Mastering Email

Please note that my work as a productivity consultant doesn't cause me to teach folks how to do more faster, and faster, until you fall apart. My goal is to help people identify the things that are profitable and then focus on those tasks as their highest priority, all the while working to maintain a profitable level of function in each profitable area of activity. In other words, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Such is often the case with email.

How many times do you check email every day? How much time does it take? How much of your email in the office is official and how much is unofficial?

Since our purpose is true to the very basics of economics, which says that everyone works for an incentive, for example your company exists and works for monetary profit. Each worker works for financial incentives and other benefits.

My purpose is to help you accomplish your required tasks with less time in the office, for the incentive of a non cash benefit: More time for your personal interests....more time off. This creates an environment for increased motivation and creativity. Bosses and supervisors are well advised to use this incentive with employees whenever possible. It will benefit your work environment and, in time, your bottom line.

Now, to you, the reader, whether you are the owner, boss or worker, the reason you should get your email habits under control is because that action will eliminate much wasted (unprofitable) time and enable you to finish your day's work earlier, without cheating your email duties and without working faster and faster.

The solution is not difficult. First get a good count of how many times a day you check email, and how long you spend each time you check it. This will vary, so simply add up all the minutes you spend handling email on a random day...and note how many times you went to your inbox. After you use my plan for a few days, measure again and compare.

For the next day, set a special time and promise yourself that you will check email only two times, at times you decide on before you leave the office today. Twice a day. This will work for most people. If you must have hyper responsive email for customer service, you can set up an autoresponder to respond to each customer with a form letter for you, or you can automatically outsource and forward those emails to someone who can answer 95% of them for you, from a list you provide.

Do what you must, but reduce your email checking to twice daily, and set a goal of once per day after about 30 days on the twice a day schedule. If you think it necessary, send all your contacts a nice email explaining that in order to give better service you will be responding to email twice a day and give the hour that you schedule that for. They will then know that if they get an email to you before your 10:00 check, they will get an answer very quickly. They will know that if they miss the 10:00 check, they will get a response between 3:00 and 4:00 P.M.

Prepare your mind before you go to your inbox. Determine to aggressively delete any obvious spam on sight. Delete them almost without thinking, before you get tempted and distracted. Next, open each message that pertains to work and either answer it or flag it for research, investigation and follow-up. Do all you can to respond to each one as you open them, but you may have to put some in the pending mode, if research is required. If you have help, you may want to have a helper find out why Mrs. Jones' widget was not properly packed and send her a letter of apology and a refund, for example. Any emails that are personal should be ignored until all your work is done for the day. I use separate email addresses for different categories of correspondence and open each inbox only at its appropriate time.

I know this sounds rigid. That's because it is serious business. If you are among the majority of who just float along whichever way the current flows, you don't know where you'll end up. If, however, you are among those who want to rise to the top ahead of your peers, this kind of personal management of your work habits, with a view towards productivity will enable you to set a direct course to a definite destination, and will make it possible for you to arrive successfully. You can do it. I know you can. You just need to decide to navigate towards success, and then take the first step. The next step, and the next after that will be more natural.

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