Productive Email Strategies: Part 1 – Effective Communication

Most business professionals I know acknowledge that email is the biggest obstacle to overcome in their daily routine. A necessary and oft times indispensable tool; it can also be a huge detour that easily leads you off the path in your quest for productivity.

In thinking about how to minimize this stumbling block, (we really can’t remove it, but we can “manage” it) I realized that much of our email volume is made up of repeat requests, follow-up emails and “reply-all” updates. I came up with a few simple strategies that help me (when I actually use them) and might help you too.

Email communication strategies:

• Be concise.
• Communicate “action steps” first, not last.
• Number your questions if you must have more than one.
• Be clear about what you want.
• Include deadlines.
• Use “FYI” for emails that have no actionable information.
• Don’t send “Thanks!” emails.
• If you can’t respond or carry out the request fully now, acknowledge and tell them when you can do it.
• Use “reply all” judiciously.

You may not always be able to achieve the elusive “inbox 0,” but anything you can do to reduce unnecessary email will save you time and inbox clutter.

I realize that for many, the issue of inbox overwhelm is also about “one way communications.” Newsletters, sales and marketing, jokes, videos to watch, updates on varied interests and projects can make up a large portion of email piling up in your email daily. We’ll discuss some strategies for that in Part 2 – “One-Way Communication”…