Christa Wagner

Title: Avoid Email Bankruptcy

When: Oct 13, 2009 06:30 PM

Investment:$22

Yesterday, I gave a workshop called Simplify Your Life and Kick Start Productivity for the staff of Langara College.  It was fantastic and I was honored to be selected as a speaker for their continuing education courses for their staff. 

At the workshop, I shared Five Organizing Tactics to implement to start living a more organized life.  One of them was “Manage Your Email” and the topic turned into a really healthy conversation about email overuse. 

Nearly every attendee was complaining about how much email they had; they said it wasted their time and bogged them down from getting the more important tasks accomplished.  This is all true, which is why we must learn to manage our email to more effectively.

A question that came up was what to do with all the “Thank You” emails you receive.  You know the situation, it happens many times each day, when you send something to someone and they respond just to say “Thank You.”   Or even worse, when you send a group email (which should be avoided at all costs) and everyone responds to say “Thank You.”  These are very common after an event of some kind, like a holiday party.  Everyone agreed the emails were polite, but completely unnecessary and just adds to their already full inbox. 

I shared with them two tools you can use to reduce the amount of “Thank You” emails you receive.  Of course, this may take some training and you will want to let your recipients know how these tools work so you all can use them properly. 

• NRN = No Response Necessary:  Place these words or this acronym at the bottom of your email, near your name or closing.  It implies, the person only has to read the email, but does not have to respond. 
• NTN = No Thanks Necessary:  Place these words or this acronym at the bottom of your email, near your name or closing.  It lets the recipient know you do not expect a return or thank you email. 

Email has the potential to be a great tool, but with its overuse and abuse, its more of an annoyance than anything else.  We need to train each other how to use email effectively so we can start to use this tool in a more productive manner.

If you would like more information on Email Management contact Vancouver Professional Organizer, Christa Wagner, or and to listen and how to manage you inbox purchase an A Red Bench Teleclass called Detox Your Inbox.

A Red Bench Owners, Christa and Angela

We recently had fantastic A Red Bench teleclass called Detox Your Inboxand it was about using email effectively.  One of the questions was whether our expert, fellow organizer Lauren Halagarda, recommends using email folders for archiving. Now with all of our teleclasses you have to take the expert’s advise as just that – advice.  You can take it or leave it, but do give it some thought.  You have to listen to the teleclass to understand the entire context of her recommendation, but interestingly enough Lauren does not recommend archiving your emails using folders. 

She says “saving email is only helpful if you can find the email and the folders become overwhelming and confusing.”  Lauren recommends after processing your email, and she provides a process to do so on the teleclass, to archive emails in one folder.  Then use search software to retrieve information quickly.  She reviewed various search software tools on the call including her preferred software recommendation.   

Now, I know for many of you this may be a big change and seem like and odd recommendation.  I know for myself, I do like having a personal folder, a folder for my organizing company and one for A Red Bench.  I can still use the search tool she recommends making retrieval easy. But as I was listening to her I started thinking about a client who is an attorney and has to save every client communication.  Having one folder will help her tremendously because right now she cannot stay on top of archiving them and the volume does not allow her to find anything.  Moving the emails into one folder and then using a search tool to find what she needs,when and if she needs it.  This is a perfect solution for her; it’s simple and something she can maintain long term. 

To purchase Detox Your Inbox, visit the Audio Recordingspage of our website and consider some of our other organizing related teleclasses called Time Management is Broken or Organizing For Your Brain Type.

In a recent blog post called 10 Worst Work Habits, we learned one of the top ten worst work habits is being a sloppy emailer.  As a follow-up, I wanted to share what I think that means and how you can avoid it.   Email is not something we were taught how to do, it just entered our world and we started using it.  Now we use it every single day and abuse it in many cases. 

In my opinion sloppy emailing is more than sloppy grammar.  If you are texting with a close friend, or even emailing a close friend, sure you can skip the grammar check.  But if you are in the work environment, be sure to spell and grammar check prior to sending.   I think that goes without saying so I am not going to even bother including that in my email rules to avoid sloppy emailing:

Use Descriptive Subject Line:  Your subject line can tell your reader how important the email is and the the context of the email. 

• Be clear and concise
• Be to the point
• Be descriptive
• Be informative
• Be specific
• Foreshadow the content to follow
• Avoid clever or cute headings

A great subject line is “Action:  Please submit your marketing plan to be my 5pm 5/15.

