Tips efficient email use
We can’t imagine doing our work at the office without email. At the beginning we were very excited, and rightly so, about this one of the main achievements of the digital culture, email. Over the years it has also developed into an annoyance, a time consuming and a source of misery. We have secured ourselves against spam, junk and viruses. But usually not against attacks from within the organization.
Email has unquestionable value when it comes to setting appointments, selective distribution of documents, asking questions, conveying warnings, transfer of simple facts or making information available. In that respect, email in many organizations has led to the extinction of many secretaries who used to spend hours if not days dealing with these tasks.
But there are also many cases when email is used in the wrong way. Having a discussion, or sharing of unexpected developments, or transferring confidential information, or delegation of tasks without consultation with the other party (“to throw it over the fence”). Often, it is an immature behavior:
- I mail it to Mark, because luckily he will not see it till tomorrow
- I will ask Sandra by mail, because then she can’t say no
- If I forward it to everyone at least I will be rid of it
- I have mailed you to let you know I would not be attending?
Tips
He who learns to develop self-criticism will soon recognize these bad habits and tackle them.
How often do you check your mailbox at home? Once a day? Twice? Or every time someone in your neighborhood walks past your mailbox who could put something in the mailbox? Many email programs give a sound or an icon to announce the arrival of new mail. Dozens of times a day. Like the people who walk past your mailbox at your house. It is interrupting your work. Disabling this feature in your mail program you can gain half hour of productivity per day. You should not view your mail every time a bell rings, because you will become a slave of technology. You should view your mail in a way that fits in your work routine.
For example, early in the morning, immediately after lunch and in the evening just before you turn off the computer. Develop a routine and stick to it. (Of course there are exceptions: Like if someone tells you while you are standing at the coffee machine that he has just mailed that contract to you which you have been waiting for, for the past few days ...)
Archive your mail. Prevent your inbox becomes full, with no other structure than the date. Install a system of folders and categories. This will take you no more than an hour of your time and benefit you for years to come. Create folders on customers or topics/projects. Remember that you can only archive the email in one place. Create a folder “to do”, with emails with a deadline or plan the email in your tasks.
When reading the email act on it immediately. Decide what to do. This increases productivity and less pressure on your memory!
At least half of all received email does not need to be stored. The best habit for the inbox is a fearless use of “delete”.
For larger projects create a team folder on the central server. In this case every person of the project team has the same information.
Don’t forward jokes, photos or not work-related matters. Create a standard response to those who send you such mails.
Is the previous tip too strict for you? Agree on a fixed sentence within your organization (like “something extra”) in this case all “nice” mails can be recognized when they arrive.
Create a folder called “waiting for reply” for all emails you have send and need an answer on. Once you have received the answer, delete the mail from this folder.
Remember that the person to whom you are sending the email also has an archive. So if you want to discuss 3 topics, use 3 emails so that each of the 3 can be archived properly.
Remember that no matter how useful email is, sometimes the phone is just more convenient.
Remember that the impact of e-mail is low. For really important things it is often better to take the stairs or elevator, and have an “old fashioned“ conversation. These walks in the office are good for your general heath and communicates to that parson that this extra effort is worth it to you.
Avoid laziness. Stay alert to typing evvors. Don’t join the turbo hiphop language which youngsters use in their sms texts, but keep using plain English (or Dutch) when you are writing. Do not push the send button too fast: reread your email again, if possible with the spectacles of the recipient before you send it. It has been shown that on a large scale email can lead to language impoverishment, lack of thoughtful formulations, carelessness and many misunderstandings. Apparently the general idea is that “if they don’t understand, they will let me know in a response”. Do not give in to this trend. An email is just a note or a memo which happens to be sent electronically. The recipiënt is entitled to your care.
Turn off control options and requests when the email is read. They are unsympathetic – some say almost a breach off privacy, - that leads only to even more emails.
Discuss with Van Soest/Koedam Consultancy the opportunities to introduce these mail issues and other aspects of the individual performance during your PEP® training. A good use of programs such as Outlook will increase productivity, save time - and money. Our advice is tailor-made to your software, your habits, your infrastructure and your needs.