Effective email management
“We must lead emails rather than them leading us…” Bev Wilkinson
Being effective with email management is how you behave around emails rather than the simple processing. We need to set ground rules and set up rituals and habits that fit with our lives. We can control it rather than it control us.
Dan Pink’s book – “To Sell is Human”, listed the number of emails he received in two weeks:-
- 722 emails
To improve organisational effectiveness is not too focus on the number or volume. The attention should be on clear guidelines as to how you manage your in-box.
There is no easy way and the whole idea of personal productivity means that it is personal to you. Systems need to be tweaked and adapted to work. Sharing ideas with team members can give you new ways of interacting with the screen.
If you look at an email 5 minutes before you go into a meeting you take that email into the meeting. Checking your email before you go to bed means that you will take that email to bed with you.
We can be effective by making choices that work for our lives, book an appointment with your emails as you would any other contact.
The book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen suggests setting up sub folders that sit at the top of your other folders. This can easily be achieved by putting a # in front of the title:-
#Action
#Waiting for
#Read review
To be effective think about the rhythm of your day and decide when you want to manage your email. Relax that you don’t have to know everything all the time.
Being effective is the right processes for you.
