Email cleaning
Are you suffering from email overload? Many people will have come back to the office in January with new resolutions to get their work life in order, beginning with tackling their overwhelming inbox. But those resolutions often go straight out the window very quickly.
That’s why Dr Monica Seeley, author of Brilliant Email, is holding a week-long spring cleaning your inbox campaign, beginning this Monday, so-called Blue Monday – the most depressing day of the year.
The 'Clean Out Your Inbox Week' is run by Dr Seeley with Marsha Egan, the USA's leading email management guru.
Every day there will be a daily blog with tips, competitions, activities and prizes and a Twitter feed and there will be two Twitter chats on Monday and Wednesday.
“Most of us need less than half the email we receive. This costs us and our organisations dearly in terms of stress and time as on average, one hour, per person is lost every working day through ineffective use of email. That’s about £4,200 of lost productivity per person, per year, at an average hourly cost of £20 – that’s a substantial and unnecessary business overhead in the current economic climate,” states Dr Seeley.
She says that for working mums one of the main things they need from email is to be able to see very quickly when an email is from a key person. She says colour coding them could help. They may also, she says, need to ensure there are times they can turn off their Blackberry or smart phone so they do not get distracted which they are giving quality time to their family. This might involve having a talk with their manager about their expectations. Their manager, for instance, may email them late at night because that is the way they work, but that does not necessarily mean they expect people to email back immediately, she says.
She says that for working mums one of the main things they need from email is to be able to see very quickly when an email is from a key person. She says colour coding them could help. They may also, she says, need to ensure there are times they can turn off their Blackberry or smart phone so they do not get distracted which they are giving quality time to their family. This might involve having a talk with their manager about their expectations. Their manager, for instance, may email them late at night because that is the way they work, but that does not necessarily mean they expect people to email back immediately, she says.
Priorities
Dr Seeley has been working in technology and psychology for nearly 20 years and says she could see email overload problems coming early on.
She says she tells people that their inbox reflects them. She tries to get them to prioritise and to question how they handle their emails, how often they check them and if they have to do so so regularly. “What I find is that many managers who have overloaded inboxes find it difficult to delegate. “They micromanage and tend to feel insecure,” she says.
Many people also copy a whole list of people in on email exchanges, generating whole swathes of email replies. “This is appalling sender behaviour,” says Dr Seeley. “They either don’t know how to use the blind copy function so they don’t get all the replies or they are playing politics to make themselves be known and heard even though managers’ personal assistants tend to gatekeep many of these kinds of emails. There’s a huge amount of politics going on via email behaviour and bad email behaviour can be a cover-up for poor organisational culture.”
She lists mistrust, bureaucracy and feelings of job insecurity, increasingly present at the moment, as major factors.
Dr Seeley adds that many people are worried about missing out on vital news and add themselves to lots of mailing lists which rarely furnish any useful information. She counsels working out what your key sources of information are and getting yourself off other mailing lists. “It’s about prioritising what’s vitally important,” she says. She recommends reviewing your emails regularly, maybe once a month or when you have leave coming up, and being bold.
“Social networking can really help in cutting emails. If you have one good newspaper and use Twitter well to follow key people in your sector you are unlikely to miss out on anything important,” she says.
*To join in the week, email Dr Seeley using the subject line 'Joining Clean Out Your Inbox Week' and you will be sent a daily email with a link to the day's blog, special activities, competitions etc. Alternatively you can check the blog yourself each morning. To join the Live Tweet Chat all you need is a Twitter account. Log on at http://tweetchat.com/room and then in the box where it is says ‘enter hash tag to follow’; enter #emptyinboxchat.
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