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Who has the most emails…?

nuggetsoflearning • July 8, 2013

I was asked to pitch for some work on delivering a workshop on email etiquette, however there was a bigger question behind it – who has the most emails?

No-one actually knows an ultimate number and very few companies offer guidelines as to what is acceptable in terms of managing them.

Daniel Pink’s book (“To Sell is Human”) begins with his statistics for 2 weeks:-

722 emails
86 tweets
12 texts

My email traffic is not as high however I am sure I send more texts than Mr Pink, does it mean I am more efficient less busy, what conclusions would you draw.

To improve organisational effectiveness is not to focus on the number or volume – the attention should be on some clear guidelines as to how to Lead/manage your in-box rather than it lead you.

Please find below my top tips for taking control:-

Make an appointment with e-mail do not drift in out of it
Turn the envelope icon reminder off
You don’t have to reply to everything
Set up a good file wall, so spam does go in spam
Once a month unsubscribe from everything
Deal with an e-mail that takes less than 2 minutes thinking time
Set up holding folders so that in-box is always clear (you need the # in front so they go to the top of your folders)
- #Action
- #Waiting for
- #Reading
Decide acceptable response times as a team
Create interesting subject lines – questions are great hooks for readers
Use the same housekeeping principles as a team – all e-mail looks the same
Pick up the phone – don’t use e-mail for everything