Four Tips for Better Use of Email

We as people have a great capacity to process information, which enables us to work effectively.   Sadly, how work processes and IT systems are designed isn’t necessarily in tune with how we work best.   Take email as an example.

Email is an essential communication tool for businesses today, however, if it is not used properly, it can undermine your productivity.   When we are trying to concentrate on something, it takes time for our attention span and focus to get up to speed.   If your PC is in your eye line, you can be distracted every time the new mail icon pops up.   If you are working on something, stopping to view new email is like repeatedly letting a boulder you are trying to move to the top of a hill roll back down to where you started.

Based on the way our brain works, you should ring fence specific times each day when your email is on.   For the other periods, it should be off and you can focus on more effectively on specific tasks.

Tip 1.   Rule email - don’t let it rule you.

Some organisations have removed certain features of email such as “reply all”.   This highlights the need to have a good code of practice for using email.   Think about how you are using email.   Do you need to reply all or CC so many people on what you are sending? Think about how it feels to be on the receiving end of all these electronic circulations.

Tip 2. Email selectively - Don’t be part of the email logjam.

There is richness to how we communicate with each other if we are on the phone or meeting some one face to face as we are drawing on tone and body language.   There are many examples of where we use email when it would be much quicker to make a phone call or drop around to some one’s desk.   Think about how long it takes to write an email to request that someone renegotiates a deadline and compare that with how long it would take to achieve that by phone or face to face.   Personal communication is quicker and more effective for a range of requests.

Tip 3. The personal touch can be more effective than the “Send Button”.

An inbox with a large number of emails is like having a pile of un-ironed laundry in your living room everyday.   You know you should do something about it but you don’t so it constantly nags you.   It is a constant reminder of something that you need to sort out and therefore a drain on your mental resources.  

There are many features in email that allow you to categorise emails as they arrive.   Create folders that reflect the main categories of your work and use the rules to filter emails as they arrive. This means you can work tip one above more effectively and get out of the office earlier.

Tip 4. Do not use your inbox as one big filing cabinet.

John Deely is an occupational psychologist with Pinpoint.   Pinpoint offers career change and development services to individuals, and selection, management development and outplacement services to organisations.

Contact details:           (01) 6425 721           www.pinpoint.ie