The latest approach on reducing time on e-mail requires a must do team-wide or even corporate-wide cooperation. Exploring strategies that everyone could benefit from will also be a great way to raise awareness about what is acceptable practice and what is not any longer. The fact of the matter is that 8 out of 10 people will respond to an e-mail, thinking that they are productive, within the hour; even on weekends.
To reduce the time you spend on each e-mail:
Have you provided yourself and the team with the training to the basics, shortcuts, folders etc.?
To reduce the number of e-mails:
- Have you considered banning e-mail between some time late afternoon and 6:00 am on weekdays and all through the weekend?
- Have you designated Blackout Wednesdays (example): no emails will be sent or received during specific times that afternoon? You will be able to, in time, expand this to an entire day?
- Have you adopted new policies around pointless cc’ing that is usually continued by the unnecessary replies?
We all agree that the e-mail tsunami needs to be contained. I believe the facts could help people realize the enormity of the issue. We need to have a reason for moving out of this painful situation; it is costing us too much. Calculate how much time you currently spend on e-mail, year-wise.
Here is mine: I started by admitting to average about 2 min. per e-mail (1). I deal with about 40 e-mails per day (2); I do work some weekends (300 days per year).
Calculating Total Time on E-Mail per Year = (1) _____ X (2) _____ X 300 = _____/60 minutes (per hour) = _______ hours/year spend on e-mail.
Total time on E-mail (per year) = (1) 40 X (2) 2 X 300= 24,000/60 = 400 hours per year or 10 weeks per year on e-mail!
If I can enlist the team to assist me in reducing the time spent on each e-mail by 30 seconds, I will be able to save 2.5 weeks of time!!!
It is costing too much to not make the change to adopt one or more of the above stated methods?
Until next time,
Yours truly,
Thomas Antonopoulos, Blogger for OfficeTime
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