Get our email newsletterLast month I wrote on keeping that inbox clean. Thanks to you who sent me more tips on handling the great email load and I am going to share “round two” of tips to keep your sanity while dealing with emails. So here goes:
- Use the preview screen more often so that you can see what’s in the email without actually opening the whole thing. This can save you lots of time.
- Don’t open those constant jokes unless you have time for them. They can take up a lot of precious time and do the world a favour, don’t pass them along for others to delete.
- Use the archiving tool to move your old emails to the archive file. This file will put your emails into the appropriate folders that are self generated by this tool and will keep your current visible emails down to a dull roar. You can access those archived files at any time.
- Recalling emails is hit and miss. Don’t send it unless you intend someone to read it. Most people will see the “recall” email after they have opened the original or are curious enough to read the original just because you want to recall it.
- Try to avoid the opening of multiple screens at one time. This can cause lots of stress by subjecting the brain to much more information that is needed at any one time.
- Finish those emails! One of the most stressful things that happens every day in our lives is “unfinished business”. It nags at you if you don’t complete it so when you are typing up an email, make a commitment to finish it.
- And this is a good one- if you are venting in response to someone’s email, type up the reply with all the gusto you can muster but do not fill in the “to”, “cc” or bcc” box. You can’t send it so it will sit in your draft box until you have sufficiently settled down to send out a revised saner message or you don’t send it at all.
- When sending out emails to large groups or multiple groups, use the “bcc” (that would be blind carbon copy) box instead of putting them all into the “to” box. I have received emails where at least one page of the printed email is a list of everyone that the email went to. The trick to this is to put your own email address in the “to box”. People receiving the email will only see their name and not the multitudes.
- Treat email as if you are speaking directly to someone. Don’t forget that emails are like the spoken word- once sent, very difficult to take back.
I hope that these suggestions will help. If you have others, please send them to me.
And finally, if you haven’t seen it, look at this YouTube video about Socialnomics. It is very interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&feature=player_embedded
