How to Use Email Productively
Most business professionals would agree that email is a technology that has vastly improved the efficiency of our day-to-day businesses. No longer do we have to send a letter by mail, or even a fax. We can communicate with businesses on the other side of the world nearly instantaneously, and reach anyone we want by just knowing their email address. However, this powerful tool is also dangerously distracting. As our inboxes fill up over the course of the day, you wouldn’t be the only one to look up at the clock and notice that half the day is gone, and the only thing that’s been done is email! Indeed, trying to achieve “Inbox Zero” has claimed many hours of my life that I will never reclaim. As a culture, we are more burned out and distracted than ever as we are bombarded all day by the beeps and blips of notifications. Instead of being pushed around by your inbox, here is how you take control, and make email work for you:
Batch Your Emailing
One of the most unproductive aspects of email is that it frequently interrupts our day and draws our attention away from what we are doing. These constant notifications stimulate our sympathetic nervous system, increasing levels of cortisol, and generally making us feel more stressed out than we otherwise would. To turn the tables, start batching your “email time” into a few, focused sessions per day, and don’t look at your email outside of these windows. During your email batches you will be focused on answering or prioritizing everything in your inbox, thus making the most of the time addressing your email. This also frees you up to truly engage with the other tasks in your day, enhancing focus and time for “deep work.”
“But what if I get an important, time sensitive email when I’m not looking at it?” You might ask. First of all, if it’s REALLY that time sensitive, why was the communication sent as an email, and not a phone call, in-person conversation, or text message? Second of all, you can reduce the potential of this happening by taking more frequent, but shorter batch times throughout the day. Try starting with once every 90 minutes, then as you improve, try to shoot for twice a day: once in the morning, and once in the evening. Real pro’s have the control to only look once per day!
Prioritize
Many email programs come with prioritization features that are highly useful. Simply put, that marketing email sent by the company you downloaded a free trial from one time is not nearly as important as a client making an urgent request. You can set up your email system to prioritize by sender, subject, or topic, and then further prioritize into groups of similar emails. When you are on your email then address the most pressing emails first, and then move on to the low-priority ones.
At certain levels of activity it may be impossible to achieve “Inbox Zero,” but that shouldn’t worry you. Email is not meant to be a game, it’s a communication tool, with real people on the other side (most of the time), and as long as your most important communications are getting taken care of, you are winning.