7 Rules to Avoid Email Overload

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We all get too much email. Remember when getting an email was exciting? Well, oceanfront property used to be cheap too.

Email, big virtual piles of it, may be the norm today, but you can’t let it drive your life!

Here are 7 simple rules to help avoid email overload.

1) When in doubt, throw it out.

There is no rule that you must respond or even read all your email. At the current rate email is growing, we’ll have to skip sleep within a few years, or perhaps just skip emails!

You need your own email guidelines as to what you read and what you ignore. Here are mine.

I try to read most of my email, but:

• When it’s from unknown people, and the subject line isn’t enticing, it may get thrown out.

• If someone I don’t know wants something, and this happens several times a day, unless they address me by name, it doesn’t get read. I do not respond to “Dear Webmaster” or “Fellow Blogger” or anything remotely similar.

• I don’t read ezines I don’t recognize. Often I don’t even read ezines I subscribe to and enjoy!

• Press releases – I pretty much ignore them all.

• Anything in all CAPITALS is deleted instantly.

• Even inane emails from friends get ignored when I’m busy, even though I send friends lots of silly emails!

Some of this may sound somewhat heartless, but most polite emails even from people I don’t know do get an answer. I answer at least 20-30 polite, personal emails from people I’ve never heard of each week.

2) Turn off email notification.

It is incredibly distracting and seriously effects productivity if you get notification as each email arrives. Turn off all beeps, notification balloons, and taskbar icons.

3) When an email can be handled quickly, just do it.

If you can handle an email quickly, say 40 or 50 seconds, just do it and remove it from your inbox. There is no reason to leave it hanging around.

4) Remember that email is not the right medium for all communications.

You don’t have to answer emails via email.

• I respond to some emails with the two-word phrase “call me” and then delete the email.

• Sometimes I’ll respond with “discuss at lunch tomorrow” or similar and then delete the email.

• Often a two minute phone call or a 3 minute in-person chat handles what would otherwise be a 10-20 minute+ email response.

As a general rule of thumb, if a response to an email needs to be longer than the email itself, email is not the right medium!

5) Respond to email during down time.

I respond to a lot of email while driving the car – via my cell phone. I answered emails today while I was waiting for my car oil and filter to be changed. Yesterday I answered email for 20 minutes while waiting for a colleague at the local coffee shop. I answer a lot of email on airplanes, although admittedly while offline.

Now I’m just as likely to use this downtime for something else productive, like reading a book, engaging in deep thought, or napping, but often I’ll whittle away at my inbox a bit.

6) Don’t use email to procrastinate.

If you’ve got work to do, and who doesn’t, don’t use dealing with email as an excuse to procrastinate! It’s easy to do, but email is rarely “real work” for most people.

7) Always place time limits on email.

Don’t let email consume all your available time.

I usually read email before I go to work briefly, maybe a half hour right before lunch, an hour late in the afternoon and perhaps a late evening check before bed in case there is anything important.
So I read email before, during, and after work, and I think that is enough!

 

Email will consume all your time and life if you let it — so don’t let it.

“Email is a tool, not an obligation!”
   -Michael Port, Beyond Booked Solid

My name is Ted Demopoulos, and I’m an email junkie, but I’ve got it under control! Really I do, trust me.