What I Do To Reduce my Time Spent on E-mail

A while ago, I wrote abouot some Time Management tips that I try to follow, and which help me be a Lazy Business Owner.  Since e-mail is the biggest productivity killer, I thought I would try to detail my e-mail management tips - especially since I’ve done a much better job at reducing my addiction on e-mail.

My Feelings on E-mail

• I have a sum total of 0 emails in my inbox (at least that’s since I last checked yesterday).
• I don’t like when my email gets more than one page (which is about 10 or 20 total emails). 
• The people on the other side of the email have made a request. They believe that request is important otherwise they would not be asking you for help. Your personal credibility and reputation is on the line depending on how you treat their request. Take days to respond and others will gain an impression of you (right, wrong or indifferent).
• When I check my e-mail, I try to get through it all at once (and as quickly as possible) so that I don’t have e-mail just rotting away in my inbox.
• I look at e-mail as another task in my day and try not to work out of my inbox.  It can be a productivity drain if you let it be. 

I Follow Some Simple Rules for Managing Email

1. I read it, understand it, and then take the action I need to on it.  This might be to reply, store it in an appropriate folder, or just delete it. 
2. If the action you took is not what the requester wanted, and it’s important to them, you can be sure that you will hear back from them (usually the next day). 
3. If no specific action is required of you, delete it. No response is a response. 
4. If you are not the right person to address the request, forward the email to someone who can address it. This could be someone you work with or someone you know.  If you want to make sure you don’t forget about it, create a “To-Do” to check on it later. 
5. When you’re on a newsletter or some legitimate distribution that you don’t care about (and isn’t some of the nasty SPAM), unsubscriber from it.  It will only clutter up your mailbox in the future if you don’t do anything in the future. 
6. For real SPAM, mark it as Junk so it won’t show up again.  Obviously it doesn’t eliminate most of the Junk mail, but hopefully it makes some difference.  It also instantly eliminates the e-mail from your Inbox.
7. Delete it if it looks like garbage or a duplicate to begin with.
8. Never use your email inbox as your “to do” list or your master library, it gets far too overwhelming.
9. If you have “pack-rat” tendencies, set up a folders filing system to move email or attachments you think you may need to reference again. Do not leave it in your in-box.  
10. Avoid using the webmail if possible. I have found e-mail clients are much easier to navigate, file and manage than the web based version. 
11. Although it sounds harsh, send fewer emails and you will get fewer emails. 
12. Never, ever, be proud of the number of unread emails you have in your inbox or the number of emails you get in a day. Is someone counting and are you getting a prize?