulsively triaging emails into folders and colour-coded systems.
- They give up deleting and claim that despite having 2000 + emails in their inbox they can find what they need using keywords.
There’s a middle ground:
Check your emails less. Instead of checking every thirty minutes or so, and keeping an eye on notifications in the meantime, switch off notifications and extend the time between each check. Focus on your actual work instead, scheduling time during the day to check your mail rather than being constantly aware of what’s in your inbox. If you switched to hourly checking that could cut about eight checks from your day. If each check takes about 15 minutes then you’ve just saved yourself two hours……. You’re welcome.
Move them as soon as you read them. Read them, delete them, or archive them into a folder to act on later.
Call people. We use phones for everything now except phone calls. When your email chain gets beyond two messages pick up the phone. Get people comfortable with calling you by calling them first: that’s how you build relationships and trust. That’s especially true now when some of us feel disconnected and appreciate a call even more. Agree an email etiquette to stop the problem at source. Put internal email use at the top of the agenda for your next team meeting. I promise everyone will welcome strategies to manage the onslaught:
- Clarify how often you check your in-box and how you want people to contact you in between if they need you.
- Agree reasonable response times to non-urgent messages.
- Decide who should be copied in on emails – obviously as few people as possible.
- Agree turns to manage @team email addresses so you don’t duplicate effort.
- Decide a policy on out of hours/time-zone messages that respect your boundaries.
- Stop the back and forward thank-you/acknowledgement messages.
- Provide training on how to draft punchy emails, Susan Feehan is one supplier
- Clarify in the subject line if messages require action or are for information only
- Ask people to stop firing off emails on the hoof. If their excuse is that they don’t want to forget what’s on their mind then suggest they use the Notes function instead.
- Request that people who email in the evenings send their messages to draft/themselves instead. They can forward them to you the next day once they’ve double-checked the tone and content. It will take just a few minutes but will avoid causing possible offence or misunderstandings. The email sent in the morning always differs from the one drafted over a glass of wine the night before.
- Call out the culprits who send two or three messages on the same topic, rather than taking time to compose one thoughtful message, or better still, call you. This is work, the place for professional communication. When we want a stream of consciousness we’ll read Ulysses.
Explain your email etiquette to your new starters, they’ll be delighted. Feel free to share this article with your colleagues.
The other top productivity hijacker is meetings. Did you guess?
I like nice emails
The average person receives 120 emails a day – does that sound right to you? I’d love to hear about your email use so please message, email or call me.