Email Overload And Email Etiquette Blog from Mesmo Consultancy

Email etiquette to stop email overload - Twitter Chat transcript

2012-02-22T19:04:00.028Z

How can brilliant email etiquette help you stop email overload? That was the theme of today's Twitter Chat. My thanks to everyone who participated. Below is a transcript of the key tweets.

Email Etiquette

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

There is also our 'Email Etiquette Checklist' to help you send the right message right first time. emptyinbox

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

For more tips on email etiquette to stop email overload either come to one of our workshops or webinars #emptyinbox

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

@MarshaEgan what's your top tip? #emptyinbox

in reply to @MarshaEgan

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

A1 - Think five is my motto - five short sentences, five questions. More and you loose the other person. #emptyinbox

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

A1 Keep the content clear, concise and structured so its easy for the recipient to read. #emptyinbox

Marsha Egan @MarshaEgan

Q1 What is your best email etiquette tip? #emptyinbox

Marsha Egan @MarshaEgan

Hi from the US! #emptyinbox

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

Does correct spelling and grammar save time - Yes. #emptyinbox

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

Consider the subject line as your elevator pitch #emptyinbox

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

Always re-read your message before hitting send ask yourself will the recipient understand me #emptyinbox

ExecutiveSecretary @lucybrazier

RT @EmailDoctor: What's best way to open an email to stop email overload? Join me today for Twitter Chat #emptyinbox at 17.00 GMT to find...

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

Does anyone have a question/tip they would like to share? #emptyinbox

Monica Seeley @EmailDoctor

Using brilliant email etiquette is a quick way to save time and stop email overload by reducing the rounds of email ping-pong. #emptyinbox

Superfast broadband for Dorset: reality or pipe-dream

2012-02-17T09:30:00.003Z

Superfast broadband for Dorset: reality or pipe-dream

Key points from Friday 17 February 2012 with Geoff Carter on The Bay 102.8 FM

The Current Situation

During the 2012 Olympics Dorset and to be precise Weymouth and Portland will enjoy some of the fastest broadband speeds in the world (let alone the UK). This is because BT has installed a mega fibre optic cable to cope with the world's media and press requirements during the 2012 Olympics.

But what of us lesser mortals trying to run business on what are some of the slowest broadband speeds in the UK? For many and especially in rural Dorset obtaining even 0.5 MB is extremely difficult and hindering business. Dorset conurbation is starting to become a hot bed of competition for suppliers of fast and super fast broadband. And what about the Olympic legacy in terms of this fibre optic cable? Will Dorset businesses benefit afterwards? Yes they can - especially if they are at Osprey Quay.

What's the difference between fast and superfast broadband?
Fast is up to 24MB. Superfast is over 30 MB with some able to reach 100MB.

How can I check my current broadband speed?
Use one of the broadband speed testers like http://www.speedtest.net.

How can I find out who might be offering faster broadband over the next 12 months?
Use a broadband speed post code like www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk.

A number of suppliers are currently vying for your business in the conurbation including:
BT

City Fibre Holdings

Fibreband
Sky
Virgin

Indeed BT have just announced the upgrading of a number of exchanges over the next year either to their fast service or for fibre to the cabinet, their superfast service (infinity) including:

Southbourne, Dorchester, Weymouth, Blandford, Lytchett Minster.

Virgin are promising up to 100MB in some areas.

What if I am based in rural Dorset?

Rural Dorset

Dorset County is eligible for a £9.44M matched funded grant from the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) in respect of the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funds. Our Local Broadband plan application has been submitted and the initial feedback is that it's looking favourable - a green light in terms of readiness. We hope to hear in February /March. Then a supplier must be selected to match both the BDUK and locally sourced funds. In total approx £38M is likely to be made available for improving broadband infrastructure, with the project management costs being met by the local partners.

Will that be sufficient? Will parts of Dorset still have poor broadband?
Yes and No. The extent of the provision of superfast broadband infrastructure will be identified through the procurement process. The infrastructure will enable access, to but will not provide the “final mile” connecting from the infrastructure point to the premise. In most instances this will be provided via the Internet service provider (ISP) and the existing infrastructure provision. Reaching some of the more isolated and remote premises could be more difficult. In these cases a minimum speed of 2Mbps is the goal, which may be made available through a different type of provision.

We need to drive up demand by demonstrating sufficient demand from businesses of all sizes as well as from residents. Demand is key to showing that the investment in Dorset will be a viable proposition. Indeed unless there is sufficient demand for superfast broadband it is possible that BT could switch off and leave dark fibre behind at Osprey Quay.

Will parts of Dorset still have poor broadband?
Yes, unless we can drive up demand by demonstrating sufficient demand from businesses of all sizes. Indeed unless there is sufficient demand for superfast broadband it is very likely that BT will switch off the Weymouth and Portland connection leaving just fast broadband.

How can I keep up-to-date about progress?
Follow us on Twitter Digital Dorset and check the Dorset Chamber of Commerce's news page.

What can I do?
I chair the Digital Dorset Taskforce and am on the BDUK Project Group. Your comments and input is vital.

Tell me what are the challenges for you and your business. Use the comments box below. We are lobbying our MPs but we desperately need your help, support and backing if Dorset is not to be left behind.

The can do attitude - how business and people survive email overload

2012-02-15T18:07:00.001Z

Over the last week I have experienced three outstanding examples of the 'can do' attitude which engenders customer delight and survival. My theory is that businesses that do this will survive whilst the rest may well go to the wall.

Danny Crates

It began whilst listening to Danny Crates the Paralympic gold medal-winning athlete. He was the after dinner speaker at AFC Bournemouth Director's Business Club dinner last week. He talked about the option in life after losing his right arm in a road accident. They were to spend the rest of his life either feeling sorry for himself or make something of his life. Clearly he choose the latter path. He was both an inspiration and a great speaker.

A few days later my beloved bomber jacket fell apart in the washing machine. With a sad heart I trolled off to the various local sport shops. First one just said no we don't sell that make. No suggestion of an alternative. Second one was empty and the staff were not exactly over eager to greet me and try to sell me anything. Third one was Blacks. By now running out of time, I asked if they had anything in my size. A bouncy cheerful assistant found three jackets and you can guess a purchase was made.

Yesterday it was a visit to Croydon Crematorium to check a late friend's rose tree. The plaque used to be bronze and was stolen so they replaced it with a very fine imitation marble one. The lady who had been dealing with the matter was charming and came out in the rain to check all was well. Nothing was too much trouble, down to opening the Remembrance Book and turning it back to the page when my friend is cited.

What stands out about these three very diverse experiences is the 'can do' attitude of the people involved. Any business which wants to survive could learn a lesson from these three people. We have a choice so if we don't feel welcome and receive good customer service we can go elsewhere.

Email overload

Now what has all this to do with email overload? Over the last week I have listened to at least six people say their inbox is overflowing and they don't know where to begin. When given a few simple tips they shrug their shoulders. My premise is simple. No one needs to endure email overload any more than we need to suffer poor customer service.

You have a choice. Clean up your inbox, keep it clear, send fewer emails and be ruthless about how you spend your time and you too can enjoy an empty inbox!

Email in the cloud to reduce email overload - Guest Blog from Graham Jones, Nuage Technology

2012-02-08T10:30:00.000Z

Bulging servers and the cost of running an always on email service is one reason why many organisations are looking to outsource management of their email servers. If used correctly can increase efficiency, communication and clarity within a business.

A hosted Exchange service that we offer has many advantages. You’ll no longer need to worry about

Owning or buying your own hardware.

Email Overload

Staff to manage it.

You’ll have an increased ability to

Sync with different devices such as smart phones, iPads and on different computers.
“Push” emails – a feature that allows your emails to come through in real time.
Share calendars, with incredible ease. Flexible settings for groups, individuals at your work or home.

What’s more you pay less, improve productivity, its backed up and secure! As more and more people become aware of the benefits of this type of Cloud Computing and using the cloud in this way (storing and accessing information via an internet connection) you will start to see a move over to this solution type. Start using it effectively now will build a stronger team and future proofing your business!

Nuage Technology offers a cloud computing solution for your entire network, consolidating all your data securely, with daily backups, freeing up space in your office, staff to look after your network and saving you money in meantime.

For more information about how we can use our expertise and knowledge to save you money and make your business more efficient. Visit us at Nuage Technology or email us call 07977 043 858

Clean Out Your Inbox Week - round up and the future for email overload

2012-02-02T10:30:00.000Z

Empty Inbox

Thanks to everyone who joined 'Clean Out Your Inbox Week' last week. Did it help you reduce the email overload factor? Has your email etiquette improved? I hope the answer to both questions is a resounding yes and that as a result you now have your inbox well under control rather than having it control you and your time.

As noted in earlier blogs, there were many worthy prize winners working towards an empty inbox. These included the person who:

Had over 2,200 emails in their inbox on Day One.
Received a 9MB attachment from an internal colleague.
Set themselves the goal of reducing their inbox from 493MB to 350MB (well under the 500MB limit).
Joined but was overwhelmed by a crisis and had to give up.

All prize winners should all be in receipt of your personal copy of 'Brilliant Email.' If you were not a prize winner, 'Brilliant Email' can be purchased from all on-line book sellers - Amazon gives the best price.

Where to from here?

Now the challenge is how to keep your inbox at zero. This means reducing the email overload and encouraging others to be better behaved with their email and their email etiquette. If either you or your colleagues would benefit from more help we would be pleased to book you onto one our Brilliant Email master classes which are available as public events or in-company sessions. For more information contact us either by email or phone on + 44 (0)1202 43 43 40.

We are offering a special 15% discount on all bookings made in February by participants of Clean Out Your Inbox Week.

Once again your support was very much appreciated and hopefully you found the week's activities have helped you create extra time in your day.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 2012 - Day 5 Keep email addiction in check

2012-01-27T09:15:00.002Z

Friday - Staying Healthy - Keeping Your Email Addiction Under Control

Empty Inbox

By now we hope you have a very slim and healthy inbox. The trick now is to keep it in good shape. Email addiction is one of the major causes of email overload. It's the feeling that you must constantly check your inbox no matter where you are, what you are doing or what time of day it is. Recent survey suggests many of us check email in bed - first and last thing at night on our smart phones.

Use Mesmo Consultancy's Email Addiction Checklist to benchmark yourself. Download your personal free copy from the Knowledge Exchange.

So let's see if the email management treatment is working and you are now in control of your inbox and your inbox is heading to zero. After four days here's what you need to do on the final day of Clean Out Your Inbox Week.

Step 1 - Reweigh your inbox

Share how many emails are still left in it (excluding those which arrived today).

+Email me

+ Post responses/comments on this blog

+ Tweet the size of your inbox using the #emptyinbox is (eg #emptyinbox has 40 emails left in it)

Step 2 - Check your level of Email Addiction

Make sure you can control your email addiction. Identify where are your strengths and weaknesses and seek advice about how use your strengths to over come the weaknesses.

Step 3 - Review your action plan and goals and tell us how you fared

What were the high and lows of the week and how did you work around them? What aspects of our email management techniques helped you the most?

The last free copy of 'Brilliant Email' is for the cleanest inbox and the person who made the best progress. Email your responses to me.

Step 4 - Contact us if either you or colleagues need some more help

Look back to Day 1 and how much time you were losing. Chances are most of your colleagues are losing just as much time. If you and your colleagues would like some more help why not ask us in to run one of our Brilliant Email Master Classes or buy some copies of 'Brilliant Email'. ('Brilliant Email' can be purchased from any bookshop.)

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this the 5^th international Clean Out Your Inbox Week. I hope you now have a slim inbox and had fun and saved yourself some time. Hopefully now you feel you are driving your inbox rather than letting it drive you and your day.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 2012 - Day 4 Email etiquette

2012-01-26T09:00:00.002Z

Keep taking the medicine - email etiquette to keep an empty inbox

One of the quickest ways to slim down your inbox is to reduce the amount of email ping-pong you play. That means use the right email etiquette rules to convey the right message, right first time. Don't leave space for misinterpretation.

You have less than five seconds before the recipient of your email has formed an opinion of you for better or worse. Poor email etiquette can cost you dearly, for example customers, a job etc. Review your email etiquette and use it to reduce the amount of email you need to handle.

Step 1 - Download our free 'Email Etiquette' rules checklist' from our Knowledge Exchange.

Step 2 - Review your inbox

How is your email management? Are you approaching an empty inbox? Recheck your inbox to see if there are any email chains which could have been prevented if you had communicated more clearly.

Step 3 - Review your emails before hitting send

Check how clear and concise is your email using our Email Etiquette rules checklist.

Step 4 - Next time someone sends you a poor email

Ask them what they are trying to say. Give them a copy of our Email Etiquette rules checklist.

Step 5 - Share how you are doing

What is the poorest email you have in your inbox? And Why? How are you doing with your personal email management after three days?

+ Email me

+ Post a comment on this blog

+ Tweet the gist of the email using #emptybox

Today the prizes are for you as the recipient and again for the sender if you dare tell me (by email) who are they!

Don't forget there will be more tips during the day on Twitter.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week - Day 3 Prize Winners

2012-01-25T21:21:00.004Z

A number of people joined today as a result of a re-tweet from our good friends at Race Online 2012. we are delighted to have you all at the Clean Out Your Inbox Week party. Today's prize winners are:

Head of Financial Inclusion - working for a community centre whose work includes raising young people's aspiration. She is losing just over half an hour a day (17.5 days a year).

A lady from a publishing company. She already has a 151MB mailbox and received a 9MB attachment from her production manager about a conference they are attending.

Good luck to everyone with Day 4 - brilliant email etiquette to save time. Do tell us your email etiquette horror stories and enter tomorrow's prize draw.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 2012 - Day 3 Attachments

2012-01-25T09:00:00.000Z

Attachments can damage your email health! Reduce them to stay within mailbox limits

This is day three on Clean Out Your Inbox Week. Are you progressing towards an empty inbox? Today's focus on managing your email is to develop the habit of saving attachments outside your inbox and into the right folder on your main server/hard disc (eg client, project etc). Managing your attachments properly is another way to get your inbox to zero and reduce the email overload.

