How to handle email volume

Jim Estill, a vivid blogger and business mentor of mine has these 10 tips on handling email volume.

1 - Deal with it once. If I can deal with an email start to finish in less than a couple of minutes, I just do it. Leaving it to read again then respond just takes more time.

2 - Train people you interact with on the email ettiquette you want. EG - I only want the person who takes the action in the to line - everyone else in the cc list. I also coach on unneccesary email - let people know when I do not need to be included.

3 - I generally leave my highest energy and creative times to NOT do email. The better I know when these are - the more effective I can be.

4 - Get off lists.

5 - I have a great folder system and many of the lists that I am on get automatically filtered to these folders. For example, all the email newsletters and publications go to folders when I can read at my leasure.

6 - Of course I love my Blackberry. It greatly reduces my time required to do email and allows me to use any idle minutes I might happen to have.

7 - Delete, delete, delete. You can always find it if you need it. I also keep slush files. Simply move emails to a July08 folder. Then find them there.

8 - Avoid email clutter in what you send. EG - use descriptive Subjects. Sending email creates more email. Don't cc everyone. No reply to all.

9 - If a message goes back and forth more than 4 or 5 times - just pick up the phone.

10 - Just do it. I find my stress level is lower if my email is clear. I end every day with no messages in my in box. (I might have a few in my to do subfolder).

Here is the link to the blog: http://www.jimestill.com/2008/07/managing-email-volume-great-american.html