DR.
VICTORIA
HALSEY PhD |
Does
e-mail have you spinning like a hamster on a wheel? If
you’re spending 40% of your day on confusing, lengthy
e-mail – as many of us are – and consider a lot
of that time wasted, you’re not alone. As I travel
the globe designing and delivering leadership curriculum
for major organizations, the number one concern I hear
is that people are spending too much time on e-mail and
not enough time on what is really urgent. One CEO stated, “I
don’t want my people sitting doing e-mail all day
and going home having ‘worked hard’ but vaguely
dissatisfied that they hadn’t accomplished much.”
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Betsy Myers, Executive Director, Center for Public Leadership at
Harvard University, believes that e-mail takes us off focus: “Our
daily barrage of e-mail not only consumes our time and energy but
fills up our inboxes with someone else’s priorities.” How
true is that? Have you ever written your to-do list and
then thought to yourself, “I’ll just check my e-mail” and
two hours later you are still at it? What is that costing you over
a period of a year? Time with your family? Great vacations where
you are truly present? Not accomplishing your career goals? Missed
opportunities? What is it costing your organization? Research shows
that time spent on e-mail unnecessarily costs over $300 billion
in lost productivity each year.
The first step towards improving your e-mail skill set
is to diagnose your own e-mail habits and skills. Take a
quick moment to complete the quiz below.
E-mail 101: Assess your e-mail skills - True/False
- I often check my e-mail even when I don’t really need
to.
- I frequently use the “reply to all” and ‘cc’ button.
- My friend and family tease me about how often I check my e-mail.
- My e-mails often turn into back and forth chain.
- I rarely pay attention to or change the subject line.
- I ignore or put off e-mails that are unclear to me.
- I check e-mail most nights and weekends.
- Most days I have hundreds of e-mail in my inbox.
- I don’t organize the body of my e-mail in any particular
way.
- I typically respond to e-mail as soon as they come in.
If you checked three or more of these, honing your e-mail
skills will save time and reduce stress. Here are some practical
and proven e-mail tips you can use right away. Professionals who
have implemented these tips have achieved stress-free productivity
while saving 15 days or more each year.
Tip #1: Send less-Get less. What can you do to get fewer
emails? Send Less, Get Less! The truth is that for every five
emails you send, you get three back. We call this the boomerang
effect. Sending 20% fewer e-mails actually reduces incoming e-mail
by at least 10%! Before sending, ask yourself if your message is
truly needed by your busy recipient on a busy day in order to do
their job. Minimize the times you ‘reply to all’ or ‘cc’ someone. Finally,
avoid forwarding jokes, chain mail, and wise words of wisdom
that take people off task.
Tip #2: Choose the exact time you will respond to e-mails. Be
intentional about when you will check your messages. This
will be tough at first -- like deciding not to eat sugar -- but
the benefits are great. When you process e-mail in batches
you can get more done in less time. You must remember your
vision of what YOU want to achieve that day. Resist the urge
to constantly peek at your messages. Disconnect the distracting
ding sound that announces every e-mail message – no matter
how trivial. Instead, drink some water, stretch,
breathe and dive into that important project or critical task.
Focus on your long term, high priority goals and you will be
amazed at what you achieve.
Tip #3: Write better messages. Picture a typical
wall of words e-mail. It rambles along asking for something to
be done in a roundabout way. It’s redundant and overly
detailed and perhaps it contains chit chat that obscures its
true purpose. The problem is that the writer has failed
to understand an important fact: Busy professionals no longer
read e-mail – they scan it!
Picture a second e-mail. This message has a clear, descriptive
subject line. After a brief, warm one sentence greeting the
writer summarizes the key point of the e-mail
A message
like this can be rapidly understood and acted upon. Here
is a simple e-mail structure that makes creating a great message
as easy as ABC:
- Action: Put your key point or requested action at the
top of your e-mail.
- Background: Use bullets or numbers to chunk your ideas
in the mid-section of your message. Be concise and use
sub-titles if you have to write longer paragraphs.
- Close: Reserve the end of your e-mail for niceties and
nice steps. A professional looking auto signature will
help your recipient pick up the phone and contact you if needed.
It takes about 1/10 the time to comprehend an ABC e-mail compared
to a typical wall of words e-mail. Think of the time that
would save! E-mails with strong subject lines that incorporate
the ABC structure will help your recipients understand what you
need them to do which cuts down on requests for clarification.
Tip #4: Coach frequent senders: People won’t miraculously
send you better e-mails. So take the time to discuss e-mail tips
and best practices with your frequent senders. I’ve
discovered that professionals love to vent about e-mail. Acknowledge
their frustration and guide them towards e-mail best practices
that will lighten everyone’s load. After all, what’s
the alternative? Slogging through poorly written or unnecessary
e-mails from your colleagues year after year?
For
more tips visit: www.hamsterrevolution.com and
remember to control your e-mail before it controls you. As with
any new habit, writing short, bulleted e-mails takes practice and
discipline. And what is your reward? You will reclaim your life,
achieve your goals and have time to spend with those you love.
Vicky Halsey is Co-author of The Hamster Revolution:
How to Manage Your E-mail Before it Manages You and
VP of Applied Learning at The Ken Blanchard Companies
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