Ever been locked out of your inbox? Today's focus is on attachments - the pariahs of inbox space. If I had a penny for everyone who tells me their inbox is over the limit I'd be rich. Keeping too many attachments in your inbox means you not only clog up your own server but your organisation's system. Also there is nothing more stressful than needing to send an email only to find you are locked out of your system through being overweight!

Don't forget #Emptyinbox Twitter Chat at 6.00 pm GMT (1.00 pm EST) Tonight is about managing and influencing the email behaviour of those around you so their poor email bevahiour doesn't effect your productivity. Marsha Egan and I will provide you with valuable tips on how to keep messages from ever arriving in your inbox. To join us go to Tweet Chat and type in the hash tag #emptyinboxchat.

Meanwhile here is today's medicine

1) Check you have not left too much dross from the last two days

If needs be set aside time to continue to manage your email and do the inbox housekeeping and cleaning out.

2) Find those large attachments
Sort on size. For Outlook users use Mailbox Cleanup or Search Folders.

3) Save the attachments outside Outlook
Save all attachments to the relevant folder outside Outlook and on your file server/hard disc. Then remove them from the email. Make sure you do the same with your sent items too.

3) Share how you are doing
What is the biggest attachment you have in your inbox? After three days what is the size of your inbox now? How many items are in it? Are you still suffering from email overload or are you heading towards an empty inbox through good email management?

+ Email me

+ Post a comment on this blog
+Tweet me ( eg #emptyinbox mine had 4000 emails & is now its only 100. Biggest attachment was 10Mb)

Tell us how you are doing. There are prizes today for the person:

- who is making the greatest saving

- received the largest attachment and if you are daring enough tell me the person who sent it!

Again during the day there will be more tips on Twitter.

Clean Out Your Inbox 2012 Day 2 Prize Winners

2012-01-24T20:35:00.000Z

It's great to have so many people join the ' Clean Out Your Inbox Week' party to manage email overload and seek the holy grail of inbox zero.

Sounds like some are getting closer to an empty inbox and for some there is a little way to go. Nonethless, hopefully by the end of the week you will have taken control of your inbox.

Today's prize winners are:

Technical Infrastructure Manager from leading paint manufacturer. He was honest to admit to having 1380 emails in his inbox and needing help sorting them.

HR Manager for a leading consumer market research company who had managing her inbox as one of her new year's resolutions.

Good luck to you both and everyone else for the rest of the week, as you work towards an empty inbox.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 2012 - Day 2 Prioritise to reduce the email overload

2012-01-24T09:30:00.001Z

It's great to see so many people keen to reduce the email overload and reach inbox zero. Thank you to everyone who is sharing and joining in.

Today is about continuing to manage the email overload by reducing the amount of rubbish (noise) and starting to prioritise in order to keep the email intake down. Remember your inbox should be your work in progress - not a dump ground for all the emails you receive. The Pareto rule works on our inbox too. That is 80% of what we need comes from 20% of what we receive.

Step 1 – Continue spending a few minutes clearing out more unnecessary emails that are left from the last six months.

Step 2 – For each new email you receive today ask yourself - 'Do I really need this email?' 'How useful is this to me?'

Step 3 - For all those emails you don't need keepthem out
Find a way either to get yourself off the sender's list or automatically move them out of your inbox so they don't distract your attention away from the really important ones. For example:

Unsubscribe - just deleting is a waste of time.
Ask the sender to remove you from their list. (There are some useful templates of text on Mesmo Consultancy’s website – Go to the Knowledge Exchange and click 'Stop Email - Useful templates'.)
Send them to a folder/deleted using Rules.

Step 4 - Share how you are doing
Tell me how you are doing and especially how many emails you received and how many of those you really needed. Tell us what processes you are putting in place to limit the unnecessary emails from reaching your inbox.

Email me
Post a comment on this blog
Tweet using #emptyinbox

Again there are copies of ‘Brilliant Email’ as prizes for the best responses.

Don't forget there will be more tips during the day from myself as the EmailDoctor and Marsha Egan. Just look for the #emptyinbox.

Good luck.

Clean Out Your Inbox Day 1 - Prize winners

2012-01-23T21:15:00.000Z

Thank you to everyone who responded through whatever channel (email, comments on blogs, Twitter etc). Wow we have some truly email overloaded people. The winners of Monday's prizes go to:

1) Most overload person:

2276 items in their inbox
The oldest going back to October 2008

2) Best goals:

To reduce the size of my mailbox from 493MB to 350MB so it is well below the recommended size for my level in the firm (500MB).
1 hour per day to be spent on this during w/c 23 January 2012.
Unsubscribe from any emails that I no longer need as I go through clearing out this morning.

Keep posting and tell us how you are progress tomorrow.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 2012 - Day 1 Weigh In

2012-01-23T09:30:00.001Z

Welcome to day one of the 5th International Clean Out Your Inbox Week which we are running with America's leading email management expert Marsh Egan of Inbox Detox fame. We have been ovewhelmed by the number of people who signed up in order to combat email overload in 2012. Here's to many empty inbox by the end of the week.

Monday Day 1 - Weigh in and start your treatment with some Smart Goals

Step 1 - Weigh in

1. Check how many email are in your inbox. For most email software the number is shown on the bottom left (eg 5,000 items).
2. Look at the date of the oldest.
3. Count or estimate how many are unread.
4. Be daring and share the results by one of the following.

+ Email me
+ Post a comment on this blog
+ Tweet the results using the #emptyinbox (eg My inbox has 5,000 emails #emptyinbox)

Step 2 - Check the Cost of Email Overload to yourself and your business

Count how many emails you receive today and of those how many your really need. Use our Cost of Email Misuse Calculator and dare to share the results as above.

Step 3 - Set yourself SMART goals for the week and plan how they will be achieved

Set some SMART goals for how you plan to manage the email overload more effectively during the week. What do you want form the week (eg reduce the volume of uneccessary emails, keep within mailbox limits etc).

Share your goals and plans (see above). There are prizes for the best set of goals and plan to achieve them (copy of 'Brilliant Email'). Email them to me: Tweet them using #emptyinbox: post them as a comment on this blog..

Step 4 - Start to clear out some of the rubbish

Start to managing the email overload now.

Sort by subject and/or from and delete all the duplicate chains.
Sort by date and move out all emails older than six months to a folder to sort later.

Step 5 - Join us both on Twitter for tips and share experiences using the #emptyinboxchat

Join me and Marsha Egan for Twitter Chat drop in consultancy at 6.00 pm GMT (1.00 pm EST). This one focuses on 'what are the best tools and tricks to empty your inbox and to keep it empty'.

Go to http://tweetchat.com/ and type in the 'hashtag' emptyinboxchat. The only rules are to observe the normal rules of social media posting - no abuse and profanities etc. Preface each question with the letter Q (and its number). Start Tweeting - post your questions and comments and Marsha and I will endeavour to help you. (If you don't have a Twitter account you will have to sign up.)

5th International Clean Out Your Inbox Week 23 to 27 January

2012-01-21T20:23:00.001Z

Do you want to achive the hallowed state of inbox zero? This is the week to put your inbox on a permanent diet and go from email overload to an empty inbox (or inbox zero as some say). Reclaim your life from the inbox. Save yourself time, improve your productivity and make time to do the things in life you really want to do. Here is an overview of the week's activities.

Join in the fun. Every day there will be tips and hints including on-line tools to help you take control of your inbox to reach inbox zero by the end of the week.

Day 1 - Weigh in using our Cost of Email Misuse Calculator and set your goals for the week.

Day 2 - Reduce the email overload and get rid of all the noise.

Day 3 - Prioritise and manage attachments to further reduce the email overload.

Day 4 - Email etiquette to slim down your inbox.

Day 5 - Re-weigh yourself and learn more ways to keep your inbox slim.

We are delighted to be running this our 5th International annual 'Clean Out Your Inbox Week' with the founder of the event Marsha Egan of Inbox Detox. Together we can all make 2012 the year we really manage email overload.

We promise there will be prizes and lots of fun. It's free. All you need to do is either email me to receive the detailed daily plan or read My Daily Blog.

On Monday at 6.00pm (GMT) we will both be hosting a Twitter Chat. Simply check in at Tweet Chat and follow #emptyinboxchat for tips on how to reach inbox zero not just this week but forever.

Declutter your inbox - Bay 102.8 FM at 12.00 noon Friday 20 January

2012-01-20T11:17:00.000Z

Declutter your inbox with Geoff Carter on The Bay 102.8 FM

Friday 20 January 2012 with

At the start of the year many people probably set a new year’s resolution to stay on top of their email and not let the inbox run their day but rather make sure they run the inbox. Monday January 23 is ‘Blue Monday ‘ the most depressing day when many let go of their cherished new year’s resolutions. For those who wanted to make 2012 the year of the ‘empty inbox’, and reclaim their lives from the inbox and maybe even fight their email addiction help is at hand now.

The 5th international Clean Out Your Inbox Week takes place week beginning 23 January 2012. The goal is to provide business leaders with the tools and incentive to enable them and their colleagues to make 2012 the year they really combat email overload and email addiction.

Its free and you can join in either by following my blog each day or email us and we will send you details of each days activites. There will be competitions and prizes each day to keep you on track.

Meanwhile, here are the top five ways reach that coverted empty inbox status and declutter your inbox now.

Sort by date then by subject and person and delete all those old chains.
Move all emails over a week old in to a separate folder (eg called 'Old')
Flag any which still need action (or create a task from them) and move them to a seperate 'Action' folder.
Be ruthless about those newsletters you receive and keep unsubscribing.
Use rules to move all non esscential emails to folders for attention later.

Once you have an empty inbox the trick is to keep it that way. Join us for Clean Out Your inbox Week January 23 to 27 and make 2012 the year you declutter your inbox.

Out of office messages tell all - the best of the worst

2012-01-19T10:33:00.000Z

Is everyone at their desk this week? Just done an email marketing campaign and received the fewest Out-of-Office messages. Only 2.6% of my database are out of the office compared to the usual 6%.

But what about the best of the worst. Here are two which made me laugh.

I'm off skiing until Monday January 23, and won't be checking my emails unless (a) the eurozone finally wheezes its last or (b) all the pistes are all closed and I get really bored. If it's urgent, though, try contacting ....

Joe (an alias) is up north delivering a workshop on pitching and won't be checking emails regularly. If it is urgent please call on .... See you soon Joe.

I ask you what image do you now have of these two people?

Very personally I am not interested in what the person is doing, simply that they are not there should I need them. But maybe I am just an old fashioned girl!

When will people realise just how much information they give away through their Out-of-Office message and lax email etiquette?

Email etiquette to save time and achieve an inbox zero

2012-01-16T10:46:00.004Z

A sure fire way to fight email overload and reach inbox zero is through good email etiquette.

How many times have you read an email which says just 'OK' or 'Thanks'? What does the sender really mean. Do they mean 'thanks I have your response and will get back to you'. 'Thanks - end of conversation.'

Conversely, there is the long complex messages which you skim read a couple of time, have no clear idea what is really being said and park them for a while in the hope they will go away or send you a clearer follow-up.

I'd bet we have all been guilty of sending emails which fall in to both categories at some point in our lives. I have.

One crucial aspect of good email etiquette is the way the content of the email is structured. Your goal must be to send the right message, right first time, no matter how short or long your message. Writing in clear concise language is the starting point. Even if the reply is short be precise about what you and saying. For example, 'Thanks - we will discuss your proposal and get back to you next week'.

Here are my three top tips.

Avoid text speak at all costs - it's confusing and does not convey a professional image. Moreover not everyone understand text speak.
Check you grammar and spelling.
Re-read as many times as necessary before hitting send. Ask yourself, 'What will the recipient understand by what I am saying?'

For those like me who stiil struggle to write good English an invaluable aid is Lynne Truss's book 'Eats Shoots and Leaves'.

Using good email etiquette reduces the rounds of unnecessary email ping-pong as it limits the scope for misunderstanding. In turn this helps you reduce the email overload and achieve an inbox zero that is an empty inbox.

For more tips and hints on how to improve your email etiquette follow me on Twitter as @emaildoctor. This week's daily tips focus on email etiquette to reduce the gap for misunderstanding.

Email it's role in 2012

2012-01-03T11:48:00.000Z

2012 and the future of email. Where will email stand as a communications channel in 2012? Two events at the end of 2011 sparked many to speculate that we maybe witnessing the beginning of the end for email. First, the recent edict by Thierry Breton (Altos CEO) to ban the use of email for internal communications. Second, was VW's union negotiation to stop automatically sending emails to Blackberry devices after the working hours.

But are these either simply attempts to cover up much deeper cultural and management issues or is this really the beginning of the end for email? Have we reached a tipping point where newer channels will take over from email? Alternatively, will email overload continue to dominate and with it the added stress of email addiction?

It helps to look at the numbers. For example, Mark Brownlow estimates that email is more popular than Elvis, the Beatles and chocolate but not sex. If we printed every non spam email, in just under two hours we would have enough paper to cover the USA continent. If all the email accounts were people, the email population would be 2.3 times the size of China.

Radicati the US research group estimate that a typical business user now receive and send on average 110 emails per day. Overall we send about 394 billion emails per day and that is predicted to rise to nearly double by 2013.

Basex another US market research group estimate that we spend half our day simply processing emails and that in the USA information overload (derived from email overload) costs US business 28 billion lost hours of productivity per year. They estimate that it costs about $100 to produce a sheet of A4.

Nearer home Mesmo Consultancy's own analysis reveals that only a fifth of people need more than 75% of the emails they receive. Mesmo Consultancy finds that business users waste on average one hour per day through email overload and email misuse (eg poor email etiquette which results in endless rounds of email ping-pong and worse still some form of litigation).

