E-Mail Madness—How to Fight It

Q. I dread turning on my computer each morning. I get 30 to 50 e-mail messages a day—most with information I don’t need. How can I cut this deluge? —Dan B.

A. You’re not alone. One sales manager I know returned from a one-week vacation and found nearly 1000 e-mail messages waiting for him.

Control what you receive.

Your best move is to install a SPAM-(unwanted mail) blocking program. It’ll let you receive only messages from e-mail addresses you identify. You’ll have to enter the e-mail addresses you want to receive mail from, and you’ll have to keep it up-to-date, but it may be worth the effort. Or you’ll just have to keep deleting messages every day from senders you don’t know.

Do you get a lot of badly written messages from people who don’t write clearly and simply? Don't hunt for their message—e-mail back the sender of an unclear, wordy mail with a gentle message that says why you didn’t respond: "Hi John--I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you sooner. I couldn’t understand your e-mail message easily, and I had to put it aside to put out some fires. Can I ask that, when you’d like me to act quickly on something, just summarize what you need at the start of the message? That way I can respond faster. Thanks!"

Prepare a “Remove” message to get rid of unwanted e-mails. Keep it handy on your computer screen’s desktop, and just cut and paste it as a reply to the sender of any unwanted message. Try this for a standard response: “(Name), thanks for keeping me informed. At the same time, I have to cut back on the exploding volume of e-mail I’m getting each day. Please send me only those messages that impact on my deliverables or information I need to know. Thanks!”

Control What You Send.

Try calling the person first. It’s faster, easier, takes less time and is more personal. And set an example yourself—using more efficient ways to send e-mail. You might even bring these ideas up at a department or divisional meeting and try to get buy-in from everyone. It’ll cut inter-office messages dramatically:

Limit how much e-mail you send. You could be sending messages to people who don’t need them—adding to their e-mail overload.

Keep it short. Limit your message to 25 lines—(what fits on one screen). Send only what your reader needs to understand. Paraphrase the earlier message (or choose key words and phrases from the original message for your replies) to shorten your reply.

Limit each message to one subject—and use a short, descriptive subject line to help readers screen the message, focus on the topic quickly and determine fast action. It’s better to send two separate messages than try to cover several topics in one message, which can cause problems with action steps on the receiving end.

For high-priority requests, say, “Action Needed _____” in the subject line.

Describe the action you want taken right up front. If it’s at the end of the note, readers can miss it. When we’re under pressure, we tend to scroll down through a note quickly, and can miss important information.

Organize sentences into short, single-spaced paragraphs. Leave one line blank between paragraphs. This way the reader can read your message faster and more easily.

Edit and proofread each message carefully, and make the needed corrections before you send the message. (Hint: read everything out loud—slowly. When we read silently (and quickly), we tend to fill in words that really aren’t there, and miss things like “to” used instead of “for.” )

Misspelled words can slow down the reader’s understanding of your message. Use the spell-check feature for message accuracy, but don’t rely on it completely. For example, spell-checking won’t catch the use of “accept” for “except.” Here’s a dramatic example of what spell-check can miss: “Eye halve a spelling chequer. It came with my pea sea, and plainly marques four my revue...” All the words are spelled correctly, but most of them are the wrong words.

Don’t send an e-mail message if there’s anyone you don’t want to see your message.

Assume that everything you write will be read by everyone you don’t want to see it.

Energize Others With E-Mail

Employees at California State University, Bakersfield, use their e-mail system to spotlight co-workers caught doing a good deed. When someone takes the extra step to help out students, instructors or staff, the employee who noticed the good deed sends out an e-mail message to all employees: “I caught (name) doing (naming the deed).” It’s a great motivator, and bright spot in the workday.