Tips for email management abound. Yet we still spend staggering amounts of time on our inbox. Not only because we receive tons of email but also because we can't help ourselves from constantly checking it. Curious about how some people manage to put themselves on an email diet, I surveyed the executives I coach and asked them to respond only if they considered themselves successful at slimming down their email or spending less time managing it.Even the most disciplined email users mentioned that they fell off the wagon from time to time and spent large amounts of time processing email, but, like
consistent dieters, they had succeeded in keeping off email weight over the long term. The executives who shared successful strategies reported being less stressed, more productive, and more satisfied with their work time because they'd tackled key priorities. They also had better relationships with co-workers because they'd freed up time for conversations rather than communicating mostly via their keyboards and screens.How did they achieve such success? By following the ABCs of email dieting:
A is for Agility
- Write emails that are no longer than five sentences. Explain this in the signature line. Communicate by other means if it's a longer message.
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