My view is not that we are witnessing the end of email but rather the start of concerted campaigns by business to combat email overload and addiction in order to gain more from this all embracing and powerful communications tool. Email has become the norm for business communications and transactions. It has supplanted the letter and (sadly) often talking.

It has become so pervasive that it is likely to be with us for at least the next five to ten years. In these austere times no business regardless of size and sector can afford to lose one hour a day per person when some simple basic steps can be undertaken to reclaim such lost time.

Some have suggested that social media will replace email. However, can you do many of today's common place business tasks by social media for example, send a quotation, negotiate a sale, book leave, discuss a contract etc? Maybe in five years time when everyone is using these media just as they are email but not in 2012.

So what might 21012 hold for email. Here are Mesmo Consultancy's five predictions.

1. Email charters will grow in use and popularity.
More organisations will adopt some form of an 'Email Charter' as they seek to enable people to change their email behavior to improve productivity and combat email overload (and the stress which accompanies email overload).

2. Email archiving will continue to be important.

Businesses will want to and need to be able to save and find key emails which contain corporate history. At the same time they will need to free up valuable server space.

3. Email etiquette will be top of the list for any self-respecting Communications Director
In this highly competitive environment they strive to re-enforce brand image and build customer satisfaction. In a nanosecond a poorly written email can destroy a valuable relationship built over many years.

4. Effective personal email management will become increasingly important. This includes both how you manage your inbox and how you use the email software to help you.

The best HR Directors will provide business people with email best practice training whether in workshops or though on-to-one coaching and webinars. Meanwhile, their fellow CIOs and IT Directors will look for to software addons to automate the more mundane aspects of inbox management (such as filing emails).

5. Compliance and security will continue to be high on the IT Directors (and CIOs) agenda.

First, as cyber crime rises and cleaning up after a cyber attack gets more costly no IT Director (or CIO) will want to have the blame for a cyber attack laid at their doorstep. Second, as we are seeing and especially in the Public Sector the relationship between email usage and the law in increasingly coming under scrutiny.

In 2012 will undoubtedly witness an increase in the range of other media used (such as social media and instant messaging), email looks set to retain its prominence as the preferred channel for business.

Do you need help now reducing the time you spend dealing with email? Come to one of our Brilliant Email Master Classes or Webinars. See our Events page for more details.

The impact of email & social networking on our lives - Christmas reading

2011-12-21T23:29:00.001Z

Thierry Breton's (Altos CEO) declared goal to ban all internal email by 2014 has prompted many to review the role of email as a communcations media. See for example Maija Palmer of the Financial Times. There are now several groups focused on reducing the email dependency and trying no email days to help reduce the email overload factor.

One particular theme which has recurred in most articles and discussions is how we are allowing email to shape us rather than shape it to our needs. For those interested in reading more about the impact of both email and social networking on our working lives here is my Christmas reading list.

Alone Together by Sherry Turkle
The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser
The Winter of our Disconnect by Susan Maushart
The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age by Maggie Jackson

Meanwhile if you want to knock your inbox into shape for the new year then you can always come on one of our ninety minute Brilliant Email Master Classes.

Smart Email and Social Networking over Christmas

2011-12-09T11:45:00.012Z

Here is a summary of the key points from Friday 10 December with

Geoff Carter on The Bay 102.8 FM

1. E-cards

A great way to give to charity and be green. Some good sites for e-cards are:

Jacquie Lawson - it costs and well worth it.

Free - but make sure you are not inundated with advertisements etc.

Remember to send not just to friends, family and all business contacts but also all those you meet networking.

2. Donate to charity instead of buying presents

For example, with WaterAid, £12 buys two water taps and £50 buys a water pump. See http://shop.wateraid.org/.
For other charities see www.presentaid.org/

3. Dealing with you email over the holiday

Top three tips to reduce the email stress.

Try not too log on to often. Last year 45% of people we polled logged in on Christmas day. See Email Addiction - who logged in.
Avoid being a sitting target for the cyber criminal. Keep your Out of Office message safe and simple. Don’t give away any sensitive/confidential information. Don’t say you are on holiday. Just say you are ‘not accessing your email on a regularly’.
Set aside time before and after the break to clear the backlog of emails.

For more tips like these see my latest book 'Brilliant Email'

4. Keep safe and private on social networking sites
Don’t boast about what Santa gave you as that encourages cyber crime. Try to make sure you avoid appearing in those silly party photos on Facebook etc. Make sure you are not tagged in other people’s photos. Check your Facebook Privacy Settings carefully and select who you want to give access to for your photos.

With children make sure they are properly protected from prying eyes and not on social networks for too long. There is life outside the world of computer games and social networking.

For tips like these sign up for the free Mesmo Consultancy monthly e-briefing.

Email etiquette tips for writing subject lines

2011-12-05T12:05:00.000Z

The volume of email traffic is steadily growing despite those who think email is in decline. Many people now receive between 60 to 100 emails per day. How can you ensure that the recipient sees and deals with your email? Good email etiquette is the key.

Here is what constitutes poor email etiquette and will ensure your email sinks to the bottom of the other person's inbox!

Adding a priority marker. For most people that red exclamation mark is often a big turn off: it smacks of pulling rank.
No subject line
Using the same subject line even though the content has changed
A subject lines that doesn't match the content.

Excellent email etiquette in the form of a clear concise and meaningful subject line is the best way. Here are a couple of examples from my book 'Brilliant Email' .

Writing compelling subject lines has always been critical. Points to note about these two examples are:

The action required by the recipient.
By when the action is needed.
Exactly what the email is about.

Think of the subject line as the newspaper headlines. What your say in subject line will either draw in the recipient or cause them to skip on to the next email.

Email best practice for subject lines includes trying to say it in the subject line. For example, 'Meeting moved to Room 101 - EOM'. EOM means End of Message. That saves everyone time. The recipient doesn't need to open the email and you do not need to spend time deploying good email etiquette to write the body of the email. Tesco recently had just such an email best practice campaign to help their employees save time.

This weeks tips and hints will focus on writing brilliant eye catching email subject lines.

Need some more help? You can always either come on one of our Brilliant Email Master Classes or buy the book.

Meanwhile I'd love to hear from you what annoys you about how people write their subject lines and what tips can you offer to help them.

Changing email behaviour - seven step change process

2011-11-23T09:30:00.002Z

Managing change follows the same seven step process show below no matter what you try to change - from the simple, moving desks to the more complesx, changing email behavior.

Too much email and short attention spans lead to email overload

2011-11-21T10:30:00.008Z

Little wonder we suufer from chronic email overload when you consider how much email is flying around and how short is out attention spam. This blog was prompted by those of two esteemed colleagues (Michael Osterman and Marsha Egan) and our recent survey on expectations of fast response.

Just how much email traffic is flowing around? Here is some recent data from a mixture of resources including our own data and that of Radicati's new email survey.

Average number received = 110 email per day. (Recently one client reported receiving 200 per day.)

Percentage unwanted = 18% includes real spam and what I call noise, (unnecessary internal and external emails eg newsletters and 'thank you emails).

Average number sent each day = 36 emails per day.

The average business person spend at least two hours a day dealing with email.

We add about 15 minutes to the time taken to complete a task every time we are distracted by a new email.

36% of Americans use their laptop in bed before they go to sleep, and this group reports that it is less likely to get a good night’s sleep.

Individuals who experience even mild sleep disorders are four times more likely to have relationship problems, three times more likely to lack concentration during their work day, three times more likely to struggle to accomplish tasks at work or during their day, and over twice as likely to suffer from energy deficiency.

Watching too much TV is shortening our attention spam and leading our children to believe that problems can be solved in under one hour.

Our own recent survey on email response times shows that a quarter of us expect a response to an email within one hour.

Little wonder many feel chained to their inbox. They must check and answer each email as it arrives rather than wait and take a more measured less stressful approach.

We can easily change our own email behaviour. Changing that of others is harder. Last week's tips focused on changing the organisations email culture. More again this week in the light of these figures.

Do you feel overload and stressed by the volume of email and unrealistic expectations about how quickly you will respond? How to you counter balance this ever faster pace of life and short attention spans?

Email etiquette and overload - careless emails are expensive

2011-11-07T15:05:00.001Z

Email overload and poor email etiquette often lead us to send emails in haste wich can have dire consequences. Careless emails often costs businesess (and the sender) thousands of pounds in lost business and jobs as Jonathan Moules poined out in last week's Weekend FT. He cited the case of an employee who accidentally copied in a client on an email which permanently damaged the relationship.

As always such cases are never clear cut and much depends on whether or not you can prove that the employee has read, understood and is contractually bound by your Computer Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) and your disaplinary processes.

Forwarding emails which wreak havoc are one of the most common mistakes we see when talking to clients. Email overload is often to blame as we reply in haste without thinking through and reviewing the content properly.

This week's tips focus on some ways to try to reduce the risk of this costly mistake happening either in your business or to you as the employee. There are two clear over riding principles to follow.

As employer check your AUP to make sure it's up-to-date and that you have adequate legal evidence that employee's have contracted into it. To assess the vulnerability of your AUP use our our checklist which cn be downloaded free at the Mesmo Consultancy Knowledge Exchange.
As employee, think before hitting send. Review your email carefully. If it's a chain check for previous entries which should be deleted before sending/forwarding the email.

Email etiquette - so you think you have deleted it. Guest Post by Keith Quinn, Essential Computing

2011-10-31T14:35:00.008Z

Email overload often seduces us into replying in haste and then trying to delete the said email from ours and the recipients inbox.

Whether an email is deleted - inadvertently or intentionally - the good (or perhaps bad) news is that it can almost always be recovered.

For example, you’ll know that if you delete an email in Outlook, it will go into the Deleted Items folder, but even deleting an item from this folder does not actually delete it. You can still recover it (albeit within a more limited time-frame) using the Outlook Recover Deleted Items option.

The deletion of items held in this service (termed the Dumpster) is managed as a central function. For example, a permanent deletion may be configured to take effect after say 28 days or longer, giving you a window for retrieval.

But, the fact is, even if an email is permanently deleted from Exchange it will still exist in many different places, including:

 Exchange backups .
An email archive service .
A journal archive.
The sender/recipient’s inbox.

Just like your Facebook profile, once an email has been sent, it is forever somewhere in the ether.
Some IT teams might choose not to expend effort in retrieving an email confirming your extra day’s holiday for you. However you can bet that a LOT of effort will be spent on recovering email that shouldn’t have been sent in the first place.

For more information about how we can help you see our website at www.essential.co.uk

Keith Quinn, CEO, Essential Computing.

Information Overload Day 20 October 2011 - reduce email overload

2011-10-20T18:22:00.000+01:00

Email Overload is a major contributor to information overload. Today is the annual Information Overload Day. This event was initiated by Basex who have just posted some data on the staggering cost of information overload. Did you know that for every hundred people who are unnecessarily copied into emails we lose eight hours?

We are swamped by information from RSS feed, daily newsletters and social networking updates (many of which come by email) and everyday emails from colleagues and friends. Just as we like to think we can multi-task and still be productive, we think we can handle all this Email Overload.

When I meet people at networking events and give my elevator pitch about what I do, the instant reaction is often, 'I simply delete all the unwanted emails'. But that in itself just adds to the time and energy wasted because you still have to use precious time and brain power to scan the list of incoming emails to know what to delete. That is an appalling yet avoidable waste of time. Deleting 20 emails a day which you really did not need wastes up to 30 minutes a day. Who can afford such indiscriminate waste in the current economic climate?

Information and email overload carries significant health warning to us as individuals through distorted work-life balance and our business as key emails are missed in the morass of unwanted ones.

To check what email overload is costing you use our 'Cost of Email Overload' Calculator.

Based on the premise that your inbox is your work in progress (action tray), here is my three point plan to reduce information overload by being far more selective about what emails drop into your inbox.

1) Prioritise each email which arrives over the next few days. Triage them according to the usefulness to use:

Must know/see (eg request for action from clients/colleagues)
Nice to know (eg newsletters, cc'd emails etc)
No use (newsletters you don't read, marketing emails etc)

2) For all 'nice to know' emails - set up rules to move them automatically to folders for reading (action) later.

3) For all 'no use' emails - remove yourself from the senders distribution list. If they come from a specific friend/colleague tell them what you are doing. Enlist them in the campaign against information overload by taking you off their circulation list!

This will help you save time and reduce the level of information overload you endure and hence enable you to be more productive.

To further fight the information overload battle try our Nine Ps of Smart Email.

Dear Blackberry User - cure your addiction now

2011-10-13T09:30:00.002+01:00

Dear Blackberry users - isn't it time to assess your email addiction? Email addiction is a major cause of email overload. Are you feeling stressed out by the lack of your instant quick fix of emails? Feeling you can no longer function properly and worse still do business (as some people are reporting). This is all nonsense.

This Blackberry outage should be a wake-up call for us all to reassess just how addicted we have become to email, because we can all survive without constant instant access to our email 24x7x365. We would probably be significantly more productive. We just like to think its macho and makes us look important to be attached by the Blackberry (or iphone) umbilical cord to our email.

The lack of constant interruptions from the Blackberry buzz could have many positive effects such as reigniting our strategic thinking and improving meetings as people stop multi-tasking. We could start to review some processes which have developed through our email addiction rather than as a result of thinking through what is best for the business.

To check just how addicted you and your business have become use our Email Addiction benchmarking tool. Click here to download it. For a ten point plan to cure it see January 31st - Email addiction ways to cure it and February 2nd - Email addiction - more tips and hints.

Whatever you do, just make sure you seize the moment to re-evaluate your life-work balance and how you can actually be more productive by freeing yourself from the the Blackberry umbilical cord.

Email overload - dealing with email chains

2011-10-10T10:30:00.001+01:00

Email chains are a major cause of email overload. You know the symptoms:

Endless 'Reply All' emails about a topic;
Ever expanding lists of names in both the Cc and To box;
The content but not the subject-line changes;
No indication of what is expected from you - if anything.

