General 29 Jan 2005 07:57 pm
Managing email overload
I don’t know about you, but I probably spend about 50% - 70% of my work day staring at Microsoft Outlook. I probably receive an average of about 500 emails per day - not including the hundreds that get caught by our spam filters. Of these, I need to read and/or take action on about 200 of them.
Communicating mostly through email has become the standard at our company and, as John Porcaro from the XBox marketing team at Microsoft writes, we’re not the only ones. Being in control of your email and effectively managing it has become a secret to success in high tech business (and likely many others).
In order to help us work more effectively, Macromedia recently offered a one-day course to all employees on how to get organized and stay organized in Outlook. The course was presented by McGhee Productivity Solutions and centered around a few basic principles:
1. Never leave an email in your inbox - always take action. This means you either respond to the email right away, archive it for reference only, or you turn it into an Outlook task and assign it to an “Action” category. Typical action categories are “NA - Email”, “NA - Read”, “NA - Computer” (NA stands for “Needs Action”).
2. Plan and prioritize effectively. Realize that you can’t commit to everything and make sure you schedule time during every day to accomplish your tasks. For example, I block two hours out of the day for reading and responding to email. I try my best not to allow others to schedule me for meeting during those time periods (though I’m not always successful in that).
Many of these tips plus a few more are nicely outlined in John Porcaro’s recent post - I suggest that you check it out if you face email overload like we do.
on 30 Jan 2005 at 7:13 am 1.JesterXL said …
I haven’t had email overload since last summer… suddenly, the holidays somehow made it go out of control. That comment about act immediately, while unfortunate, is true. After awhile, your no longer responding to the same email, and a lot of times, it misses the point responding later.
I used to block off my Fridays as “email catch up” day. Last Friday didn’t work out so well.
on 30 Jan 2005 at 8:43 am 2.Keith Peters said …
Good ideas. I generally leave stuff in my inbox til I get around to it. OK, OK, I generally leave it there until it is so old it would be stupid to answer it anyway, and then file it. Well, somewhere in between.
As an interrim handling I’ve started flagging things as follow ups, and filing them immediately. I can still access the follow ups in the follow up folder. And sometimes it’s quicker to handle right then than to mark and file.
on 30 Jan 2005 at 11:30 am 3.Phillip Kerman said …
I think I keep up with my email pretty well… maybe I just spend too much time or I don’t have that much email.
I wonder how John Dowdell keeps up? I have one collegue who takes a good 3 weeks to reply to any email but they always reply. For my business with him, that turnaround is fine.
I do believe email (and being able to communicate in writing) is central to anyone’s success.
Thanks,
Phillip
on 30 Jan 2005 at 1:27 pm 4.Greg Burch said …
I have a tablet pc that I use only as my organizer. The primary app I run on it is Quickbooks customer manager which allows me to track tasks on a per project basis as well as all the standard CRM functionality. The fact that it is mobile allows me take my tasks anywhere. The second app I run is Quickbooks Pro. This allows me to track all my time as well as expenses. I also use it to do invoicing etc. They are a good team if you are a freelancer. On another note if you travel a lot like me you should add neatreceipts.com to the line up.
on 30 Jan 2005 at 3:28 pm 5.Oscar Trelles said …
I do get lots of email messages daily, and most of it is junk. To keep up with what is important and needs my attention I just have a bunch of filters and folders. The downside to blocking all that spam is that sometimes I miss legitimate communications from people that just used the “wrong” words, or forgot to put a message subject. So, I usually spend Saturday mornings catching up with the spam folders, finding out if I missed anything I shouldn’t. Problem comes when I am not able to do the clean up for a while, and then rescuing emails incorrectly trashed is just hopeless…
on 30 Jan 2005 at 8:41 pm 6.Ben Stucki's Weblog said …
Excel Tips for Developers
Indeed, Microsoft Office Suite is often a necessary tool in the business world today.
on 31 Jan 2005 at 6:50 am 7.Paul Neave said …
Here’s my advice: use Gmail. It groups conversations together so you’re not inundated with thousands of loose ends. And it’s got a really good spam filter too. Email me and I’ll invite you if you’ve not got one already (which I’m sure you must have!)
on 04 Feb 2005 at 3:29 pm 8.Josh Dura said …
Wow, depressing… I am probably the worst person in the world at managing email… I have approximately 4000-5000 emails in my Inbox right now, and over 50,000 emails in folders
I really need to just start anew, and hope to get it right then.