Skip The Long Paragraph Of Text:  I don’t know about you, but if an email is over a few lines I stop reading and therefore I am missing a lot of information.  Instead of a lot of text use short bullet points and indicate where actions are necessary with bold words like “Your action required.”

Limit Use Of Reply All:  I personally just wish this button would go away altogether, but since that is not likely we have to work together on this.  Before you hit that reply all button ask yourself if everyone really needs to know your thoughts, ideas or opinons.  For every email we send, we receive three in return.  If you send off an email to 20 people, think about how many emails that is in your inbox.   If you do have to send an email to a group, blind copy (BCC) everyone so reply all is not an option, or consider including verbiage: To save time, please reply only to me rather than hitting “Reply All.”

Use Email Lingo:   Again, no one has taught us to use email; we are doing the best we can.  Like I said at a seminar last week, we need to learn to manage email because right now its managing us.   Consider using email lingo like ‘No Reply Needed’ – added this to subject line – shorten to NRN
‘No Thanks Needed’ – same as above (NTN).   Using this lingo let’s people know you do not expect a response and will have less in your inbox. 

Come on, email can be a great tool but we have to learn to use it effectively.  Don’t be a sloppy emailer; use my suggestions and spend less time in front of that computer screen.

Email abuse has become a bit of a focus for me.  For other blog posts on email related topics, read One Step To Reducing Email Overload, Take Control Of Your Email Inbox, Reduce the Volume Of Email You Receive and Detox Your Inbox.   Consider hiring Savvy Solutions to help you or your employees Avoid Email Bankruptcy.

If you know me, or have read other email related posts, then you know I am not a huge fan of email.  Now, before you freak out of course I understand the benefits of email and do enjoy communicating using email on certain occasions.  My problem with email is that you would never call me 10 different times, but you wouldn’t think twice about emailing me 10 times.  As I reviewed my email, much of the email I receive had no benefits to my life or business whatsoever.  Its information, its anFYI, or even more fun, a series of Reply All’s from various group I belong to.  (My personal favorite waste of time.) 

So I have been conducting a little experiment.  In an effort to reduce the amount of emails in my inbox, I have been trying to reduce the amount of emails I send.   I read somewhere for every one email you send, you receive three back.  And if you receive 100 emails each day and each takes 3 minutes to deal with, that’s five hours of your day.  No wonder you can’t get anything done!   So I send much less and am very aware of who I am sending to.  I only respond if I must and delete aggressively.  My goal by the end of the day in Zero Inbox, but usually I have around 10.   

What I can tell you is it has be fantastic not to have that panic feeling of all the emails I have to read and deal with in my inbox.   Just like everything else, you have to pick and choose; I choose to only respond to the most necessary, important emails.  Give it a try and increase your productivity greatly by reducing the amount of incoming emails you receive.

What a great appointment I had today.  I was working with a client who was experiencing email overload.  Who isn’t really?  She is an executive, has a lot on her plate and had too many emails in her inbox.  Although email is certainly known to decrease productivity, if used effectively it can help you stay organized.  My client was using her inbox as her to do list, which unfortunately doesn’t work when you have pages and pages of emails.   We worked for four hours today and she is now going to focus on implementing some new habits to eliminate email overload.  Here were some steps:

1. We started deleting.  When she called me there were over 4,800 emails in her inbox and by the time I arrived today, since our consultation, she had reduced her inbox to 2,200.  Great work!  She eliminated anything she did not need, would not refer to and moved any reference materials into folders. 
2. We created a folder system:  You have to ask yourself if you are truly going to reference this information again and if so file it just as you would a vital paper document.  Create a folder system that is intuitive and easy to you.  My favorite folder titles are Administrative, Client, Communications, Writing and Resources. 
3. We moved meeting and event emails onto her calendar so she can delete the email and see her entire day on her calendar.
4. We utilized her tasks list and moved TO DO email to tasks.  
5. We talked about composing more effective emails and sending less to receive less. 

Email can be a great tool if used effectively.  Take some to use each tool appropriately and see if you can reduce your time with email and get some real work done.

