Tips and Tricks - Managing Email

How many hours have you wasted searching for a specific email? How often have you missed something because it was on an email that you overlooked or misplaced?

Email is a phenomenally useful means of communication but must be used carefully. Both in terms of the content of an email (it is very difficult to get the intended “tone” across in an email) but also with respect to ensuring the appropriate quantity, clarity and audience of an email.

If you’re anything like me you may receive dozens of emails every day or more. It is a never-ending task trying to keep on top of them. How do you know what is a priority, what requires a response, what is for information only, what is actually irrelevant to you. How much time have you wasted trying to manage email?

If you adopt some simple rules and gradually roll them out across your organisation you can improve the situation dramatically.

The subject field of an email can be very powerful if used in a structured way and consistently across your organisation. Here is a simple structure that you could use for your email subject fields that will make a dramatic improvement and save a significant amount of time.

Structure your email subject field as follows:

PRIORITY - ACTION - TITLE

PRIORITY is: Immediate, Today, This Week, This Month and Sometime

ACTION is: Action Required, For Information Only

TITLE is: a very brief description of the content of the email

The PRIORITY and ACTION refer to only those that the email has been sent to directly. If you have been copied in on the email then the email is only for information.

These simple rules will transform your email efficiency once adopted across your organisation.