ping on your mailbox and only read your email at designated times each day. Most managers should not be required to respond to email inquiries immediately. That may be appropriate for a call center rep, but not for a manager. If you need to respond to email messages minutes after they arrive, you have bigger problems than email. That's pure reactionary work. It's extremely shortsighted and inefficient. You can not get your meaningful work done if you are constantly interrupted.

Ke

Most managers get inundated with email on a daily basis. It can easily become overwhelming. What can be done to ease the pain? Here are some tips to help you battle the email beast.

The first thing that you need to do is reduce the amount of email coming into your in-box.

1) Invest in some SPAM software. That will prevent a good deal of illegitimate mail from entering your in-basket.

2) Outlaw excessive carbon copying (cc’ing). Some people just love to copy the world. Sometimes it’s to do some grandstanding. Sometimes it’s to cover their butts. Sometimes they just don’t know any better. You certainly don't have to do it. If you are copied on recurring email that doesn't concern you, ask the sender to remove you from the list. Most will comply. Set similar email etiquette rules for you and your team/organization to follow. In general, when a message goes out to a large # of recipients and requires a response, don't respond to everyone. Rather, respond to the sender. Let the sender compile the results and post a summary if necessary.

3) Don't use email to set up meetings. Use schedulers for that. If you don't have a scheduler, by all means don't hit reply all to a request for meeting availability. Some people feel they need to let the whole group know they are available between 1 and 2 on Friday. One request ends up spawning 10 messages. In these situations, again, respond to the sender only. The sender can collect the responses and let the attendees know the time of the meeting - 2 messages instead of 10.

4) If something requires a lot of back and forth, pick up the phone and work it out. Once a message spawns 3 replies, it's time to end the trail. Work it out with the necessary parties. If you must, summarize the solution in a final email that does not invite additional responses.

Don’t be a slave to your email. If you read email all day long, you won’t get any work done.

5) Turn off the ping on your mailbox and only read your email at designated times each day. Most managers should not be required to respond to email inquiries immediately. That may be appropriate for a call center rep, but not for a manager. If you need to respond to email messages minutes after they arrive, you have bigger problems than email. That's pure reactionary work. It's extremely shortsighted and inefficient. You can not get your meaningful work done if you are constantly interrupted.

Kee

Sometimes it’s to do some grandstanding. Sometimes it’s to cover their butts. Sometimes they just don’t know any better. You certainly don't have to do it. If you are copied on recurring email that doesn't concern you, ask the sender to remove you from the list. Most will comply. Set similar email etiquette rules for you and your team/organization to follow. In general, when a message goes out to a large # of recipients and requires a response, don't respond to everyone. Rather, respond to the sender. Let the sender compile the results and post a summary if necessary.

3) Don't use email to set up meetings. Use schedulers for that. If you don't have a scheduler, by all means don't hit reply all to a request for meeting availability. Some people feel they need to let the whole group know they are available between 1 and 2 on Friday. One request ends up spawning 10 messages. In these situations, again, respond to the sender only. The sender can collect the responses and let the attendees know the time of the meeting - 2 messages instead of 10.

4) If something requires a lot of back and forth, pick up the phone and work it out. Once a message spawns 3 replies, it's time to end the trail. Work it out with the necessary parties. If you must, summarize the solution in a final email that does not invite additional responses.

Don’t be a slave to your email. If you read email all day long, you won’t get any work done.

5) Turn off the ping on your mailbox and only read your email at designated times each day. Most managers should not be required to respond to email inquiries immediately. That may be appropriate for a call center rep, but not for a manager. If you need to respond to email messages minutes after they arrive, you have bigger problems than email. That's pure reactionary work. It's extremely shortsighted and inefficient. You can not get your meaningful work done if you are constantly interrupted.

Ke

nd to the sender. Let the sender compile the results and post a summary if necessary.

3) Don't use email to set up meetings. Use schedulers for that. If you don't have a scheduler, by all means don't hit reply all to a request for meeting availability. Some people feel they need to let the whole group know they are available between 1 and 2 on Friday. One request ends up spawning 10 messages. In these situations, again, respond to the sender only. The sender can collect the responses and let the attendees know the time of the meeting - 2 messages instead of 10.

4) If something requires a lot of back and forth, pick up the phone and work it out. Once a message spawns 3 replies, it's time to end the trail. Work it out with the necessary parties. If you must, summarize the solution in a final email that does not invite additional responses.

Don’t be a slave to your email. If you read email all day long, you won’t get any work done.

5) Turn off the ping on your mailbox and only read your email at designated times each day. Most managers should not be required to respond to email inquiries immediately. That may be appropriate for a call center rep, but not for a manager. If you need to respond to email messages minutes after they arrive, you have bigger problems than email. That's pure reactionary work. It's extremely shortsighted and inefficient. You can not get your meaningful work done if you are constantly interrupted.

Ke

nses and let the attendees know the time of the meeting - 2 messages instead of 10.

4) If something requires a lot of back and forth, pick up the phone and work it out. Once a message spawns 3 replies, it's time to end the trail. Work it out with the necessary parties. If you must, summarize the solution in a final email that does not invite additional responses.

Don’t be a slave to your email. If you read email all day long, you won’t get any work done.

5) Turn off the ping on your mailbox and only read your email at designated times each day. Most managers should not be required to respond to email inquiries immediately. That may be appropriate for a call center rep, but not for a manager. If you need to respond to email messages minutes after they arrive, you have bigger problems than email. That's pure reactionary work. It's extremely shortsighted and inefficient. You can not get your meaningful work done if you are constantly interrupted.

Ke

ping on your mailbox and only read your email at designated times each day. Most managers should not be required to respond to email inquiries immediately. That may be appropriate for a call center rep, but not for a manager. If you need to respond to email messages minutes after they arrive, you have bigger problems than email. That's pure reactionary work. It's extremely shortsighted and inefficient. You can not get your meaningful work done if you are constantly interrupted.

Keep your in-box clean. It’s tough to be reliable and efficient if there are hundreds of messages in the in-box.

6) Discard whatever you can. Create to-do's for those emails that need a response and file them away. Re-visit them as needed. Keep the in-box down to 75 messages or less. It can be done.

Finally, a few practices to avoid at all costs.

7) Don’t filter legitimate emails. It’s much better to explain your email rules than to never respond to messages.

8) Don’t ignore emails. Some people follow the squeaky wheel practice and don’t answer an email until they get the same one a few times. First of all, this adds to the email clutter as the same message gets sent to you multiple times. Second, it infuriates the sender. Third, it makes you appear unorganized and unresponsive.

9) Don’t hide behind email. Many use email to avoid having direct contact with people. They want to avoid confrontation. It’s like intentionally calling and leaving a voicemail for someone when you know they are not in the office. Difficult issues are best handled face-to-face or via phone if necessary.

10) Don’t show people up. Nothing sparks a flurry of emails like an emailer scorned. This is naturally compounded by the number of people cc’d on the offending email. Resist the urge to fire back a response to a less than flattering email. It takes two to tango. Be the bigger person. Pick up the phone and work it out.

Follow the tips above and you will find that you too can take control and become master of your “email domain.” Good Luck!