Taking control of your inbox
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In this slide show…
• Time Management
• Discovering bad email habits
• Practical ways to deal with emails
• Average worker spends 41% of their time on email management
• More than half of UK workers admit to being stressed by how many emails they receive
• Email volume is doubling every 4 years
What does your inbox say about you?
• You always have more emails than you would like to have
• You cannot control how everyone communicates with you
• You can control what you do (how you send emails and what you do with them)
Your actions drive others behaviour
Responding in ways that drive others to keep you informed of everything
Asking about too much detail (and not just the important emails)
Not sending emails in ways for others to take action and complete
Bouncing from one email to the next
How many times in a day do you bounce from email to email?
Are you ready to try a new system?
Allocate a time to monitor your emails each day/week
Address each email as you read it with The 4 D’s strategy
Assign each email to a folder >
ActionorReferenceorDelete
The 4 Ds:
1.Deal with the email
2.Delete the email
3.Delegate the email to the relevant person in your team
4.Defer the email and file in ‘action’
Time Management SkillsHow to beat work overload and structure your time more effectively
Could 30 minutes of organisation time each day save you 3hrs of email bouncing?
URGENT NOT URGENT
manage1
focus2
Crises PreparationIMPORTANT Pressing problems Prevention
Deadline driven projects Values ClarificationMedical emergencies PlanningOther true emergencies Relationship building Personal Growth avoid avoid3 4Interruptions, some phone calls Busy work
NOT IMPORTANT Most emails Some phone calls,emailsSome meetings Time wastersMany pressing issues Escape activities Excessive TV
Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix
Do you respond to URGENT emails or the ones that scream
the loudest?
Schedule uninterrupted time to process and organise email
Reference folder
Action folder
Delete
Think of your subject line as a command line
Reflect the email’s content in the subject line
What is your ‘cc’ strategy?Do you read every single email you have been ‘cc’d into?
Do you have a rule for these emails to go into a folder?
If so does your team know that you do not address emails immediately that you have been ‘cc’d into?
Design your email system to suit your specific needs
For example do you receive a number of newsletters each day?
Think about setting a rule that they all go into one folder and you read them once a day/week.
Try not to get bombarded by emails that are not relevant to your daily work load.
• Be consistent in your behaviours
• Your behaviours drive how others email you and arrange meetings with you
• Take responsibility for what comes into your mailbox and stay in the driving seat
Top tips
• Decide when to check your emails
• Write clear subject lines to invite reading and action
• Write emails for others to take faster action
• Read less and ignore more
• Ignore or separate ‘cc’ emails
• Eliminate newsletters
• Create action folders
The 4 Ds:
1.Deal2.Delete3.Delegate4.Defer
Don’t forget!.......
Did you know…..2.8 million emails are sent every second
For more information on the Training Academy contact Off to WorkT: 0207 386 4497 E: [email protected] W: www.offtowork.co.uk