MANIC Monday: Email Time Saver Tips

• Ever miss important emails?
• Do you skim over emails instead of reading them... even though they might have important information you need?
• Feel like you don’t have enough time for email?

Here are 5 Tips that actually will SAVE you and/or your recipients time.

1) Set aside time for email... Turn OFF the notification (sound, bouncing icon in dock, alert box, etc.) Set aside 10 to 30 minutes 2-4 times per day to focus on emails (Such as: before work, lunch, prep time, after work, or ONCE in evening at home), rather than checking it or reading messages whenever they come in. (If you prefer to read email as it comes in, you’re basically becoming addicted to “technology-enhanced instant gratification” (or TEIG), which is a condition that most of our students also have! Don’t get the “TEIG disease”... Just say no to TEIG! (Obviously, if you’re expecting an important message, that’s different! Just remember that ALL email is not “important email”!)

2) Include a subject — for EVERY email –this helps the recipient quickly scan for messages that need to be handled quickly or to find the email to follow up later. Use a specific subject — for example, “How many students needed?” rather than “Question” or “Fire Alarm today” rather than “Important” or “Just saying HI” instead of “Hey”. Emails with no subjects are more likely to be missed, skipped, or deleted!

3) Organization: Are you a Sorter-Filer, Deleter, or Hoarder-Searcher? Depending on your quantity of email, your personality, and your technology skills, some of these require more time in the long run.

• Sorter-Filer – must put every email into a folder (including the trash)... Great organization, but this takes time and many seconds adds up to hours in a year!
  
• Deleter — deletes anything that doesn’t look important or seems not important, but sometimes goes too far. This person is usually the one who asks, “Can you resend that email about ____” or when you say, “I sent that information in an email last week” and they blatantly say, “I deleted it, can you send it to me again?” (Note: Senders do not like “Deleters” since they often take up more of their time)
  
• Hoarder/Searcher — leaves all/most messages in their In Box, deleting few or none, but finds things by sorting by category headings or by using the search or advanced search. This works great if you’re a good searcher and have unlimited or very high email storage on your computer and/or the email server, which most do now due to cheap storage solutions.
  

4) Remove yourself from lists/emails you don’t need. Every second counts in the email world! If you open, skim, and delete 35 emails in a week (5 per day) that you didn’t really need to see or think about, taking about 2-5 seconds each, that works out to about 1 to 2.5 hours in a year... that you can’t get back! If you think that just leaving them in your In Box is OK, remember that you spend time skimming those every time you look through your In Box, which adds up as well! Look for the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email and do it – spend time now to save time later!!!  

5) Recognize and focus on the emails that are IMPORTANT (for your professional practice or reputation, well-being, and/or livelihood) and skim/ignore the others (or see #2). This skill takes a while to develop and is mostly related to focusing your attention on email messages (see #1) rather than quickly “getting through” emails. Respect the time of the message sender as well as your own time! 

For MORE tips, view these resources:

• http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/email/ (with examples of good/bad versions)
  
• http://www.ragan.com/InternalCommunications/Articles/15_tips_to_refine_your_email_etiquette__43257.aspx  
  
• http://www.emailreplies.com/ (good tips, but contains ads)