Then there is the corollary - people who feel left out and feel they should be included. Take a look and see what percentage of the emails in your inbox relate to a thread/chain? How many of the iterations do you really need? Probably less then 25%. Little wonder email overload is on the increase.

Email chains seem to be the bane of most people's life at the inbox. There are several ways to manage these more successfully which range from personal email management techniques to better use of the software. Here are the top three, some of which were in our October 2011 'ebriefing' on tips to help you overcome email overload and use brilliant email etiquette to save time.

Be judicious about who you include in the first place. Avoid broadcasting to the world. Ask yourself does this person really need to be included?
Use your email software; most software has a feature to allow you to view by 'thread'.
Change medium. Stop the email chain and have a proper discussion by phone, Skype, even face-to-face.

The key is to stop the email chain once it gets out of hand and re-assess just what you are trying to achieve and who really needs to make an input.

During the week there will be more tips on managing email chains.

Steve Job's legacy - a personal pespective

2011-10-08T17:36:00.001+01:00

Steve Jobs was the epitome of a great entrepreneur and inventor. His vision and creativity changed the personal computing landscape. He was a genius and has quite rightly been likened to Edison and Ford. He was the Einstein of the world of computing. Geniuses like Jobs emerge very occasionally.

The disruptive change he wrought in the personal computing industry is best summed up by his own words:

'it's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times people don't know what they want until you show them.'

His perfectionism and ability to step outside the box meant that Apple's products were beautifully designed and their tactile aura made you want to hold and use them.'

He created new and exciting products with the ipod, iphone and ipad. With the Apple Mac he made computing truly accessible to people. Who could fail to love their PC when they used a Mac?

What else did he contribute to society? The spin off from his inventions brought employment as Apple expanded. There was wealth for those who invested in Apple and those who worked with Apple.
Some regard him as one if not the founding father of social networking, for whilst Apple did not have the social networking platforms like Facebook, they did provide the tools to make social networking readily available.

Job's full contribution to society is still unfolding and the sum will only become clear in the years ahead.

Steve Jobs will be sadly missed by those who worked with him and those like myself who enjoyed the fruits of his creativity.

Micheal Gove's use of personal email account for Government business

2011-09-21T13:27:00.000+01:00

The 'Gove email-gate' media disaster looms large. Micheal Gove is being accused of using a personal email account for Government business. Is it a breach of the law? Is it right or wrong to use a personal email account to transact Government business?

It has long been a serious concern for senior civil servants that MPs (and local Councillors) forward email to their personal email accounts. Interestingly, the concerns have normally focused on breaches of security rather than the FoI Act. Whether Mr Gove is breaching the law will depend on the terms of the Education Department's computer acceptable usage policy (AUP) and whether or not he is bound by then (as in has he read and agreed to them). What is of concern is that he like others before him still have not learnt the lesson from other high profile email disasters and continue to put in an email communications which would be far better conveyed by other means such as a conversation.

If you don't want the press to see what you have said - don't put it in an email. It is that simple.

MPs and Councillors are notorious for their misuse of email and landing themselves and their Departments and Councils in trouble (think of Jo Moore and 'a good time to bury bad news'). They can never make the time to attend any email best practice education session which might save them and their organisations significant time and money.

Now we are about to witness yet another waste of public time and money over the 'Gove email-gate' disaster.

Email overload - what would you do with an extra hour a day?

2011-09-21T09:30:00.007+01:00

Managing Email Overload and using brilliant email etiquette can save you up to one hour a day. We have posted many blogs about how to reclaim this extra hour. Last week we spoke and exhibited at the very successful Office* 2011. Attendance was up by 18% on the inaugural show last year.
We asked visitors to our stand and participants at our Brilliant Email Master Classs what they would do with an extra hour a day. Here are the top five responses;
    1.    Sleep
    2.    Go to the gym
    3.    Pamper myself (eg have a manicure)
    4.    Go home early
    5.    Meet friends for coffee

In this current era of self-indulgence and me, me, me there was one respone which was top of our list. It was 'I'd like to dedicate it to me time, but rather than take, I would give back (my time) to charity.' We all have different pressures on us and perhaps not all of us has that extra, extra time to give back.

However, whatever your choice it is clear that if we could all spend a little less time chained to our inbox by managing the email overload a little better we could lead slightly healthier lives.

My thanks to everyone who participated in this survey. What would you do with a spare hour a day?

Email overload - how save time dealing with a team inbox

2011-09-14T11:56:00.000+01:00

Do you want to save time and frustration dealing with a team inbox (such as the PA and Boss, project@, sales@ etc)?

Managing a team inbox can be fraught with problems and mistakes are costly. Email overload is rife. Frequent challenges are that emails get overlooked, conversely some are answered twice. There is often no clear process for what, how and which emails are retained. If they do exist not everyone with access to the inbox either understands or adheres to them.

With no clear processes about how to manage a team inbox the chances are that there is a high proportion of unnecessary emails but no one feels they can take ownership and take steps to reduce the waste. To check how much time is being wasted use our Cost of Email Misuse Calculator.

Basex found it costs about $100 to produce a page of information: not being able to find the appropriate email can be expensive.

Do these problem sound familiar especially to those PAs and EAs who manage their boss's inbox and team leaders with project inbox?

Use our new Team Inbox Checklist to benchmark and improve how you manage such team inboxes. Download it now from the Mesmo Consultancy Knowledge Exchange. It will help you and your team reduce the level of email overload and email stress.

Do you have some tips to share with others?

Email etiquette and betrayal

2011-09-05T10:30:00.000+01:00

Careless emails are the fastest way to expose a love affair. Recently seeing 'Betrayal' by Harold Pinter's play reminded me of this fact. The nub of the story, as the title suggests, is about people having affairs and betraying each other. Based on his own affair with Joan Bakewell, it takes place in the late 70s when email as we know it was almost non-existant. The couples involved managed to keep their affairs secret for years.

Would that happen now in the digital era with email and social networking making it so easy to expose what one is doing? Take for example the Harry Stonecipher affair which is perhaps the most high profile and costly one to be exposed by careless email conversations and poor email etiquette. Before the era of email always on, this would probably have gone unnoticed and perhaps petered out.

More recently is the case of the late Mike Todd Chief Constable of Greater Manachester Police where again much of the evidence was found through email exchanges with the various women in his life. Again these exchanges were carried out on the company rather than personal emails accounts.

Women are often accused of gossiping more than men. If you look at the root source of most of the email scandals such as the Claire Swire's affair they are nearly always perpetrated by men. My own research on gender differences shows that poor email etiquette in terms of gossiping by electronic communications is higher amongst men than women (see 'Managing in the Email Office').

In all likelihood the UK law on email retention will change over the coming year to be more like the US laws whereby email must be retained for a certain length of time. This will make it even harder to cover one's tracks if the exchanges of love letters are on the company email account.

Perhaps it's time to return to writing conventional love letters and at the very least improving one's email etiquette when sending emails on the company email account.

What is your view on email love letters?

This weeks tips are how to write email PEARLS and not lead balloons which will land you and the business in trouble.

Email etiqutte - time to respond properly to emails?

2011-08-31T10:00:00.000+01:00

How often do you feel people leave you sufficient time to respond to an email? Results from client projects suggest nearly half of us feel that people do not leave sufficient time to respond properly.

To participate in the full survey with a chance to win a free copy of 'Brilliant Email' - click on this link 'Time to Respond' survey.

Not being left suffient time to respond can be quite challenging especially when a substantive response is needed which requires thought and perhaps some background research. Why do we leave other people so little time to respond? Is it:

Poor planning
Peer pressure
Email overload - we miss key emails and then pass the problem down the food chain
Bad email etiquette
Corporate culture - always working to tight time scales, under pressure and on the edge

Whatever the reason, unreasonable expectations up the email stress on the person of whom we ask for a quick response. Further the pressure to responde often results in costly mistakes. For example, we admit to errors, give wrong facts, commit to deadlines and tasks which are not achievable etc.

What can be done to change the culture and make time for people to give an adequate reliable response? First and foremost, ask yourself how long it would take you to respond. Now double it (as we always over estimate our personal abilities) and that is the time you need to allow the other person to respond. That is good email etiquette.

Second as the recipient, to take the heat out of the situation, decide how quickly you can respond and if it is not within a working day, tell the sender. Tell them when you will respond. Don't ask if it's OK. You decide and set the time frame. Again use good email etiquette to manage the situation.

Third as a sender check people availablity beforehand and agree what is a reasonable response time.

For more tips and hints on ways to leave time for the recipient and as the recipient take the pressure off you to respond, follow me on Twitter.

Meanwhile what are your favourite tips on how to reduce the email overload and email stress created by those who expect an instant response?

Email overload - getting people to respond

2011-08-23T10:30:00.009+01:00

Getting people to respond to urgent emails can be difficult. Why? Last week Stewart Hirsh of the Trusted Advisor posted a thought provoking post on why do people not respond to emails - Action Required: Read my email please!

Thought I'd would share the five tips I posted in response.

1. In the subject-line add the words 'Action needed by (eg Noon 28 August 2011).

2. Create an image of yourself as a trusted person so that when the recipient sees an email from you they know it serious and needs attention. That means avoiding sending frivolous emails like jokes etc.

3. Many people don't open emails from PAs. Sad I know, but in the UK this happens. If you do use a PA/Assistant, make sure even if they prepare the email, that it comes from your mailbox.

4. Call then a few days/hours latter (depending on the urgency).

5. Give up conventional emailing and either resort to the phone only or use social media if they are on it eg LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter. Interestingly some people will ignore ordinary email but respond to messages sent via social media.

What are your tips?

Emails as evidence in the phone hacking scandal

2011-08-09T13:30:00.001+01:00

Emails as evidence has been highlighted in the phone hacking scandal. I have long since held the belief that one of the reasons News of the World (NoW) in the early days were so keen to settle with Siena Millar so quickly was because she demanded to see all emails relating to herself. However, it was never going to be long before all hell broke loose as others demanded to see such emails. Now these demands have been made and not surprisingly HCL Technologies who manage their email systems say they were asked to destroy more than 200,000 emails over the past year!

I utterly condemn the phone hacking and indeed may now stop reading any Murdoch publication. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learnt about the use of email. Emails as evidence highlights three issues.
First, can the emails be destroyed? Under current UK law, in theory yes. But you can bet that someone somewhere will have kept a copy either printed off or saved to a file.
Second, it underscores the need to be so vigilant about what we put in an email. A conversation is far less likely to be kept. Careless emails sent in hast as busy business people struggle with email overload have been been very costly for many organisations. For example saying 'yes' when a client says an error has been made leaves little scope to negotiate. A comment which is seen defamatory may also be costly.
Third it highlights the viral open nature of email. An email is as open as a postcard. You can bet your life someone somewhere has seen these NoW emails who should not have seen them. One way or another I'd wager a bet that try as they may to have destroyed the email evidence it will turn up at some point like the proverbial bad penny.

Last but by no means least there is talk of changing the UK laws relating to email retention and archives to be more like the US law. Emails will have to be kept and made available on demand. That too brings its own set of problems.

This all underscore the need the think before hitting send. If in doubt talk first then email later if needs be. Before you all comment, sanctioning phone hacking by conversation is no less an offence than sanctioning it by email.

Have you ever been subject to a legal case where email evidence is included?

Email etiquette for the vacation period

2011-07-26T15:30:00.001+01:00

What is good email etiquette for the vacation period? After all there is nothing more annoying than coming back to an inbox full of trivial messages and multiple messages from the same person. Here are a few guidelines to win friends and not make enemies of those on vacation.

1) Stop sending people on leave emails. Start making a note of what you planned to say in an email and gather all your thoughts together in one document. Then on their return either send it or talk them through the matters.

2) For emails with a shelf-life add an 'expiry date' for example, all the trivial but timely messages like, the server will be down for maintenance this weekend, the sandwich man is in reception.

3) When sending messages which are sensitive/confidential put the words 'confidential' in the subject and make sure the recipient has a rule in place to send these directly to a folder. After all you never know who might be managing that person's box in their absence.

4) If you do ask someone to monitor your inbox whilst you are away take time to agree how they will handle your email and how they will indicate which ones have been dealt with and which still need attention.

5) This is a good time to adopt an email free period. Take an afternoon off from your inbox and walk and talk a little more.

These tips on email etiquette for the holiday period will help you save time to both as a sender and recipient. They will also help everyone reduce the email overload feeling which we all experience on returning from leave.

What are your tips?

Email overload - is Shortmail the answer?

2011-07-22T11:00:00.000+01:00

What are the quick wins for dealing with email overload with which so many suffer and which is effecting most people's productivity? Shortmail - software which shortens emails to 500 characters (or five lines) is being pushed as one solution.

The underlying principle is absolutely correct. When we run email Brilliant Email workshops one of the key themes is 'think five (and ten)'. Keep your email to five points and five (and at most ten lines). Using technology like Shortmail only tackles 20% of the email overload challenge. Tackling the other 80% from which the real wins come is about first changing our email behaviour and learning to write properly. This is skill which sadly many of Generation Y and Z lack and its loss is compounded by relying on technology rather than developing fundamental communications skills.

The other key to tackling email overload is to 'think before hitting send'. Ask yourself why am I sending this email? Is it really needed? How will it help the recipient?

Smart personal email management is the key to tackling email overload. Only when you have dealt with the underlying poor email behaviour should you start thinking about technological solutions to help you squeeze out the extra productivity gains.

What is you view?

Email etiquette and the mother in-law who reprimands her future daughter in-law by email

2011-07-11T10:30:00.004+01:00

Email etiquette - is it right to reprimand your future daughter in-law by email as in the latest email media disaster? In my opinion no on two accounts.

First, it was the wrong communications channel. Such messages should always be communicated by talking (whether they relate either to personal or work matters). Once you put something like this in an email and hit send you put down a marker which cannot be erased. Barriers are created and the tone of the relationship set. There is no such thing as 'recalling' an email because even if it was sent back the chances are the recipient read it before it was returned. This was very poor email etiquette.

