You Don't Have An Email Problem

I read an interesting article in TechCrunch over the weekend that offered a compelling defense of email. The article acknowledges that email has gotten out of control and that certain segments of our population (think millennials and other tech savvy groups) see email as bloated, outmoded, and very old school. To a degree I can see their point of view.  There are certainly other forms of instant communication that can be efficient for the “I need it right now” crowd. Urgency addiction aside, I believe that there is still a important role for email and that rather than email being the problem, the problem is more than likely you.  We don't have a problem with email, rather we have accumulated a series of bad habits as it relates to our use and abuse of the medium. 

Think for a moment about the ways in which you typically use email each day. If you are like many people you check email first thing in the morning (probably on a smartphone), often times before you are even fully awake and usually before you have your first cup of your preferred morning beverage. Things can fall apart right there. If you have received a message related to work you are most likely to move into work mode almost instantly. Perhaps this has even changed your morning plans as now you believe you need to get to the office as quickly as possible to deal with that problem. If, however you did survive the morning look at your messages without any significant problems you may now be likely to check your messages a few more times during your commute (there is just something about those unopened messages). When you do get to the office you sit down and turn on your computer and once again the very first thing you are likely to see is email. Every one of these actions is based on a series of habits you have likely formed over a number of years. These habits are typically at play without you even acknowledging them. Have you stopped to ask yourself lately if they are serving you well?  

Every day people complain about the volume of email messages they receive or about the size of their inbox. While many of the complaints are valid, I rarely see people actively engaged in changing the situation. There are solutions available. But there are also a number of myths that complicate the ways in which we interact with our email inbox.

The first myth is that email is bad. I read about companies that are abolishing email.  Some schedule days when email is not permitted as in no email Fridays.  The sense is that eliminating email will make them more productive. I doubt seriously that this is true. I know that in my world the abolition of email would make many of my client and personal interactions much less efficient, and likely far less timely. 

The second myth is that we should strive for "Inbox Zero."  To me this seems absurd. In a world where many of us receive an average of 150 emails each day striving for inbox zero could easily consume more than three hours of your day.  If we assume that you do receive an average of 150 emails each day, and your average processing time for these messages is a mere two minutes each, you would spend five hours each day to achieve inbox zero.  I quite imagine that spending this much time keeping your inbox empty would be at a considerable costs to the other areas where you are accountable for results.  

The third myth is that you don’t need a system for handling email.  This is perhaps the greatest myth of all since it is likely that more people ascribe to this myth than the previous two.  You need a system.  A system is simply a set of detailed methods, procedures and routines created to carry out a specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a problem.  Or to quote Orison Swett Marden, “A good system shortens the road to the goal.”  While I have indicated above that your goal should not be inbox zero, you do still need to manage your email, and that is best accomplished by employing a system that works for you.

So, if you have bad habits related to email it is time to change those habits.  Email can be a very helpful and productive tool when you apply solid habits.  As a starting place you should determine what are the requirements in terms of email response time in your organization or culture.  I have found that this is one of those great assumptions we have about our workplaces.  It is likely that your assumptions about email response time is greater than your work culture requires.  Determining what is required will free you up to determine how often you should process your inbox.  While three times each day is likely not to be an effective method for your workplace, it is also likely that 30 to 50 times each day would be considered excessive and unnecessary.  You need to find the proper balance that works for you. 

Once you know how many times per day you should process your messages next look for ways to reduce the actual handling time per message.  An example of viable ways to do that would be rules in Outlook or Lotus Notes or Filters in Gmail. Applying rules or filters can automate the processing of a considerable number of messages, perhaps as much as 25% of the messages you receive could be processed by a rule or filter.

Finally, create your own set of verbs that describe how you will process messages.  I use five.  They are Do, Delete, Archive, Label, and Later.  When processing messages I apply one of these verbs to every message I open or review.  This simplifies processing as I have reduced the number of decisions I must make in order to process each message.  Using this method I can power through a significant number of messages during each of my “processing sessions” which happen every time I choose to open my inbox.  I try to never open the inbox unless I have time for a processing session even if that means as little as 5 or 10 minutes.  You will be amazed as to how efficient this can be.

My final thoughts about your email habits relates to the ways in which we choose to be notified of our incoming messages.  I prefer to turn off all notifications, badges, and alerts related to incoming messages.  These turn out to be merely audible, visual, and at times physical (when you use the vibrate feature on a phone) distractions.  I take the position that I will always have new messages and therefore there is no reason to check to see if that is true.  Further, by deciding when I can process messages I am more focused when I do check my email.  This requires a significant amount of discipline which I admit I fail at from time to time.  Still, the key is to begin to make this a habit and like the formation of all good habits it takes time before they stick.

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments below.  Also, for those that read this post if you think it would be helpful to a friend or colleague please feel free to forward the link or email the post.