Email Overload - How to Spend 40 Percent Less Time on Email

Notice how we use email - both what comes to us as well as what we send. Email mis-alignment is often a cultural, leadership, or organizational issue so you may need to address with the larger community.There is no quick fix (actually there are some fixes with technology and tools like Sanebox, Streak, Other Inbox, Gmail, Clutter, Filters, Virtual Scheduling Assistant) Email is an effective and productive tool…until it isn't. Harvard suggests that a face-to-face meeting may be 34x more effective than email. Below are some tips on how to best leverage our inboxes.

Suggested Action plan:
1) Start a conversation about email use at your company and with the people with whom you email the most. "Is it working for us?" "What are our challenges?" "Are there things we could do that would be helpful?" "Should we establish some rules?"
2) Implement a strategy: yesterbox, pomodoro technique, one-touch rule (delete, reply, forward, file... and no, "mark as new" is not an appropriate action!)
3) Choose a tool that can help you get organized. There are lots of good ones.