The Burden of E-Mail
Based on data from a number of our time and motion consulting projects, e-mail is indeed the burden that many employees believe it to be. Using our TimeCorder device, employees tracked their time on a number of activities, many of which involved using e-mail. We also asked them to track miscellaneous e-mails, that is correspondence that was not connected to priority activities such as managing, selling, or providing customer service.
These included all of the non-value added e-mails that employees need to sort through; internal announcements, queries from co-workers, items forwarded fyi, meeting confirmations and others.
Across a broad number of knowledge workers, these miscellaneous e-mails added up to 3.9 hours per week, much more than the 2.4 hours that employees said they would ideally like to spend on these. Those with activities outside of the office face a larger burden; 4.5 hours per week for field supervisors and 6.2 hours per week for sales reps. Remember: there is a lot more time spent on value-added emails – this is just the “stuff.”
Many of these e-mails are avoidable. Employees find themselves overwhelmed by dozens, if not hundreds of e-mails per day. Curiously though, while everyone complains about the volume of incoming e-mail, few will admit to being the culprits for sending it out.
Remember, if you send out one e-mail and copy twenty people, you have in effect sent out twenty e-mails.
Employees can make better choices to control their incoming e-mail.
- Take yourself off distribution lists.
- Avoid the use of the Reply All function.
- Stop saying “Thanks”. Fellow workers already know that you are an appreciative colleague.
- Ask subordinates not to copy you without including a cover note
- Unsubscribe from newsletters that are really extended sales pitches
- Don’t try to persuade someone through e-mail. Use a phone or meeting instead.
- Keep your messages short. Avoid telling stories.
Tags: E-mail, email, non-essential, sales, tips, unnecessary
Posted in Research Reports | 6 Comments »
By John Walker on May 25, 2010 | Reply
Very nice points. I have turned off my email notification due to the fact that I’m tempted to quick read them thus interupting my thought process on a particular project.
Thanks for you many excellent tips.
By Rob McIntosh on May 28, 2010 | Reply
Yes, email is a killer. John is right on the money. I’m a fan of checking email on my own schedule… once every hour or two. That way all the interruptions are concentrated. I don’t just disable the notifications, but close the program altogether.
By Johanna on May 31, 2010 | Reply
Yes e-mails are a burden I always receive lot of emails from colleages that are just general which I need a lot of time to read them. Most of the time I only read those a peron took some means to type the message not forwarding someones message.
By Emily on Jun 2, 2010 | Reply
Very nice points. I have turned off my email notification due to the fact that I’m tempted to quick read them thus interupting my thought process on a particular project.
Thanks for you many excellent tips.
By Chris Greaves on Jun 10, 2010 | Reply
I read personal emails as they arrive, using a 60- or 120-minute setting for new-mail notification, but I don’t reply to them until after 5pm.
In this way, friends get a same-day response, and I don’t get involved in chatty-ping-pong of little relevance to my business objectives.
By Laurie Cope on Jul 16, 2010 | Reply
Totally agree! Email clients are designed to push emails to you as much as possible, they WANT you to be IN their email system. They are not designed to help you work. It is vital to have a working process for which email is just a small part.
I use GMail, and nearly all my tasks come in via email, so when I refer to my tasks, I am in email, and I keep checking it all the time, which stops me doing my tasks.
I wrote a blog about how I have organised my Gmail filters and labels to help me stop checking for new email all the time, and only check it when I am ready to deal with it (and not when email is ready to deal with me!)
http://www.amitywebsolutions.co.uk/blog/gtd/609-gmail-tip-how-to-stop-checking-email-all-the-time/