Second, to me the content was rude, arrogant and dismissive. All of which creates as the media said the image of a 'mother in-law from hell'. Is that how she wanted to be portrayed?

This underscores just how quickly and easily such emails go viral and create an email disaster. If the future mother in-law really could not bring herself to speak to her future daughter in-law an alternative would be a letter. This would not have gone viral quite so easily.

There is now a follow-up story which suggests it was all a publicity stunt to promote their business. However, this too represents appalling behaviour and creates a very unprofessional image. Furthermore such email hoaxes just drive up the email carbon footprint.

Good email etiquette is one of the keys to relationships between both individuals and businesses.

In my opinion this was the wrong use of email on all accounts. What's your opinion?

Email overload and email charters - 9 Ps of email best practice

2011-07-05T13:00:00.002+01:00

Email charters can help reduce overload. Recently Chris Anderson TED curator created an email charter which has had a mixed reception see for example Lucy Kellaway in the Financial Times. There are parts of Chris's charter I really like such as 'short or slow is not rude' and 'tighten the thread'. The disparity might be due to different cultures.

Over many years we have developed an email charter which has indeed saved people many hours across Europe and the UK. For those with whom we have never had the plesure of working with, here is my Nine Ps of Email Best Practice. It was first published in Managing in the Email Office and forms the basis of my latest book Brilliant Email.

Put aside quality time to deal with your email - stop letting new emails distract you and don't be afraid to take time out from the inbox.
Place your emails in folders - do your email housekeeping as you go along.
Prioritise and post back unwanted emails - learn to say no to the emails you don't need.
Pick the right medium - email is only one of a variety of communications channels.
Point out the purpose of your email - make the subject line stand out.
Pen your email in plain language - shake my hand, greet me, talk to me properly and say good bye professionally.
Patrol your use of attachments - send links rather than whole files and make sure you clean up files before sending them.
Provide time for the recipient - think ahead as to what other information you/the recipient needs before hitting send.
Protect yourself from cyber crime - don't put anything in an email which you don't wish either to defend in court or see on the front page of the national paper.

Of course to make an email charter really work assumes that those with whom you work also adopt the charter and change their email behaviour. Next week I will blog some ways we have used here at Mesmo Consultancy to help organisations change their email culture.

Meanwhile for more tips and hints how they help reduce email overload follow this weeks Tweets and make sure you sign up for our e-briefing of monthly tips and hints.

Email overload, WaterAid and email limits

2011-06-27T11:45:00.001+01:00

Last week I had the honour of working with WaterAid whose mission is to provide clean water. We often stress about how much email we receive. Indeed the daily volume is around two million emails per second and an average of 70 every day per person. The more you send the more you receive.

Compare this to those who do not have access to clean water. One in eight people lack access to clean water, around 884 million people. Water related diseases kill 4,000 children every day.

For me this set today's self-induced disease of email overload in context. The next time you are about to hit send stop and ask yourself these two questions. Why am I sending this email? How will it help the recipient do their job? For many of us it is all too easy to hit send when a little restraint will reveal that often it is our own ego which is the primary benefiary of sending the email!

Many people ask me how can they help their colleagues change their email behaviour and become more responsible, for example talking first and emailing second, minimising the number of people on the distribution list etc.

Here is a suggestion. £2 a day can provide someone with clean water for life. Set an email limit on how many times a person can email you during a day (eg five times) for a month. When people exceed the limit fine them say 20p for each email over the limit. With the total money collected to go to WaterAid you will be very suprised at just how many people you can help during the month. You will be saving yourself and your colleagues time and at the same time providing someone with clean water.

Good luck.

Email overload - what would you do with an extra hour a day

2011-06-23T10:30:00.001+01:00

Email overload eats into our day and uses time which we could devote to other activities. At a networking meeting today I asked several senior business executives what they would do with an extra hour a day. Here are there responses:

Paint
Have my hair done
Go sailing
Sleep
Cook
Do some strategic planning

What would you do with an extra hour a day? That is what you can easily save yourself if you take control of your inbox rather than letting it control you and your day!

This weeks tips have focused on how to reduce the number of rounds of email ping-pong as a way of saving time see http://twitter.com/emaildoctor

Email etiquette - managing sender's expectations

2011-06-13T11:30:00.003+01:00

Brilliant email etiquette implies that we acknowledge emails within an acceptable time frame (at least those which need an answer). For those emails which you know a substantive and proper reply is needed than plan the necessary work into your work schedule. They key is to manage their expectation whilst not putting undue pressure on yourself. Decide when you can reasonably make a proper reply and let the recipient know.

Simply tell them when you will reply but don't add a line saying ' is this OK'. First, this leaves the door open for the sender to change your priorities. They will soon say if it's not OK. Second, its asking for at least another round of unnecessary email ping-pong as the sender says 'OK' and you feel compelled to email back again.

Once you've acknowledged the email and planned when to deal with it make sure you keep track of the actions you need to take and also the email itself. You gaol should be to handle each email once and not have to keep looking for those ones which still need attention.

Implement a process which enable you to find it easily. For example, file it, place it in a pending folder or create a task from it. Choose a way which suites your way of working and managing your day.

Email etiquette - provide time for the recipient

2011-06-06T10:30:00.002+01:00

Provide time for the recipient is the eighth principle of my Nine Ps of Smart Email Management charter. Yet how often do we plan ahead and think about the recipient of our email? One of the commonest stressors cited by workshop participants is 'the sender never leaves me sufficient time' for a proper, well thought out reply.

Yet it's interesting that when asked to compare how quickly a reply is expected, most delegates say internal emailers expect an instant reply whilst customer's and client's time fame is often far less demanding. In one organisation, senior managers said they were often very surprised at how quickly junior members of their team replied to their emails. When was the last time email response time formed the subject of a management team discussion?

Some email etiquette quick wins to reducing the pressure on people are:

Estimate how long it will take you to do the task. That's how long you need to leave the recipient.
Check people's calendar and plan ahead and around their schedules, for example when working on joint documents, presentations etc. Talk and agree a realistic timescale before emailing.
If it's a regular request, create for yourself a recurring task well ahead of schedule (eg you need a month end-report).

If we are to chip away at this current debilitating culture of multitasking and feeling that everything needs our immediate attention, then email response times need to be discussed and a workable service level (response time) agreed.

This week's email etiquette tips are on managing the response time.

Email overload - pick the right communications channel

2011-05-31T14:30:00.001+01:00

One cause of email overload is being a slave to email at the expense of other communications media. As Peter Drucker once said 'the new information technology... Internet and e-mail... have practically eliminated the physical costs of communications.' But is this at the expense of the quality of communications?

When was the last time you talked rather than emailed someone? Email is just one of a glittering array of communications media which range from Facebook, text and instant messaging to old fashioned talking be it either face-to-face or through Skype.

After text and IM, email carries the least ammount of contextual information. You have no idea whether I am crying or laughing. Some would argue that you can add emotions with emoticons. But these too can be misinterpreted and most business people regard them as unprofessional and sloppy.

A conversation is very often worth nine rounds of email ping-pong at the end of which the matter is probably still unresolved. Indeed, using an alternative communications channel can be a very effective way of reducing email overload.

Some tasks for which an alternative to email would be more effective include:

Performance related challenges, for example why did a supplier let you down, why did a team member not perform as expected.
Simple quick transient messages which need your immediate attention (if you are present) and which do not need to be recorded and have no value after five minutes eg visitor in reception, fire alarm being tested.
Scheduling a meeting with several people - far quicker using a proper meeting scheduler than by email ping-pong.

Why are we so locked into email? Is it cultural, personality related (eg introverts find email easier than talking). Is it generational (there evidence that Generation Y pefer social media to email)?

To check just how addicted you are to email use our Email Addiction benchmarking tool.

This week's tips on how to reduce email overload are focused on choosing an alternative to email to ensure that you convey the right message right first time.

Meanwhile, I'd love to hear your opinion on why you feel we are so addicted to email which drives up email overload and also when you have found an alternative to email more effective.

No online prescence last week - did anyone notice?

2011-05-25T11:58:00.007+01:00

Last week was particularly busy with several on-site workshops for a major client. Last minutes changes to the workshops left little time to write blogs and tweets. There was some down time and I was tempted to go to blog and tweet. However, being in London the allure of the Watercolour Exhibition at Tate Modern seemed much more appealing and so it was. After that a trip to the theatre to see Terrance Ratigan's Flare Path.

Did anyone miss me on-line? Certainly, no one either emailed or tweeted me to ask where were their daily tips. Had I fallen off a cliff?

This cold turkey experience reminded me of James Delingole's article 'Bloggin's not a job - it's an expensive addiction' in the Spectator on April 16. We often blogg and tweet because we feel it's expected of us. It's become addictive at the expesnse of our health and well being. Was it better to blog or look at some exquisite water colour painting? For me the latter was a far more enriching experience. It opened my mind to some new ideas and lifted my spirits (not that they were low - rather it set them on an even higher high). The play too had some insightful lines about human relationships and how we manage these.

The addictive nature of all this blogging and tweeting was re-inforced when I walked around. So many people have their heads in their smart phones and seem oblivious to the richness of their surroundings, from the tapestry of people walking beside you to the often exotic window displays all of which can provide food for thought and a chance to think outside the box.

For you my loyal followers? It's great to have you all, but if it's a choice between the reals arts and sitting at a computer (or head in my smartphone), then my reccomendation is the former!

Email and the law - careless emails are expensive

2011-05-23T08:45:00.002+01:00

Careless emails can be very expensive. Last week I ran a workshop on 'Managing the risk of cyber crime'. Cyber crime in all its different guises now costs business more than physical crime according to a recent Cabinet Office report (you and I stealing pens and paper from the staionary cupboard). In financial terms, cyber crime costs businesses about £17bn per year. Recovering from a breach of security costs most business between £20,000 and £500,00 according to PcW.

The inclusion of e-evidence can add upto an extra £500,000. Yet as the KPMG e-disclosure report identfied, few High Court Judges really know how to handle e-evidence. Indeed witness the super injunction fracas.

Sony admitted it will loose revenue and clients as a result of the hacker attack on its Playstation network.

All this prompted me to re-visit how easy it is to leak confidential information through email.

You can have the very best technology to scan outgoing emails for content, block the use of unkown USB sticks etc. However, at then end of the day the majority of cyber crime is committed by human error. The most common leaks occur through the following human actions.

Sending an email to the wrong recipient
Content which breaches the law
Attachments with meta data
Attachments which are not secure
Out of Office Message
Emails sent to home address
Jokes

How often have you either been trained in email best practice and the law or trained those who work for your business? Probably, if you are like most organisations, rarely and often only after an incident.

There are two simple steps any business can take to manage the risk of a cyber crime attack through email. First, have an up-to-date Acceptable Usage Policy which has been read and accepted by all employees. Second, provide adequate user training.

During the week I will post some simple ways for everyone to help manage the risk of breaching security and compliance. A subsequent blog will also look at the common laws which govern email.

Email overload - reduce your email carbon foot print

2011-05-10T10:00:00.001+01:00

Reduce your email carbon foot print as part of Green Office Week. A free copy of 'Brilliant Email' to the best contribututor to help lower the email carbon foot print. Just becasue email is some how invisable it can be hard to realise just how much email overload raises our carbon foot print.

My thanks to everyone who has emailed with their activities thus far and which are shared here in additon to my daily tips on Twitter. Amongst the best ideas are those from Nicky Bassnett at a Manchester based University:

Fluorescent light above my desk to be removed as it is far too bright and a waste of resources.
Shorten my email signature.

Several people have set their printers to save paper and toner by setting the default to one of the following.

Double sided.
Two pages on one side.
Black and white rather than colour.

Then there are the well tried and trusted practices of turning off all PCs, laptops, smart phones and monitors when you go home/stop working for the day. This might also help create some me time as you are less distracted by the ping of new messages (text and emails).

What are you doing? There is a free copy of Brilliant Email for the best activity. Tell me what you are doing either by email or leave a comment. You can also take my LinkedIn poll .

Email etiquette - your email dress code

2011-05-04T09:15:00.003+01:00

Do your emails stand out in the recipient's crowded inbox? Rhymer Rigby's article 'Be authentic:What to wear at work' in Monday's FT prompted me to revisit the question of how do you make sure your email stand out in a crowded inbox and convey the right image.

Should an email be as perfect as a letter?

This question is posed frequently by clients, of all ages, all sectors and from business of all sizes. Some argue that email is an informal communication and that more lax rules, grammar, punctuation and layout are acceptable. Your email sends a signal about you and your business just as clearly as the clothes you wear send a message about you and your persona. The question then is dress down or keep to the smart business suit.

More often than not you and your email recipient will not have met let alone spoken. But within five seconds of reading your email the recipient will have formed a picture of you and it may not be the one you wanted to convey. Nonetheless, it is their picture and it determines the tenor of the relationship. Sloppy email (jeans and tee shirt) may reflects badly on you because it may suggest both you and your business are sloppy. For some clearly jeans and a tee shirt are acceptable and only you can decide.

Your email must therefore instantly convey the right tone and language just as the clothes you wear create an image of you. This 'email dress' code must be carried through from the subject-line and initial greeting to your signature and disclaimer at its end if you want to convey a professional image. This blog has been based on material in Brilliant Email: how to win back time and increase your productivity.

Follow this week's Tweets for daily tips the image you create through your email etiquette.

Sustainable email - prepare for Green Office Week

2011-04-27T11:55:00.004+01:00

Are your emails resource hungry or sustainable?

Email misuse significantly increases an organisation's and an individuals carbon foot print. Getting the email traffic down in order to save energy is one of my pet grips.

