Technology has always advanced quicker than we can keep up with, but the advancement that has been with us for some time and will, for many, be their prime source of communication, is email. We tend to use it so often that we don’t contemplate what its real use should be.

Many people say to me they are overwhelmed with email, and I can understand that, because a lot of email is a pure waste of time. If the email isn’t structured well or creates more work for the receiver by them having to clarify points or phone up the sender to ask for explanations, then the mail could be wasting everyone’s time. Here’s my take on what could be considered the seven deadly sins:

1) The email that’s replacing a conversation. How many times have you been playing ‘email tennis’ with someone, when it would have been easier, faster and more efficient to have simply picked up the phone and spoken to them?

2) The email that’s too vague. So many emails do not get to the point and use too many generalisations. Re-read your email before sending it and make sure you are clear on what you are wanting or informing, wthout the receiver having to second-guess you

3) The email that talks about things that should be covered privately. Don’t use email to get out of actually having a conversation about something that is personal or sensitive

4) The email that’s too casual. There is email etiquette that should always be adhered to. Before you send it, remember that there wioll always be a record of what you sent. Do you want to make that impersonal impression?

5) The email that’s inappropriate. Again, think about the subject and if you want the other person to be able to keep a record of what you say. If it could possibly be misconstrued, or taken the wrong way, be careful you don’t open a pandora’s box!

6) The email that’s so long, the receiver has to get a cup of coffee, take the phone off the hook and plan two hours to get through it. If your email is more than one page long (the page on the screen, that is) consider typing a word or pages document and attaching it to the email.

7) The email that asks for immediate responses now. This might seem strange, as most people will say the best thinbg about email is the speed. That’s right, but you don’t know what the receiver’s agenda is at that moment. If they are in a meeting, the best you can hope for is that they see it after their meeting. This is the ideal situation for a phone call as well as the email.

You know how you feel when you receive too many or too vague emails. Learn from that experience and don’t allow yourself to fall into the trap of the seven deadly sins!

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

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Email has completely changed the way we work. Most managers we talk to consider themselves to be enslaved by the keyboard, unable to accomplish their daily tasks because of the amount of electronic, as well as paper, mail they receive.

What’s the best way of dealing with this? How can you proactively manage your in-box so it serves you, rather than the other way round?

Firstly, does it matter how many emails are in your in-box? Well, yes it does. If you have dozens or hundreds of emails in your in-box, you run the risk of losing sight of the importance of some of the messages, and will find it difficult to find something at short notice. Yes, you can use the search box, but that only proves you have too much information there, because you can’t find it easily.

Also, by not pruning your in-box, and your colleagues contributing as well, you add pressure to your company servers,causing the well-known and ill-timed message from IT that the servers have crashed again. Don’t moan…you added to the problem!

So here are some tips to deal with this dilemma:

Prioritise your in-box. Check the sender’s names…how quickly do you need to deal with their email? Check the subject…is it urgent or just for information? Is it your responsibility or can it be delegated on? Check the priority given by the sender…do they really mean it’s urgent?

This initial scan can help you identify those emails that need immediate attention, and those that can wait until you have more time.

Reply in stages. You may wish to send a brief acknowledgment to the sender first, following up with more detail later. This means you take control of when you deal with it, and the sender isn’t wondering what’s going on. This is useful when you need to get more information before replying or when you’re angry, upset or confused about a message and you need time to compose yourself.

Set specific time for dealing with incoming mail. That way, you control it rather than the other way round. Resist the temptation to check every email the moment the tell-tale sound alerts you to a delivery. Most managers tell us that checking first thing in the morning, again around lunch and again later in the afternoon gives them time to deal with other stuff in their day, too.

Use a filing system to manage your messages. Check what the archiving policy is for storing emails, and if you have to keep them for a certain time period. If it’s a central facility, utilise that rather than filling up your own memory. Create your own filing system arranged by customer name, project name, date of receipt, research project, etc. Then use subtitles in the files to determine what still needs to be done.

For example, you might have a folder for ABC Ltd, then subtitles in the folder for invoices, projects, work in progress or items still to be done. The pending items can be marked ‘unread’ so they still stand out in the subfolder.

Many people find it useful to set up day-folders, just like a diary. Make five folders corresponding to days of the week, then when an email comes in and you want to deal with it on Wednesday, simply transfer it to the Wednesday folder. That way, you have your to-do list for next Wednesday.

You need to practice good housekeeping with your in-box. Set time limits for how long a message will stay in your in-box. (Take a look now and see how old is the oldest message in your in-box…surprised, huh?). Decide what you are going to do with any messages that are there…file it, delete it, delegate it, action it…do something with it! If a response was necessary, make sure you’ve done it. Send unwanted messages to your ‘deleted messages’ file, then cleanse that file regularly.

Offer alternatives to email. Remember, there are practical and effective alternatives to email, like instant messaging, text, voicemail, teleconferencing, and (a communication method that seems to have gone out of favour recently!) actually talking to someone in real-time!

Check who your mail is coming from. If you find that much of your overwhelming email is coming from old subscriptions to sites you no longer have any interest in, purge the lists so you only get stuff from people you are actually going to read. Ask yourself…how many emails do I get that I delete without reading? Maybe they are from senders you can unsubscribe from.

So, remember to avoid these common mistakes:

Don’t react immediately to every email that comes in
Don’t let your in-box become another storage folder
Don’t become overwhelmed with too much clutter

That way, you reduce the risk of being overwhelmed by your inbox, and you can spend time on more important things…like running your department!

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”