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Last time, I tried to convince the intrepid readers of this blog to embark upon a truly daunting crusade: Taking control of email. Far too many of us find ourselves buried under a mountain of unanswered messages, unread alerts and unknown problems. This leads, inevitably, to email paranoia and frustration, where you have that terrible feeling of not even knowing what you don’t know.

This heartbreaking trauma is unnecessary. As I discussed, three simple steps can put you back on the road to email sanity. First of all, schedule your email in such a way that you can effectively process it – not every minute or every five minutes, but rather every thirty minutes or even every hour. When you check your email every few minutes, you might as well not use email, because it’s as immediate as answering the phone. Effective email management means giving yourself the time to process messages.

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Categories: Articles

If your email volume is anything like mine, you probably spend a considerable amount of time reading, organizing, skimming, fretting or just plain agonizing over the amount of information you feel obliged to process every day. I know people whose lives are ruled by email – if they get away from the computer screen, their eyes are glued to Blackberries, fingers cramped from frenzied scrolling and typing.

Whether the totally “wired” (or, in the case of many of us, “wireless”) lifestyle represents the debasement of communication and presages the downfall of humanity will be a matter for historians and philosophers. What this humble columnist advocates is simple and modest: Take control of email before it takes control of you.

Taking control of email does not mean ignoring email. It doesn’t require rehabilitation or twelve-step programs. You won’t leave all your clients floundering desperately for answers – though you may have to “realign” the expectations of some of your “special needs” customers. Most importantly, by taking control of email, you’ll reduce the interrupt-driven portion of your workday and become more efficient. As a bonus, if you take control of email using a few simple rules for response, you’ll actually be more responsive to your customers andmore effective in your responses than you are now.

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Categories: Articles