It never ceases to amaze me how few people spring clean their inboxes. Yet, the bigger the inbox the more natural resources needed to run the email servers. The reply is usually either why should I waste my time, or servers are cheap. Fine if you don't care about the businesses profitability and the environment. It's funny because if you kept so much paper that you ran out of office space you would soon have a clear out. So why not do the same with email?

Meanwhile of course most cloud-based email services such as Gmail and Hotmail actively encourage big inboxes.

Then there are the emails themselves - all those long signature blocks with icons and endless straplines. The one which makes me most cross is 'please consider the environment and don't print this email unless absolutely necessary'.

Short simple emails are best and that includes the signature block. There is nothing more annoying and unprofessional than an email where more space is taken up by all the marketing and PR blurb than by the message itself. What a waste. Furthermore, icons embedded in the email use up even more storage space.

Then there are all the unnecessary emails sent primarily either to cover your backside or shout about how clever you are. More wasted processing resources (eg energy) and server space.

What about fancy fonts and colour? Heaven forbid you need to print these. What a waste of toner unless you remember to use the black and white printer. However, all too often a coloured email lures you to the colour printer.

My daily email tips for this week were planned to focus on email best practice and sustainability as a result of recent and future client projects. By chance I heard about Green Office Week happening in May.

Prepare for Green Office Week by taking steps to make your emails more sustainable and use the minimum of resources. For tips follow my Tweet at Emaildoctor.

Email addiction - switch off over the Easter Break

2011-04-21T09:30:00.011+01:00

Will you be checking your email over the Easter break? Or will you be bold and switch off completely in order to recharging your batteries and have quality time with your family and friends? After all that is what holidays are about.

Checking your emails constantly is a sure way to drive up the stress and disrupt a holiday. It is not unheard of for a husband/wife to throw their other half's expensive iphone/Blackberry in the sea. That's a bit of a waste.

One way to help you resist the email honey trap is to leave your smart phone (Blackberry, iphone etc) safely at home and take just a conventional mobile phone.

If you can not make that leap of faith (and I confess I can not always) then reduce the number of times you check your email to at most twice (morning and evening). The best being once a day at the end of the day with drink in your hand. You will surprised at how much less pressing the emails look when seen through a glass of wine!..

What will you be doing whilst on leave - checking or going cold turkey?

Email overload - spring clean your inbox over Easter

2011-04-20T10:30:00.007+01:00

Email overload - spring clean your inbox, take a break from the email treadmill over Easter and plan a strategy to reduce any email and information overload for your return.

This is a great time to re-look at you inbox and check your level of email overload. Don't forget you can use our Email Overload on-line tool to check how you are doing.

Your inbox should be your work in progress and contain no more than 50 emails. Here are some tips to help you spring clean your inbox and plan a strategy for managing the email overload more effectively on your return.

Whether you are going on leave or staying in the office here are some quick way to clean out the inbox.

Sort by date then by subject and person and delete all those old chains.
Move all emails over a week old in to a separate folder (eg called 'Old')
Flag any which still need action (or create a task from them) and move them to a seperate Pending folder.
Be ruthless about those newsletters you receive and keep unsubscribing.

If you are taking some leave make sure you:

Set a safe and simple Out of Office Message - eg 'I am out of the office with limited access to email. If it's urgent contact X.' Don't say you are on leave that is a give a way for the cyber criminal.
Create some rules to folder automatically second order priority emails eg Cc'd and All User.
Make an appointment with yourself to catch up with the backlog. However talk to your colleagues first as that is the quickest way to catch up!
Give someone else access to your inbox whilst you are away. After all the emails you receive on the company email address belong to the company. If you do receive lots of personal emails create some rules to divert them to folders.

For more tips see earlier blogs. Also why not invest a couple of hours on one of our Brilliant Email Masterclasses.

Tips on how to switch of whilst on holday in the next blog. Quick ways to handle the holiday backlog will be in next week's blog.

Email overload - unsubscribe to save yourself from the information overload disease

2011-04-14T16:00:00.000+01:00

Information overload is a prevalent disease of 21st Centuary business life, often predicated by email overload. We live in a predominantly push rather than pull information culture: this is one of the main causes of this disease. However, we have it within our personal power to change that culture and be far more vigilant about what information is thrown at us and often by email.

I have just sent out a reminder email about forthcoming some Brilliant Email Master Classes and was pleased to see that ten people 'unsubscribe' from my mailing list. No I am not a sadist, but simply delighted to see people taking my email best practice medicine.

To manage the risk of catching the information overload virus you need to be be ruthless about the emails which reach your inbox and hence reduce the email overload. In the first instance that means 'unsubscribing' from any mailing lists (internal and external) from which you receive information which you feel is not useful to you personally.

If that can not be done perhaps because either your mail server does not let you access the website or the sender has provided no unsubscribe mechanism then take alternative avoidance action. Try using:

'junk' mail filters to block the relevant emails;
rules either to delete automatically the emails or send then to a folder for reviewing latter.

Simply deleting unnecessary emails is both a waste of time (click here to check for yourself) and makes you very vulnerable to the information overload virus.

Eighty percent of what you really need comes from twenty percent of the information you receive. However, only you can identify which is the twenty percent for you. Then you and only you must prioritise and take suitable measure to avoid being laid low by the email overload and hence information overload disease.

Email overload: say 'no' when people ask you to email them what you have just asked them

2011-04-08T10:30:00.000+01:00

Email overload - ask someone to do something and the response is email me! How rude is that? Last week's post on our total reliance on email was popular. That and my current client work prompted me to post a second blog on this theme of when to use an alternative to email.

One of the most annoying comment I receive when phoning someone is 'can you put that in an email'. If it's a client sometimes it's hard to say 'no', but with everyone else my solution is to forget! This has cost some people money as the call was to remind them to invoice me for their commission fee.

I find this the rudest response. If you have been asked to do a task, why do you need it in email? Are you suffering with dementia? Do you not have a device on which to make your own 'To Do List' (electronic or paper and pencil). Is it plain lazyness? Perhaps is it that you want an audit trail?

In my pocket/handbag there is always a pen and paper but perhaps that is because my parents owned a stationary business and my love of pens and paper has never left me!

Seriously, if someone asks you to do something, my management school says it is now your problem to remember and get on with it, but certainly not respond with ' can you put it an email'. That just compounds the cover my backside and litigious culture which now pervades most organisations.

The only exception is if you are having a corridor conversation in which you are seeding an idea with a senior executive.

What is your opinion and experience.

Email overload - the gap between sender's and recipient's expecations

2011-04-04T09:40:00.000+01:00

There is a disparity between the sender and recipient’s perception of when a reply is expected.

Research for clients and 'Brilliant Email' found 42% of recipients feel that a reply is expected within a couple of hours and only a third perceive that within a day is acceptable. When the results were presented to the management team in this organisation they were visibly shocked at the disparity as they thought everyone understood that half a day was an acceptable response time.

Many managers in other organisations often comment on how they are surprised by how quickly people respond saying that their email was not that urgent and that they did not need the information for a day or two. Equally there are those who do expect an instant reply. Journalists are often the worst, expecting an instant reply. Sometimes it’s acceptable when in response to a news story. Other times it is just because of bad planning and a deadline creeping up.

PA’s often tell me that their manager expects an instant reply. Yet when challenged about whether they have discussed what is a realistic reply time few have even discussed this issue.

If you are a manager think about delaying sending non-urgent message until later in the day to allow your team to focus on the real job. With most software you can either use rules or you will find there is a 'delay delivery function'. Try it and see how productivity improves.

What do you think?

Email overload - reduce it by learning to use your email software

2011-03-29T09:00:00.008+01:00

Have you ever been trained to use your email software to help reduce the email overload? Here is a tool which we use constantly for business yet few people have ever been trained how to use the software properly. Most say it's intuitive. But is it? Often it is far from obvious and especially to those who are not digital natives.

So how much time do you either wast hunting around for a function or becuase you did not know there was a function which could save you time. For example can you:

write rules to help you save time managing your inbox:
add expiry dates to emails with a shelf-life (eg testing the fire alarm, cake to celberate my birthday etc) to save people time reading out of date email;
switch off all those new mail alters which interrupt you and mean each task takes at least fifteen minutes longer complete:
use keyboard shortcut keys instead of replying of the menu to save yourself about a minute an email?

To see how well you use Outlook use our Outlook IT Fitness Check .

For users of other software eg Notes, Entourage and Groupwise, your software will have most of these functions so the Fitness Check will help you too.

It never ceases to amaze me that so few people receive any form of email software training. Software is changed even upgraded and users are just left to 'get on with it'. The more foresighted do provide training and have found that one hour spent training can add as much as five extra hours productivity per week.

This week there are a series of email software time savers.

What is your experience?

Email overload - using alternative communications options

2011-03-23T09:30:00.003Z

Email is only one of many communications media, yet consistently we seem to default to it. Is it pure either email addiction or lack of understanding about how to communicate effectively?

Increasingly I am asked how to change people's email behaviour towards talking more and using more effective options.

One way is clearly through training and change management programmes. The other is to produce clear guidelines about what is available and when they are best used.

However, all too often these guidelines are steeped in techno speak rather than features and benefits. From the user's perspective, with Instant Messaging the recurring question is 'isn't this just another way to check up on me and have me respond immediately'?

IM is a powerful way to communicate messages which are here and now, and ephemeral (eg who has an iphone charger, the fire alarm is about to be tested) and not needed as a business record.

One conversation is still often worth nine rounds of email ping pong especially if there is some negotiation involved.

The motto should always be talk first email later.

Some organisation have very successfully tried email free periods. The result is always amazement about how much people learn when when they walk and talk. Perhaps not surprising as email is so devoid of emotions and external contextual information. The added benefit is a reduction in the email overload factor.

What works for you? Should we even be thinking outside the email box?

Email overload - managing a team inbox

2011-03-21T09:30:00.004Z

Email overload can be a problem when dealing with a team inbox such as sales@, project@ and even for PAs/EAs handling their manager's inbox. For example, how do you ensure every email is dealt with appropriately and that the sender does not receive multiple responses?

The PA/EA and manager relationship is always interesting if only because few talk about how best to handle the email. For example:

Who is responsible for filing and deleting old email?
What is the best way for each party to draw to the other person's attention emails which still need action, printing etc?
How do you cope when the boss dips in and out?
What is the process for telling their PA/EA what action either has or has not been taken?
How much time is the PA/EA wasting simply deleting emails which they know is of no interest to their manager?

Here are three simple tips for anyone who deals with a team/shared inbox to save some time and reduce the email overload.

Agree who is ultimately responsible for managing the inbox, eg filing retention, archiving etc.
Work out a process for highlighting emails which have been dealt with and those which still need attention, eg flags, a 'traffic light' folder structure, even edit the email itself.
Audit the volume of incoming email and discuss how to reduce it based on what is automatically deleted.

During this week there will be more tips and hints on Twitter - follow me as the 'Emaildoctor'.

What are your top tips for handling a team inbox?

Does spelling and grammar matter in an email?

2011-03-01T09:30:00.007Z

Yes, according to a recent survey we conducted. 21% consider spelling mistakes are unprofessional and 79% feel they convey a sloppy image of you as the sender.

Most people like the emails they receive to be grammatically correct. 29% feel poor grammar is unprofessional and 63% feel it makes you look sloppy.

Indeed one of the fist questions I am often asked when running a workshop is 'will you teach people how to write a good business email'. Not surprising so few young workers have good email etiquette when school teachers send out emails littered with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

What is your opinion? Does a poorly worded and constructed email annoy you?

Email overload - managing it during half term

2011-02-23T09:00:00.004Z

Ways to reduce the volume of email awaiting your return after a break for half-term include:

Prioriting what you really need in your inbox and using rules to divert the rest to folders to read later in the week.
Sending the lot to the Deleted folder and then including a line in your Out of Office message to tell people to re-send it if its urgent.
Using colour and views on your return if it's too late to do 1 or 2.

More suggestions can be found in 'Brilliant Email' which of course you could always buy in any good book store and read on your break!!

Email security for half term

2011-02-22T09:00:00.001Z

Did you set a secure Out of Office message if you're taking time out this week for half-term? Secure means saying simply 'I will not have regular access to my emails from A to B. If it's urgent please call me or ABC'. Avoid saying you are on leave as that's alerting cyber criminals to a potentially empty house.
Also avoid giving too many points of contact as that too open the door to preying eyes and can be an easy source of leaking confidential information eg other organisation with whom you deal, other points of contact etc.

Email etiquette - what does your email address say about you?

2011-02-18T09:30:00.001Z

Have you ever looked at the email addresses used by SMEs and sole traders? Your email address is a part of your email etiquette and on-line image. The other day at a networking event I studied people's email addresses. There were the big corporates who have their own domain name. Then there were the SMEs and sole traders. The latter ranged from Yahoo and Gmail addresses to very long personal domain names of 25+ characters. Plenty of scope there for mistyping!

In business your email address is part of your email etiquette or email dress code as it called in 'Brilliant Email'. It's the accessories. If you are a serious business player think carefully about your email address. To buy a domain name is cheap and a good investment. For men it's like a good pair of cuff links. For women it's the equivalent to investing in some diamonds or pearls.

Gmail, Yahoo, BTinternet, Hotmail etc are fine for domestic use, a second business address for all the non essential emails like newsletters etc and for casual business use eg non-executive directors. However, for serious business players, I am not so sure. What do you think?

No reply - email overload or arrogance

2011-02-15T11:11:00.001Z

No reply is it email overload, arrogance or plain bad manners? Recently a well established trade magazine asked for volunteers to write expert columns. They never either acknowledged or replied to my email. Is this because they feel no need to demonstrate the basic simple courtesy just blogged by Ted Coine or is the requesting editor's email inbox so overstuffed they don't read half their emails?

Email etiquette and security for Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T09:00:00.003Z

Email etiquette and email security. It’s that time of year again, Valentine’s Day is here. It’s not just the high street that’s bursting with Valentine fever. The internet is full of online shopping sites covered with hearts, pushing last-minute gift ideas and online dating services, trying to get you to sign-up to make this year THE year that you find that special someone.

