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    You are here Home » time management

    Does Your Email Inbox Dictate Your Day — And Should It?

    Last updated on Jul 2, 2019 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    Guest
    post from Dianna Booher:
    A reporter for Newsday called recently for a comment
    about his story on executive stress and the connection to email. As I shared
    stats from my organization’s recent survey, the reporter passed along comments
    from a CEO he’d just interviewed: “Email interrupts me all day long. I can’t
    focus on my core work. It’s 1:30. I have a project in front of me right now that
    should take me an hour and a half to finish. But because of the email
    distractions, it’ll take the rest of the afternoon to get it done.”

    Do you feel this executive’s
    pain – the frustration of disruptions in focusing on your core work? The bad
    news: You’re not alone. The good news: There are simple solutions (not easy
    solutions, but simple ones).

    My organization, Booher
    Research Institute, recently commissioned a survey of email habits and
    productivity from the Social Research Lab at the University of Northern
    Colorado. Here’s what a representative sampling of knowledge workers across
    multiple industries reported about their email habits:
    • 42
      percent spend 3 hours or more per day reading and writing email
    • 55
      percent check their email either hourly or multiple times per hour
    • 31 percent
      spend more than 20 minutes per day searching for information or files to
      include in responding to emails

    Conclusion: If your inbox
    feels like an email monster, you’re not fighting it alone. Here are five proven
    strategies to getting through your inbox faster so you can focus on your core
    work and the important emails.

    Declutter
    If you’ve ever tried to move
    your belongings into a closet or garage previously used by someone else, you
    understand this principle: Get rid of the items that served someone else’s
    purpose before you reload that space. You’ll typically sort the previous owner’s
    junk into piles: garbage, donate, sell.

    Look at your email box the
    same way: Over the years, you may have let it become a collection of junk
    serving everyone’s purposes but yours. And your own purposes may have changed
    over time as your role has changed. Cutting your email clutter can be the
    easiest way to carve away a big chunk of wasted time.

    In the earlier mentioned
    University of Northern Colorado (UNC) survey, a whopping 69 percent of the
    participants identified clutter as their biggest email problem.
    Once you set your mind to the
    idea, decluttering goes quickly. Let’s get even more specific about how.…
    Ask
    Team Members to Stop Hitting “REPLY ALL” and Stop Doing So Yourself
    Instead, of using “REPLY ALL,”
    send congratulatory comments directly to the person who deserves kudos. Offer
    thanks directly to the person who helped you. Turn down an invitation only to
    the appropriate person. Why clog up seventeen other inboxes, only to have all
    seventeen recipients echo back?

    A good rule of thumb on the
    REPLY ALL feature: Is your response helpful to all on the distribution
    list?  If not, fly solo. Granted,
    changing the culture can be difficult. But aim to set the example.
    Cull
    Your Distribution Lists
    Chances are great that you get
    copied on many emails you don’t need. Their usefulness to you has long since
    passed. But you’ve found it quicker just to delete those periodic emails than
    to take yourself off the distribution list permanently.

    In fact, according to the UNC
    survey, knowledge workers report that fully 35 percent of the emails they
    receive are either irrelevant  (22
    percent) or redundant (13 percent). (Irrelevant emails refer to those about topics
    that do not apply to you. Redundant emails are those with the same information
    sent by multiple people.)

    That “quick and easy” decision
    is understandable when you’re dealing with just one email. But over time, that
    decision amounts to thousands of distractions.

    You also may be surprised to
    discover that culling your distribution lists for emails you send may increase
    engagement with the interested parties on important projects. As with meetings,
    the larger the group, the lower the individual participation. When emailing for
    input, the same principle applies: When you copy a large list, people feel
    anonymous, and fewer feel it’s necessary to respond. If you need their input,
    cut the list and you’ll increase response.
    Stop
    Responding on CCs Sent for Promotion or Pressure
    Hidden agendas. Backhanded
    compliments. CYA attempts. Whatever the label, you recognize these tactics when
    you see them.
    When you respond to such CC emails about
    projects and issues not directly involving you, this encourages the sender to
    keep up the self-promotion and the pressure tactics on colleagues.

    If you’re ever tempted to write
    such an email yourself, by all means, do so. Just don’t send it. This strategy
    in particular may demand a new mindset and a major emotional adjustment. An
    email cannot be both a productivity tool and a weapon. While it may motivate
    some, it will demoralize others.
    Turn Off Email Alerts or Disable Automatic
    Retrieval
    In the UNC survey, 55 percent of
    the participants said they keep their email open either
    always (37 percent) or most
    of the time
    (18 percent). That’s a major distraction from your work – unless
    your primary job is to read and respond to email!

    Instead, handle emails only
    two or three times a day: ideally in the early morning, after lunch, and at the
    end of the day. Responding every time an email pops into your box breaks your
    concentration, wasting minutes and energy with each interruption. Productivity
    studies show there’s no such thing as multitasking – just rapid
    attention-switching. That in itself creates stress, increases the chance for
    error, and reduces overall efficiency.
    How you handle email can often
    determine the trajectory of your career—whether you piddle away your time or
    focus on your core work. Master your emails—make them faster, fewer, better
    —and you’ll stand out as a leader who communicates clearly and delivers real
    results.
    Dianna
    Booher’s
    latest books include Faster, Fewer, Better Emails; Communicate
    Like a Leader
    ; What MORE Can I Say?; and Creating Personal Presence. She’s
    the bestselling author of 48 books, published in 61 foreign editions. Dianna
    helps organizations communicate clearly and leaders to expand their influence
    by a strong executive presence. For more information, please visit www.BooherResearch.com   

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