Last night I hosted a Biznik networking event where I shared with business owners some simple strategies to get organized at the office. Now listen folks, this is not rocket science, but the results can increase productivity greatly.  Problem is companies don’t dedicate time or energy to organizing and so it tickles down from the top that its not important.  Well, keep in mind the average employee loses one hour each day searching for misplaced information.  Add the number up based on your employees, number of hours worked multiplied by work days per year.  You have a lot of lost time and money. 

Get Organized at the Office

1. Process the mail every single day.
2. Create action files for paper requiring your attention.
3. Invest in quality furniture that supports your needs.
4. Use a calendar.  Doesn’t matter what kind; DayRunner, FranklinCovey, Palm, Blackberry or a good old kitty cat wall calendar, etc.  Get one and use it consistently.
5. Dedicate one day annually to office wide organizing.

Increase Productivity

1. Take 15 minutes at the end of each day to plan tomorrow.
2. Clear your desk at the end of each day so you can start fresh.
3. Reduce email.
4. Create a stop doing list.
5. Fully understand focus is more important than efficiency.  It doesn’t matter how much you get done if they are the wrong things.  Focus on the highest priorities from start to finish.

We only have 24 hour each day; make the most of it focus on what matters most to you.  Commit to adjusting some habits to get more out of life. 

Make it a great day!

I have been doing a little experiment of my own to reduce the amount of email I receive.  And what do you you know?  It seems to be working. 

In another postings, Detox Your Inbox, we shared strategies to help you manage your inbox, but I recently tried reducing the amount of emails I was sending to reduce the amount of emails I was receiving. 

Here’s how it works.  Two steps. 

1. Ask yourself if you must send the email.  Does this person need the information?  Could a phone call be easier?  You know when you go back and forth over 10 emails to schedule an appointment and a call would have nipped it in 2 minutes? 
2. Avoid responding to all emails.  Now I am not recommending ignoring emails, I read them and always respond to important emails.  But anything that does not require a response, I simply delete.  I know this sounds easy, but so many of the emails we receive say nothing at all and by responding we only add to the chaos.  For example, say someone sends you something as an FYI, or says thank you and then you respond, and then they respond to you, and you can see where this is going.  Email overload!!

Email has become the largest man made distraction in our work day.  It’s important to adjust our habits and focus on the tasks that really matter.  Give it a try and see if your inbox is a little lighter in the days to come.

I was away last week on vacation and as you know it’s always tough to return from the beach and relaxation.  I knew there would be many emails in my inbox, but what I was not prepared for the amount of emails from the dreaded  “reply all” button. 

I love Outlook; it helps me so much with my life and business.  I use it to manage my tasks, calendar, contacts, etc.  But I have to say I really dislike the “reply all” feature.  Maybe it’s not the feature as much as it is the abuse of this feature. 

When I opened my email following my vacation, nearly one third of my emails stemmed from the “reply all” button.  Most of them said something to the effect of “thanks!” “me too!” or “great party.”  Who cares.  Did I really have to spend time reading or better yet deleting this annoying emails.  So I am not just going to complain about this; I prefer to provide some solutions:

1. When sending email to a group, blind copy all recipients so “reply all” is not an option stifling the frenzy from the get-go.
2. Think twice before choosing the “reply all” option.  Consider who really needs to hear your response. Single out the addresses of whom you need reply.
3. Consider picking up the phone.  Remember voice communication?  It can be significantly faster than 10 emails going back and forth, that not everyone needs to see.

What I would really love is an alarm to go off, prior to anyone sending a “reply all” email, but perhaps that’s not realistic.  If we could all be a little more contentious we could drastically decrease the amount of emails in our in-box.

No, we don’t have a magic wand, but we do help people organize their offices and piles every day. In the spirit of Halloween, since it’s October, here are some great tips that can really affect your productivity and sanity.

• Open your mail daily
• Immediately toss all paper you don’t need or will not use
• Keep organizing tools handy; recycle bin, shredder, envelopes, stamps, etc.
• Create action files for the papers requiring your attention
• Streamline your storage by placing like items together
• Invest in the appropriate furniture and ensure your desk or workstation accommodates your needs
• Clear your desk, at the end of each day
• Take 15 minutes to plan tomorrow’s calendar
• Check email only 3 times per day.  (Afraid of this one? Read our recent post DeTox Your InBox)
• Have a positive attitude – attitude is everything!

So what can you do with this information?  Select one thing, commit to it and incorporate it into your life.  No need for a magic wand.  Just a little time and commitment.  You can do it!