Electronic cards are ideal for the busy or last-minute romantics out there. Sending an eCard for a special occasion seems to be a growing trend - it’s cheap to do, environmentally friendly and a convenient alternative to traditional cards.

I think the concept is great and there are a lot of trusted sites which offer you the option to create animated videos or cards to send by email to your Valentine, but there are just as many spammers hiding behind bogus messages, so beware!

Security companies monitor the activity of spammers at this time of year and see spikes in spam related to Valentine’s Day such as emails with subject headers like, ‘An original gift for Valentine's Day’, ‘Very Hush-Hush Valentines Day Offer’, ‘Quick and Easy Valentine's Day Gifts’ and lots more*.
Hackers often use Valentine’s Day to try and sneak malicious software on to your computer, or to lure you to what looks like a legitimate website to make purchases, allowing them to steal your bank account details and passwords, without you realising.

Be cautious and do not open emails from unknown senders even if they flatter your ego!

Email Addiction III - who logged in on Christmas Day

2011-02-03T09:30:00.003Z

Email Addiction. Are we becoming email junkies? Did you log in on Christmas Day? Judging by the results some of us are real email junkies with a severe case of email addiction. My thanks to all 722 people who participated in the poll.

Forty five percent (45%) confessed to checking their email. Men checked more often than women see below. However, more women checked their email once and both sexes were equal when it came to checking twice. Does anyone have any thoughts on this one?

Reason for checking in ranged from 'self-confessed email junkie' to feeling one must always be available. Of those who did not log in, most said it was time to be with the family and they were too busy cooking and entertaining.

The results leave me wondering just how much we have come to let email dominate our lives and how many people suffer with acute email addiction.

Email Addiction II - more tips and hints

2011-02-02T13:24:00.000Z

Are you an email junkie? Email addiction is a costly to you and your business (even you love life). We become distracted from the task in hand. It drives up stress levels. In can also be the underlying source of chronic email overload and poor email etiquette as your respond in haste to new emails.

Are you an email junkie? Check -download our Email Addiction self-assessment tool.

Here are three more tips to help you on the road to being less of an email junkie and freeing up some time for other tasks which might have a more positive impact on your productivity and health.

Make sure you have all the new email notifications switched off.
Set yourself an email free time zone when you concentrate on the task in-hand - anything from twenty minutes to two hours and keep to it.
Tempted to take a peak - find a distraction - go see a colleague, take walk, have a coffee.

Email Addiction - ways to cure it

2011-01-31T10:00:00.001Z

Last week's UK launch of Clean Out Your Inbox Week seems to have been a great success. I am still sorting through all the emails, tweets and other messages. So please bear with me and a summary will be available at the end of the week.

The launch of our new Email Addiction self-assessment tool seemed to hit a hot spot. One of the problems with this sort of addiction is that there are no drugs to treat the affliction. It all has to be driven by personal behavioural change and from within yourself. As Susan Maushart's book The Winter of Out Disconnect shows you might also find another you and another hidden skills set.

Here are five ways to start gently curing the curse of this modern day drain on productivity.

Set yourself some specific email free time (eg from 30 minutes to two hours).
Reward yourself handsomely when you reach the goal time.
Fine yourself if you take a peak in between and make the fine psychologically painful.
Tell people what you are doing and enlist their help.
Provide an incentive for them to contact you by alternative ways (eg talk to you).

More tips and hints on Twitter this week.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 24 to 28 January 2011 - Day 5

2011-01-28T08:00:00.004Z

Staying Slim - Keep Your Email Addiction Under Control

By now we hope you have a very slim healthy inbox. The trick now is to keep it in good shape. Email addiction is one of the major causes of email overload, that is the feeling that you must constantly check your inbox no matter where you are and what you are doing.

On Christmas Day 45% of users logged in to their email!

Today I am delighted to launch Mesmo Consultancy's Email Addiction Checklist. Download your own personal free copy from the Knowledge Exchange.

Here is the plan for the final day of Clean Out Your Inbox Week.

Step 1 - Reweigh your inbox and share how many emails are still left in it (excluding those which arrived today).

Tweet the size of your inbox using the #Myinbox is (eg #Myinbox has 40 emails left in it).
LinkedIn - send me a message.
Email me.
Post responses/comments on my Facebook page.

Step 2 - Check your level of Email Addiction to make you sure have it under control. If not see where are your weaknesses and seek advice about how to over come them.

Step 3 - Review your action plan and goals and tell us how you fared. What were the high and lows of the week and how did you work around them?

There is a free copy of 'Brilliant Email' for the cleanest inbox and one for the person who made the best progress. Email your responses to me.

Step 4 - If you still need some help why not attend one of our Smart Email Management workshops or get a copy of Brilliant Email?

Don't forget there will be regular tips on Twitter through out the day.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 24 to 28 January 2011 - Day 4

2011-01-27T08:00:00.002Z

Email etiquette to slim down your inbox.

One of the quickest ways to slim down your inbox is to reduce the amount of email ping-pong you play. That means use the right email etiquette to convey the right message, right first time. Don't leave space for misinterpretation.

You have less than five seconds before the recipient of your email has formed an opinion of you for better or worse. Poor email etiquette can cost you dearly, for example customers, a job etc.

Review your email etiquette and use it to reduce the amount of email you need to handle.

Step 1 - Download our free email Etiquette Check-List from our sister site www.brilliant-email.com

Step 2 - Review your inbox and see if there are any email chains which could have been prevented if you had communicated more clearly.

Step 3 - Review your emails before you send them using our Email Etiquette Checklist.

Step 4 - Next time someone sends you an email which is hard to follow point them in the direction of the checklist.

Step 5 - Share how you are doing. What is the poorest email you have in your inbox?

Tweet the gist of the email using the #Myinbox is (eg #Myinbox was 350MB and is now only 100MB.
LinkedIn - send me a message.
Email me.
Post responses/comments on my Facebook page.

Don't forget there will be more tips during the day on Twitter.

Clean Out Your Inbox week 24 to 28 January - Day 3

2011-01-26T08:00:00.001Z

So how is your inbox looking today? Are you making progress?

Ever been locked out of your inbox? Today's focus is on attachments - the pariahs of inbox space. If I had a penny for everyone who tells me their inbox is over the limit I'd be rich. Keeping too many attachments in your inbox means you not only clog up your own server but also the organisation's system. Last week one of my clients had a major outage caused by overweight inboxes. Also there is nothing more stressful than needing to send an email only to find you are locked out of your systems through being overweight!

Wednesday 26 Day 3 - Attachments, reduce them to stay within mailbox limits

Today's goal is to develop the habit of saving attachments outside your inbox and into the right folder on your main server/hard disc (eg client, project date etc).

Step 1 - Check you have not left too much dross from the last two days and if needs be set aside time to continue the inbox housekeeping and cleaning out.

Step 2 - Find those large attachments - eg sort on size, for Outlook users use Mailbox clean up or Search Folders.

Step 3 - Save the attachments to the relevant folder on your file server/hard disc and then remove them from the email.

Step 4 - Share how you are doing. What is the biggest attachment you have in your inbox?

Tweet the size of your mailbox and by how much you reduced it using the #Myinbox is (eg #Myinbox was 350MB and is now only 100MB.
LinkedIn - send me a message.
Email me.
Post responses/comments on my Facebook page.

Don't forget there will be more tips during the day on Twitter.

There is a prize for the person who made the greatest saving: you will need to send a screen shot of the size before and after.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 24 to 28 January - Day 2

2011-01-25T08:00:00.006Z

Welcome to Day 2 of the email diet plan. My thanks to everyone who is sharing and joining in - it's great to see so many people keen to start fighting email overload.

Tuesday Day 2 - Prioritise and reduce the level of noise.

Today is about continuing to reduce the rubbish and starting to prioritise in order to keep the email intake down. Remember your inbox should be your work in progress - not a dump for all the emails you receive.

Step 1 - Spend a few minutes clearing out more emails that are left from the last six months if necessary. For example, newsletters, meeting invites etc.

Step 2 - As each new email arrives ask yourself - 'Do I really need this email?' 'How useful is this to me?'

Step 3 - For all those emails you don't need - find a way either to get yourself off the sender's list or automatically move them out of your inbox so they don't distract your attention away from the really important ones.

Unsubscribe - just deleting is a waste of time.
Ask the sender to remove you from their list. There are some handy templates of text on the Brilliant Email website.
Send them to a folder/deleted using Rules.

Step 4 - Share how you are doing.

Tweet the number using the #Myinbox is
LinkedIn - send a message.
Email me.
Post them on my Facebook pag.

Don't forget there will be more tips during the day on Twitter.

Clean Out Your Inbox Week - SMART Goals

2011-01-24T08:07:00.001Z

SMART goals are:

Specific - by how much will you reduce your inbox.
Measurable goals - keep a log for each day.
Attainable - how will you achieve the goal, do you need any help/extra skills?
Realistic - how much time can you afford to spend each day cleaning up your inbox?
Timely - by when will you have cleaned up your inbox? Friday we hope, but what if you have a busy week?

Clean Out Your Inbox Week 24 to 28 January - Day 1

2011-01-24T08:06:00.001Z

Welcome to the UK's first 'Clean Out Your Inbox' Week being run in conjuction with Marsha Egan who initiated the event in the USA four years ago. The plan for the week is on our Events page. At the end of the week I hope we will all have made some progress to conquering this new disease know as 'email overload' which is costing most individuals and business dearly.

Monday 24 Day 1 - Weigh in and set some Smart Goals.

Step 1 - Weigh in - Check and tell us how many email are in your inbox. For most email software the number is shown on the botton left (eg 5000). Be daring and share the results:

Tweet the number using the #Myinbox
Take the poll on LinkedIn
Email me
Post them on my Facebook page

Step 2 - Check the Cost of Email Overload to yourself and your business by using our Cost of Email Misuse Calculator and share the results as above.

Step 3 Set you yourself SMART goals for the week and plan how they will be achieved.

Step 4 - Start to clear out some of the rubbish.

Sort by Subject and/or From and delete all the duplicate chains.

Sort by date and move out all emails older than six months to a folder which you can sort later.

Step 5 - Follow us both on Twitter for tips and share your own experiences using the #Myinboxis

Share your goals and plans (see above). There is a prize for the best set of goals and plan to achieve them (copy of 'Brilliant Email').

Email etiquette - the cost to business of poor grammer and spelling

2011-01-21T09:30:00.001Z

What picture of the sender does an email convey which contains, spelling mistakes, poor grammar and is badly structured? To me, it's one of a sloppy person who does not really care, an email written in haste maybe? For many of my clients such emails can be very expensive especially when the contents are incorrect and they end up in court as evidence.
Alternatively, either a prospect or client feels the sloppy email is a reflection of the service they either are or will receive. The question which often comes up in workshops is 'should an email be as perfect as a letter'? In a word 'yes', regardless of whether it is internal or external. Why worry about internal communications? They so often slip outside, forwarded carelessly and in haste.

Moreover, sloppy emails often result in more email overload because either you need to read and re-read the email to decipher what the sender is saying or you play endless rounds on unnecessary email ping-pong. For some of my clients this can be very costly and especially when English is not the mother tongue: shipments are missed, products specifications wrongly interpreted. Has this ever happened to you?
Here are three tips on good email etiquette for the content:

Write in clear plain English.
No text speak please, the workforce is still predominantly Generation X.
Check not only the spelling but what the spell checker is doing. (How many people apologise for the incontinence instead of the inconvenience!)

What are your top tips? Do you think an email should be as perfect as a letter?

Clean Out Your Inbox week 24 to 28 January 2011

2011-01-19T16:02:00.000Z

The plans for the UK first Inbox Clean Up Week are now out on our Events page . Are you and your colleagues going to participate?

When I coached a client last week who had 7,000 emails in their inbox it re-enforced the decision to join with Marsha Egan of Inbox Detox who founded and has run this event in the USA for the last three years. Here's to the first UK and indeed international Clean Out Your Inbox Week.

If you need any more evidence about the cost of email overload, Star providers of cloud-based computer services, just found that one in five UK users waste up to 32 days a year managing their emails.

Join us next week and put your inbox on a permanent diet and reduce your email overload and free up time and productivity to do the things in life that really matter.

Email etiquette - opening and closing an email

2011-01-19T09:30:00.002Z

When you open an email which do you prefer, Hi, Dear, Fred or no salutation? A recent survey we conducted reveled that 'Dear' is still regarded as the most professional greeting (66%) followed by Name (33%) and Hi (13%). No greeting is felt to be unprofessional and sloppy.

OK, so you open with a professional salutation, the content is grammatically correct and there are no spelling errors. (We should be so lucky!) What about how you close the email? What do you prefer, Cheers, your sincerely, kind regards or nothing?

Our survey revealed that Cheers is not professional (55%) and seen as sloppy by some (13%) as are smiley icons (75%). The most professional signs off are either kind regards or best wishes (67%).

Am I just a grumpy old women, part of a bye gone era of business (Generation X) or a seasoned business women trying to maintain standards?

What is you option on the best email etiquette to open and close an email?

4th Annual Clean Out YOur Inbox Week - next week

2011-01-18T09:26:00.000Z

Next week is the 4th Annual US 'Clean Out Your Inbox week'. We are delighted to be working with Marsha Egan of Inbox Detox to bring this event to the UK for the first time.

Start preparing now by being ruthless and looking at each new incoming email and asking yourself, 'do I really need this one'?

Watch this space for more information tomorrow and how to join our '5-Day Inbox Diet Plan'.

Publish Post

Email etiquette - how to win and lose customers

2011-01-17T09:30:00.001Z

By email (as the sender), how long do you have to make an impression on the recipient? Maximum, five seconds, before they form an opinion of you (the sender), for better or worse. That goes for every aspect of business be it internal and external communications, eg job applications, journalists, prospects, etc. Often it's for worse. Stefan Stern's article 'Is the vehicle registered in your name' prompted me to reflect on the current state of email etiquette or rather lack of it.