Some great suggestions here though, Thanks for the article link Mike.
on 07 Feb 2005 at 8:51 am 9.Keith Peters said …
Josh, remind me to never send you an urgent email!
on 23 Jun 2005 at 5:48 am 10.Robert Harland said …
BIZ TIPS
CONTROL YOUR E-MAILS
… before they control you!
By Robert Harland
E-mail has become a nightmare for many people. They find themselves overwhelmed with messages and spend more time than they want shackled to their computers.
The simple answer to the problem is to spend less time on e-mails. Easier said than done? Not really. Here are a few tips garnered from those e-mail users who’ve learned how to spend less time struggling to cope with a daily deluge of messages.
Daily trawl: when you open your computer, go to ‘Sender & Subject’ first and delete as many messages as you can without opening them. You soon get to know which messages can be go immediately. Be generous with the ‘delete’ button
Treat each message like paper: there are four things you can do when a piece of paper arrives on your desk – file it, refer it, action it or … read it! The same goes for e-mail messages.
File it: for important messages and on-going projects, open a separate folder and make sure you transfer mail as soon as you’ve handled it.
Refer it: if you are referring the message and no follow-up is needed on your part, then delete the original. If you need to keep a copy transfer it immediately to the appropriate folder.
Read it – once! Try not to save messages to ‘read later’ as later may never come and you’ll end up with an inbox stuffed with unread messages.
If you don’t have time to send a full response right away and if it’s important, e-mail back saying you’ve received the message and you’ll get back to the party shortly.
Never leave an email in your inbox: always take action.
Deal with it when it arrives: if you spend a lot of your working day in front of a computer, it is a good idea to scan for new messages on a frequent basis – there might be something important or urgent.
But you don’t have to be a slave to the inbox. If you have it on your system, you can always turn off the sound that alerts you to new messages and check your e-mails at scheduled intervals throughout the day.
Keeping copies: a copy of an outgoing message will be saved in the ‘’sent mail” folder, which means you don’t need the original message anymore, so it can be deleted.
Regular clear-out: if you have non-urgent and personal messages or messages that come into the ‘really not sure what to do’ category, put them in a separate folder. When you have a spare moment go through them in the hope most can be deleted.
Spam: if you are unfortunate enough to be on endless mailing lists and constantly receive unwanted offers and ads, discuss anti-spam solutions with your company’s Internet provider.
Personal e-mails: it is easy to get distracted in the office with personal e-mails. If you find yourself spending a lot of time answering or sending such messages, consider having a personal e-mail address at home.
Many of us enjoy receiving and sending jokes, but these days many companies monitor employees’ e-mails so best to keep such mail for your personal e-mail address.
Nobody is perfect: even the most organised person can be sidetracked when an interesting message is received. But follow these simple steps and you’ll find yourself controlling your e-mails rather than e-mails controlling you!
This article is part of a series of Biz Tips from The Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) in the Philippines.. Robert Harland is a director of MBCCI and a freelance British journalist based in Bacolod. He can be contacted on +63 916 343 7048.E-mail: rharland@mozcom.com
on 30 Oct 2005 at 9:38 am 11.Free Dish Network Satellite said …
My emails have been controlling me too.
on 30 Oct 2005 at 9:40 am 12.Free Directtv said …
I prefer Outlook Express over Outlook. It is much easier.
on 13 Nov 2005 at 1:30 pm 13.google左侧排å?? said …
Tips from The Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) in the Philippines.. Robert Harland is a director of MBCCI and a freelance British journalist based in Bacolod. He can be contacted on +63 916 343 7048.E-mail:
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on 18 Sep 2007 at 9:00 am 16.Nick said …
I still think it is a two part solution to the problem.
First, you need to make sure all incoming emails are addressed within the day. Those that are not need to be filed in folders for the following days according to their degree of priority. This helps you managed the onslaught but it requires discipline and setting priorities. Your inbox needs to be clean at the end of the day. It’s psychological but it works.
Second, start educating people about how to write emails. Remember our society, unlike others is based on people making sense before they communicate and not dump everything on someone else’s lap.
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