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Want to manage emails more effectively? Then start by properly managing yourself and other people!

Many have come to the conclusion that email is a modern day curse and not the great asset it was designed to be. Every working day, millions of people spend a massive amount of time sifting through piles of electronic messages that fly in to their computer.
Part of the problem is that email makes it easy for everyone and anyone to quickly send a message. A few simple taps on the keyboard and it's gone. However the other half of the problem is you – the receiver and how you manage emails in the first place.
Email is a great communication tool, but it is also one of the greatest challenges to business today. Just think – if you have 50 emails a day and if you spend 2 or 3 minutes on each, that’s a couple of hours on emails before you have even started work! No wonder many people find emails frustrating.

However, if we think about this more deeply, we realise that email is just one of a number of communication tools and therefore the same rules should apply for managing emails as they do for any other means of communication. For example, would you left ten people barge into your office to tell you about the new office moves and what they thought of them? Probably not! The following are some hints and tips that we and have helped us manage our emails more effectively.

1. Be proactive. This is probably the most useful tip, which is why it is first. Change the way you think about emails and manage you emails in a proactive not a reactive way. Remember that you are the one that should decide when to look at and action your emails. Sadly many people allow this control to be with the people who send them in the first place.

To achieve this, turn off the sound, bleep or other notification that you have on your PC that notifies you of an incoming email. The problem here is that email notifications interrupt what you are doing, you subsequently become distracted by looking at the email and dealing with it. You then spend a few minutes getting your mind to focus again on what you were previously doing.

Establish the habit of looking at your emails at specific times in the day, for example when you first start, at lunch and just before you leave. Make this a discipline and it will make a massive change to the way you manage both emails and your time. Remember - if someone really needs you they can always phone!

2. Keep focussed. When you process emails don't spend more than a minute or two on an each - and don't start down the road of firing off two or three emails for everyone you get, or diving into a task after you get to email 10 ( ah – I promised her a project plan or I should do a revised budget for that). Put it on your To Do list, and keep processing your inbox. By dealing with your emails in this way, you will be far more efficient.


3. Your communication style. How you communicate to others will dictate how other’s will communicate to you. For example

– If you tend to communicate via email, don’t be surprised if others communicate to you via email i.e. the number of emails you receive will be in proportion to the number you send. The more you send - the more replies you will get! Go back to using traditional forms of communication - either face to face or via the telephone. Others will respond accordingly!
– Encourage others to talk to you if they need you and not to send an email. One way of achieving this is not to respond (see below).
– If you reply immediately to an email, and others notice it, then they will expect an immediate response in the future. This turns into a vicious circle of ‘immediate response’. Manage peoples expectations – they will soon get used to you replying within a few hours (see point 1 above).
– Avoid email ‘discussions’ - get everyone together and talk it through.
– Don’t copy others on emails ‘for information only’ – you will start to receive the same.

3. Receiving emails. When receiving emails scan the headings to check for recognisable mail. Ask yourself
– What does this email mean to me and why do I need to look at it?
– Who is it from and do I know them?
– What action (if any) does this message require of me?

As a rule never read any bulk (or spam) mail however enticing the subject heading may be. Be ruthless and delete them immediately.

If you are being copied ‘for information only’, speak to the sender and find out why you need it. Encourage them to only send you mail that requires you to action something (see 2 above). Alternatively just delete them!
4. Organizing your emails. Remember, your Inbox is your Inbox. It's not your To Do list. Never leave email in your inbox and always take action (in the time you have set aside for emails!). This means that you respond to the email straight away, archive it for reference only or turn into an action on your action list.
5. Filing emails - Don't use your email as a filing system, and for heaven's sake, don't rescue a colleague who is looking for something you happen to have tucked away in an email folder. If someone else owns a document/plan/conversation, let them store it.
Happy emailing!