Fighting e-mail overload

Thames, Charlotte, NC — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:19:21 GMT

Its a tough to think premail, for one it does drive my boss crazy a good number of times, but I think its a beast that has become like a cancer cell no one can get rid of. Let me add as something of a solution as all of us can not completely get away from the email, find a time at home when home can be unplugged, No Email, No Phone, No PDA, No Cable, No internet. It's tough at first but its good time spent on the things that mean most in life, un rushed compeltely there, no matter how good you are at multi tasking familes don't liked to be shared, and for us single people rest when you can because its worth it in the long run.

Cheerio thanks for the idea

Fighting e-mail overload

Mark B, Santa Ana, CA — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:17:01 GMT

Hey Eve, the professional writer... I'm sure when you spoke to him on the telephone, he didn't say...
“When you’re e-mailing back and forth it’s easy to feel like your doing a lot but at the end of the day it doesn’t help you accomplish your goals.”
...
I bet he REALLY said.... “When you’re e-mailing back and forth it’s easy to feel like you’re doing a lot but at the end of the day it doesn’t help you accomplish your goals.”
"?
How can you spell the first contraction correctly and screw up the second one?

Fighting e-mail overload

Peggy Duncan — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:50:56 GMT

This works for him because he owns the business and it's the type of business that can get away with not checking email regularly. In the real world though...email is not the problem, but rather how you manage it. First, he was probably getting a lot of spam because his live (clickable) email address is on his Website. Beyond that, the key to email management is to get organized so you can find answers quickly, use the best email client (Outlook) and learn how to use it, and have good email habits. All this will give him more time during the day to answer email. If he doesn't want to hire an assistant, he could use a service such as logmein.com and have someone he trusts check email on his computer (if he doesn't use Webmail). There is always a way to fix a problem when people are willing to get to the root cause.

Fighting e-mail overload

jesse jacobs, san francisco, ca — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:52:26 GMT

Hi Peggy--
This is Jesse from Samovar Tea Lounge, and I just wanted to thank you for commenting about Eve's article. To respond to you about my email management...

I am a mac user and use the native "mail" program. Although I wouldn't call myself a power user, I have rules set up to keep my inbox down to just 40-50 messages a day, and, with those filters, I get less than 10% spam, and, also get all mail dropped into my contacts' folders for me to read at my convenience.

Still, the majority of emails I get is from vendors, customers, employees, and potential investors. I set expectations straight by offering an autoresponder that directs those requests to the appropriate staff who can respond to the message. This option only became available of course after I met with them and asked them to take on more responsibility, ie, delegating my work load to them.

And, in the event of an emergency (like a broken water heater, an emergency inspection from a health inspector, a supplier crisis, etc), I always offer my personal phone number. So far, I have only received 5 calls since January 1. Everyone else has communicated with me without a hitch, when I respond on monday or thursday.

Thanks for reading,

Fighting e-mail overload

Rich Pople, Washington DC — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:03:34 GMT

You may want to think about email overload as an operating cultural issue. Individual management of email is only going to accomplish so much. Rather, rethinking email as a collaboration tool (and an employee engagement tool) should cause executives to rethink the operating model that they use to manage intellectual assets such as employee contribution ... here's a write-up that might put context around thinking differently about the role that email should play in an organization

http://www.bis-insight.com/Site/Blog/Entries/2009/3/14_I_can_see_clearly_now_the_email_is_down.html