E-nnoying

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the author's book “Done: Time Management Strategies for Regaining Command of Your Day.”
 

Email is a boon and a bane of modern existence. It’s an app we love to hate. Most of us claim to despise it, but few of us can go an hour without checking it. Our purpose here is to find ways to limit email's time-sucking ability. We’ll start by tackling one of the most intrusive and distracting events that occurs dozens of times a day.
 

Turn off new message alerts

Most people visibly flinch when I suggest this. The problem is that every time a new email alert pings on your computer or smartphone, you’re yanked away from what you were just doing.

Poof — one e-mail and your focus is gone!

I know – you can’t do your job without email. Of course you can’t. However, every time your attention is diverted by a new email alert, you become increasingly unproductive.

Be brave. Take the step. Turn off the alert and remove this self-inflicted distraction. Quiet down your space by 99 pings a day.

Now, let’s find a better way to manage the inbox.
 

Process Email in batches

Get outside the box – the inbox. Go to your email inbox periodically throughout the day, as regularly as necessary to remain effective and responsive. Start by checking it every 15 minutes, and then stretch it out to 20 minutes, before finally heading out to 30 minutes. Some people have even gone a whole hour without checking their email. Imagine, an hour without checking email!

Don’t worry. No matter the interval, there will always be new emails to read. That’s the problem with emails – they’re constantly arriving.

Once you’ve arrived back at your inbox, read and sort (mentally) all the new emails in one continuous behavior – just like how you process your physical mail when it arrives each day. The point is that processing is a singular effort and should be started and completed in one effort to keep it most efficient.

We’ve looked at a couple of ways to deal more effectively with email that’s coming into our inbox. Let’s turn our attention to a couple of things we can do to make the e-mails we send a little more efficient.
 

Only one subject per email

Not only is putting multiple subjects into a single email unnecessary – they’re virtually free to send – but doing so greatly increases the risk of misunderstanding and mistakes.

People recall things differently all the time and mix subjects up. When you commit to a one-subject-per-email policy, you will increase efficiency and receive responses that make sense and are pertinent to the information you are seeking. One subject per email will also provide the following benefits:

• The email is easier to find later, whether through a search function or a sort function.
• It’s easier to file.
• It reduces the risk of inadvertently disclosing sensitive or confidential information by a downstream reader looking at the content related to the other subject in a multiple-subject email.
   

The fourth suggestion in our focus on email is a complement to our third ...
 

Craft good subject lines

Email subject lines are routinely underused, if not completely misused. Here are the top violations that are committed each day:

• [ ] (blank subject line)
• Hey, what’s up?
• I was thinking
• Urgent (or ASAP or HIGH PRIORITY!)
• Thoughts?
• Update
   

Well-crafted subject lines tell the reader what the email is about and how important it is. You don’t need to create a naming convention for subject lines (i.e., a format for repeated use), though it helps. You just need to leverage the space you have to give your reader a quick insight into the body of your email. Here are two examples:

• Johnson Matter, #345365 –Activities in the Last 30 Days

Drag and drop email to create new appointments and tasks

Before diving in to the specifics of this suggestion, please understand that this particular trick works best with Microsoft Outlook. Other email programs, such as Lotus Notes or Google Mail, have some limited ability to perform this same feat, so proceed with caution if you are using something other than Microsoft Outlook.)

Many people use email to coordinate events and exchange information about tasks and projects. Many of these messages taken back and forth contain valuable information about the event or task. In order to capture that content, most people cut and paste it from the email into a new appointment or task.

Here’s a trick that can save you quite a bit of time: Click on the email with the content you need for the upcoming event or project. While you’re still clicking on the email, drag it over the new appointment or task icon (whichever is applicable to your specific application). Now release the mouse. The body of the email will be automatically copied into the comment area of the new appointment or task. This is a very convenient and effective way to move information between email and appointments and tasks.
 

Minimize the use of reply all

Reply all has become the de facto icon to hit when replying to email. Based on interviews of email users I’ve spoken with, the thought is that everyone who’s on the list needs to receive the information being contributed. The second most popular reason for using reply all is a form of covering your ... well ... bases.

The reality is that most people do not need to read the information you are contributing to the thread; only some of them do. The best practice here is to click reply and add back only those people who will benefit from the information you have to contribute. This will cut down on the total number of emails the other people on the thread receive.

Cutting down on the number of emails people receive has the obvious benefit of reducing the total number of emails they need to process. It also means they are less likely to accidentally delete an email they do need to read and address.
 

Here to stay.

Email is communication technology that’s not going away. In fact, as more and more people across the globe come to the Internet, email use will continue to increase for some time to come. Since ignoring it isn’t an option, we need to find ways to make better use of this powerful technology. Pick and choose among the suggestions listed here to find small ways to increase your efficiency and effectiveness with this modern-day tool.

The author is developer at QuietSpacing, a customizable time management system.