Why is Email such a Time Sink?

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Jun12

Why is Email such a Time Sink?

Claire Tompkins

Know More: Email 2.0, Email

“What really slows you down is the email that matters,” says Michael Linenberger in a Fast Company interview. Deleting spam and FYI emails is annoying, but not that time consuming because they're easily identified. Emails that need some action from you are the ones to pay attention to.

Unfortunately, it isn't always crystal clear what that action is. And therein lies the delay. Linenberger doesn't explain in this interview how to figure out what the required action is, besides calling the sender on the phone and thereby spending even more time on that one email.

Maybe the answer in his book, which I haven't read and is about optimizing Outlook for email and task management. However, I have some ideas for you. I like Bill Jensen's idea that emails requesting action need to define the action clearly and give it a short deadline.
Jensen's advice is to immediately trash any nonconforming emails. My strategy is a bit gentler: if you receive email that doesn't have the above information, that's a report from the last meeting, mixed in with ideas, progress reports from others on the team, etc., reply to the email either asking what your next action is, or proposing one and asking for verification.

Depending on how responsive your correspondent is, you might also add that you'll hold off taking any action at all until you get a response. By being proactive this way, who knows, you might even be able to train your email correspondents!

Read more about Email Software, Email Accounts and Email Advertising.

related entries

Email Viruses Are Bad! Sep 15, 2006
Action-Oriented Email Folders Aug 24, 2006
Email: Pandora's (In) Box Aug 10, 2006
Email: Now, or Tomorrow? Aug 9, 2006
Managing Email Expectations Aug 8, 2006

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