Taming your email
12 Nov 2019
Got thousands of emails in your inbox and it kinda freaks you out? Or do you get too many emails and feel overwhelmed? Spend too much time filing and not enough time doing? Here's an episode to calm your busy email brain.
From how to set up your inbox to how to send more efficient emails, Bec & Tara cover all sorts of email-related stuff this week. Tune in, mouse at the ready!
Show Notes:
Harvard Business Review:
On average, professionals have more than 200 emails in their inbox and receive 120 new ones each day but respond to only 25% of them.
Turn off notifications and check on a schedule that suits you (hourly/ daily)
GTD- Getting Things Done method
Slow the flow -
unsubscribe from the stuff you’re not reading.
Stop using your inbox as your ‘to do’ list
Consider email/ to do list integration
Don't use big group-mails unless absolutely necessary
To use folders or not to use folders?
HBR says we have an average of 37 folders BUT suggest just need 2- archive and reading (then use search function)
Roughly 10% of the total time people spend on email is spent filing messages they want to keep, a process that involves two phases: deciding where the emails should go and then moving them to the selected folders. The more choices we have, the longer it takes for us to make a decision.
Single touch rule - decide what to do with it NOW- do not put off to deal with later
Book- Never Check Email in the Morning: Julie Morgenstern
BLUF Bottom Line Up front - Ron Webb
Explain the call to action or whether it is for information only (and to be filed away for later) in the first line of the email
Then follow on with all of the detail
Can rapidly cut down time spent reading whole emails to figure out you don’t need to do anything
Time reducing:
Simplify your sign-off
Create an automatic signature
Don't sign-off at all when the email is simply a back and forth discussion with a colleague or friend
Don't reply to emails that don't need a reply
Gmail canned responses/ templates (if you are sending repeated responses/ same replies to same questions)