How you open, close and construct an email is your email dress code. Sloppy email, sloppy you. Professional email and it makes one feel I'd like to do business with this person. The way an email is framed can make or break a business relationship.

Let us not forget that for most businesses an email is still a formal communication. Indeed, it bears your business's/organisation's name, not to mention your own name.

Yet, when was the last time you had any email etiquette training? Never. You are not alone. Here is the most commonly and frequently used business communications tool and yet our surveys show that less than 30% of business people are ever given any guidelines on what is acceptable and what is not. In part of course the standard of today's email etiquette is also a reflection of the appalling standard of school teaching. But that's another story.

For example what guidelines are there in your organisation/business on:

How to open and close an email
Grammar and spelling
Phraseology to use which reflects your business
Use of jargon
Text speak and use of emoticons.
Content of the signature block.

These are some of the items covered in this week's blogs.

Meanwhile, please feel free to use my Email Etiquette Checklist to audit a few of the emails you recently sent.

Email overload - managing a team mailbox

2011-01-14T09:30:00.000Z

One of the recurrent questions last week was 'how do we manage efficiently a team in box to make sure all emails are answered once and once only and tracked' (eg information@, sales @, project@ and even 'my manager's inbox')?

You need to decide on some simple processes. First, who ultimately owns and manages the mailbox, in terms of sorting, assigning and as appropriate deleting the rubbish. Second, agree a process for handling the incoming emails which shows clearly the priorities and who is handling the email, eg flags, folders, colours etc. Third check that all the users have an adequate level of Email (Outlook) IT Fitness (ie skills to use the software) and guidelines on which to make decisions about how to process and email.

Without a robust and clear process in place there is a high risk that important emails will be missed and possibly with significant costs to the business.

Do you manage a team mailbox? What guidelines do you have in place?

Email training and Outlook skills

2011-01-12T17:05:00.000Z

When was the last time you were trained to use email and your email software, eg Outlook, Notes, Gmail Priority Inbox etc? Never. Once maybe years ago and since then the software has been upgraded several times. You are not alone.

Some would say how to use the software is obvious but I disagree. One hours training is worth at least five hours extra productivity. Email is one it not the most used business tool. Yet few have ever been shown how to use the software properly, let alone any email best practice, email etiquette and techniques to manage email overload.

Most email software contains a wealth of functions to help you save time. For example, rules (filters), colour (categories) to highlight key incoming emails, the facility to create templates of re-usable text, keyboard shortcut keys etc. Yet when I run workshops and coach clients it never ceases to amaze me how few people know how to use these functions.

You can use my Outlook IT Fitness Check to audit your level of skills. For non-Outlook users, it will at least highlight what functions might also be buried in your software.

What's your favorite software time saver?

Email Out of Office Messages Tell All

2011-01-10T18:30:00.000Z

Do you realise how much you reveal in your Out-of-Office message? Last week we sent out our January e-briefing of tips and hints on how to manage email overload and effective email etiquette. Of the 135 Out-of-Office Message, six percent were past their sell by date which suggest a lack of attention to detail on the recipients part. Fifteen percent gave away information about clients and projects handled by the organisation, about twenty percent were insecure and left the person open to cyber crime and the rest were fine.

What makes a good safe and secure Out-of-Office message? Indeed why bother to pay attention to what your message says? A simple message is best which just states that you are not in the office and gives one point of contact in the event of an emergency. Any more (eg you are on holiday, other projects you are handling etc) and you leave yourself and the organsiation open to a breach of security and confidentiality.

Every email from you conveys and creates an image about you in the recipient's mind. A careless, frivolous message can convey a sloppy, unprofessional image of you and a sloppy organisation.

Does your organisation provide adequate guidelines on the use of Out-of-Office messages? If so what?

More New Year's resolutions to overcome information and email overload

2011-01-07T09:30:00.000Z

Its great to see so many people working to fight this new business disease 'information/email overload' which is draining our productivity. Jonathan Spira at Basex estimates that this disease is now costing US business at least $997 billion per year. For more and to see his new year's resolutions see http://bit.ly/hq9FkO.

What are you doing to help stop the email overload pandemic spreading?

Email overload and email addiction

2011-01-06T11:56:00.000Z

One of the major contributors to email overload is our propensity to email addiction (and social networking in general). Whenever I am with friends who have children (and friends) who are predominantly from Generation Y and younger the cry is why can't they detach themselves from their mobile communications devices (eg iphone, Blackberry etc). Some say that even over family meals their siblings are still checking their phones and it drives them mad.

My own research (see for example Inbox-Outbox 2007 survey and Why are we so bad at switching off), and that of others suggest that we do indeed suffer from a bad case of email addiction. The more emails you send and the quicker you respond, the more you receive? How can we reduce email addiction? Here are three tips.

Go cold turkey- switch it off, revert to a conventional mobile phone out of normal office hours.
Check your emails at set times and reward yourself when you keep to those times.
Give people a reason and a reward if they to talk to you rather than email you.

I will re-visit overcoming email addiction as it is such a prolific problem. Meanwhile, for more immediate tips take a look at 'Brilliant Email'.

Did you log in on Christmas Day?

2011-01-05T14:27:00.000Z

Results to date reveal that over 60% of us could not resist the temptation! If you have not yet responded, please do. Meanwhile, my thanks to everyone who has taken the poll, and especially for all those fascinating comments. Poll will remain open for another two weeks, then I will compile the responses. For those who have reducing their email addiction in their new year's resolutions - more in Thursday's blog.

Email overload the new year's resolutions

2011-01-04T09:52:00.000Z

Email overload really does take its toll on individual's and business's productivity. For a reality check use my Cost of Email Misuse Calculator. It's not just the quantifiable lost time and money, it is also the hidden costs such as the distortion of the work-life balance, stress and higher carbon foot print. See earlier blogs.
With this in mind here are my New Year's resolutions to help me be a little more productive and less addicted to my email.

Check them no more than five times a day.
Stop emailing after 10.00 pm.
Use alternative media more, such as the phone, my blog, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Continue to spend about thirty minutes a week on email housekeeping and slimming down my inbox.
Check my emails more carefully for typos and spelling mistakes (hard to spot errors when you are dyslexic).
When in doubt - put the email in the draft box and re-check a few hours later as to whether or not it really needs to be sent.
Remember, that not every email needs a reply.

Being cited as an expert and the Emaildoctor on Twitter everyone expects that I will have it sussed, but there is an element of being both the tailor's daughter and the worst patient. These are my personal goals for 2011 to contribute towards reducing the email overload that confronts us all.
What are your new year's resolutions to help the fight against email overload and its drain on personal and business productivity?

There is a free copy of 'Brilliant Email' for the best response.

Email overload - continuing the inbox diet: the case against folders

2010-12-30T11:38:00.000Z

There are many who simply keep all their emails in their inbox. It's not uncommon to see inboxes with over 5000 emails some of which are over seven years old. Philip Delves Broughton reminded us yesterday that personal organisation is the 'weight loss of industry and business'.

Your inbox and how you manage it is very much a reflection of you. Often those with unruly inboxes have desks with papers piled high. That is not too say that they are any better or worse than their colleagues with immaculate desks. But information is a key asset for any business.

Those who rarely use folders would say the main reason is that email housekeeping is a waste of time. Surely the task should be automated by the software. To some extent this is true for those with email archiving systems and a related retention policy. They also say it takes longer to find items because they can't remember where they are filed. For some, believe it or not, it is simply that they just don't know how to use their email software properly. On every Smart Email Management workshop at least twenty percent say they need help both to create a good folder structure and use the associated software tools. How good is your level of Email IT Fitness?

What's your opinion of the use of folders? If you don't use them, why?

Email Overload - folders to continue the email diet

2010-12-29T11:08:00.000Z

There are two diverse schools of thought on the value of folders as a way to manage email overload.
Today is the case for a good folder structure, tomorrow the case against using folders.

Those in favour say that a good folder structure is an excellent way to keep your emails under control and manage the email overload, just like having an old fashioned paper filing system. The benefits of a good folder structure include, quicker to find emails, you can use rules to divert the less important emails automatically to folders, easier to manage in terms of clearing out and hence improve compliance.

On my quest to reduce the size of my mailbox, I am going through those folders relating to old projects and deleting all the ephemeral ones, eg confirming meetings, sending attachments which are now filed in the main project file etc. Also importantly, all emails which by law should have been deleted as they contain personal information is no longer needed, eg CVs for recruitment exercises.

If you subscribe to the SMART goal principle then sorting out several smaller folders rather than one large one gives you a sense of achievement in the quest to manage the email overload. Using folders means slimming down the inbox can be broken up into smaller chunks. A good (email) folder structure is also at the heart of the David Allen's Getting Things Done philosophy as it helps you prioritise.

My new book 'Brilliant Email' contains several examples of how others (from MDs to PAs) have used folder structures to help them be more productive.

What's your view on the use of folders?

Email overload - did you take a sneak peak on Christmas Day?

2010-12-27T17:47:00.000Z

Have just created a poll to see how many people looked at their email on Christmas Day. Do participate, http://linkd.in/eYGFDF.

Yes, I did check it just the once in the afternoon, but did not send any. Given that the more emails we send, the more we receive, there might be some telling lessons from the results about dealing with email overload.

Email Etiquette: Out of Office Messages best practice

2010-12-24T13:27:00.000Z

Have you set an Out Of Office message which meets the 3S standard: simple, short and secure.

Simple and short - just one point of contact and please, please make sure that person is around. More than one point of contact and you might find yourself divulging confidential information and increasing the risk of a breach of business security. Secure too, because it doesn't immediately alert any cyber criminals to a potentially empty home.

Email etiquette for the best Out Of Office messages - 'I will not be in the office between X and Y. If your email is urgent, please contact A, otherwise I will deal with it on my return.' That's the polite message.

I do know some people whose message reads 'I will not be in the office between X and Y. If your email is urgent, please re-send it on A, as all incoming emails during this period are automatically being deleted'.

Actually, I think that's a great way to manage the email overload. What do you think?

Email overload - reduce the weight of your inbox ready for the new year

2010-12-23T14:42:00.000Z

Have been ruthless with my own email management techniques by emptying my inbox over the last few days. All newsletters over a week old (opened and unopened) have been deleted. Any of specific interest have been moved to folders. Spent time too reducing the email overload in my sent items. Those which have to be retained have been filed either in the client or project folder (eg those with contractual implications). Even the e-christmas cards are now in a folder. For more ideas on putting your inbox on a diet see my latest Silicon.Com column 'Five Ways to Start an Email Weight Loss Campaign over Christmas'.

Email Overload and the rise and fall of social networking

2010-12-21T22:00:00.000Z

Two more reports now suggest that social media as an alternative to email is not growing as fast as it should: Radicati Group's latest industry survey and informal research from Brian Solis. This despite the fact that Facebook and Twitter usage continues to grow. Meanwhile for business, as IBM found, email is still the preferred media. Even although the IBM study found that 48% of respondents felt they suffered from email overload.

Why is this? One explanation might be the Generation X and Y. By and large business is still tilted towards more Generation X employees many of whom are not comfortable with social media and have not been educated how to use it properly. A second explanation might be that all alerts about new information on social media/social networks still comes by email. This in turn drives up the email traffic. One way to manage this aspect of email overload is to create rules to divert all such alerts away from the inbox and to a folder.

However that still leaves the need to educate Generation X.

What do you think?

Email management - Goverment cuts spending on IT

2010-12-20T10:40:00.000Z

Good to hear that at last the Government is rationalizing its spending on IT systems and hardware. However, further substantial savings and efficiency improvements can be made if they educated people to use the existing systems properly. After all, one hours training provides a five hour gain in productivity!

For example, what is your level of Outlook IT fitness? Are you Bronze (only just get by and often need help), Silver (average, can do what you need to do) or Gold (know lots of tricks to save yourself time)?

To audit your Email IT Fitness email me and I can send you a link to our on-line Email IT Fitness Check.

Email etiquette for addressing a knight

2010-12-19T10:55:00.000Z

How do you address a Knight in an email? Should their email address reflect they are ennobled eg sirfred@? This is the questions posed to David Tang as agony uncle in the Weekend FT. The person sending the question was annoyed because his business email address did not reflect his title. Are some people just too full of their own personal importance? One client does have a personal email address of sirfred@, but he is the most unassuming person you could meet. Maybe pomposity is inversely related to self-importance.

From an email etiquette perspective, I suggest the title is reflected in the salutaion ie Dear Sir Fred.

What do you think?

Email Overload - the cost from Mesmo Consultancy Blog

2010-12-17T22:00:00.000Z

How serious is email overload? What is the cost of email overload? A recent survey by Silicon.com found that 24% of business users receive over 100 emails a day and 7% receive over 250. Can anyone seriously cope with this volume of email each day? Those with such a high volume of email traffic are suffering from either serious email overload or email addiction. We might like to think we need and can process all this information but I'd suggest there is a very high risk of missing some key emails buried in the blizzard.

For most of us 80% of the information we need comes from 20% of what we read. Which is the 20% of the emails you receive that you need?

Email overload carries a high cost to individuals and business. First, there is the shear waste of time and personal productivity - to see the cost use my Cost of Email Misuse calculator. Then there is the stress factor, unnecessary demands on the email system, long working hours to clear them all and high carbon footprint to process all the email traffic.

Email overload can be managed and reduce with some subtle but simple changes in email behavior such as learning to say 'no' and reducing the number of emails sent. For more ideas see my column next week on Silicon.Com.

More on how to deal with the email addiction later this week.

Welcome to the Mesmo Email Blog.

2010-12-17T15:53:00.000Z

We're passionate about helping you avoid email overload and ensure that your email etiquette gets you the right answers, when you need them.

Look out for lots of posts with helpful hints and tips, along with discussions around some of the subjects covered in the recently launched Brilliant Email book, available on Amazon.