{"id":106,"date":"2014-04-29T23:23:30","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T23:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/telmed\/?p=106"},"modified":"2020-01-06T16:19:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T16:19:10","slug":"email-overload-only-a-symptom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/email-overload-only-a-symptom\/","title":{"rendered":"Email Overload: Only a symptom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8212; This post was written by Arunangsu Chatterjee &#8212;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The root cause of the e-mail overload problem is us, our powerful psychological tendencies. Fear and uncertainty and\/or the need for instant gratification are powerful drivers for constantly checking one\u201fs e-mail.<\/p>\n<p><strong>#1: Lack of prioritisation\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fast response to important matters that require your decision.<\/li>\n<li>We tend to read and respond to these \u201ceasy\u201d or low priority e-mail first.<\/li>\n<li>The use of mobile devices in meetings to check non critical e-mail is not only a distraction but dilutes the quality of decision making.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>#2: False sense of productivity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Quick e-mail checking or response offers a false sense of achievement and a false sense of control. In spite of working on many e-mail many times during the workday, many people wonder by the end of a day, what they have accomplished, and question the value of their contribution.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Establish clear decision making process<\/li>\n<li>Inform your team not CC you emails unless its a final outcome\/decision<\/li>\n<li>Establish guidelines on how to send emails and when to CC or FWD without making it a policy!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em\"><strong>#3: Send Less to receive Less<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not cascade down unimportant communication<\/li>\n<li>Set a target of reducing your email outflow by 20% in the next quarter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>#4: Consider alternative channels<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use social\/collaborative software for your team (if you need ideas talk to us)<\/li>\n<li>Email handled well reduces meetings. And meetings handled well reduces emails!!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Respond quickly and clearly to those who need your attention or input \u2014 this will reduce the amount of email you receive<\/li>\n<li>When you can\u2019t reply immediately, file the emails for action later<\/li>\n<li>Take an email sabbatical on occasion to give yourself a break<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don\u2019t:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Assume that email is the real problem \u2014 a clogged inbox might mean you haven\u2019t established clear priorities<\/li>\n<li>Send one-word emails and reply to everyone on a thread \u2014 the more email you send the more you will receive<\/li>\n<li><strong>Think a company-wide policy will solve your email problems \u2014 focus on what you can control: your own behavior<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Sources:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>http:\/\/blogs.hbr.org\/hmu\/2012\/02\/stop-email-overload-1.html<\/em><br \/>\n<em>http:\/\/www.messagemind.com\/featured_research\/E-mail_Overload_Top_Three_Problems.pdf<\/em><br \/>\n<em>http:\/\/www.emailtray.com\/support\/email-management-tips\/post-effects-email-overload.html<\/em><\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.thesocialworkplace.com\/2012\/03\/is-email-overload-killing-your-productivity\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8212; This post was written by Arunangsu Chatterjee &#8212; The root cause of the e-mail overload problem is us, our powerful psychological tendencies. Fear and uncertainty and\/or the need for instant gratification are powerful drivers for constantly checking one\u201fs e-mail. #1: Lack of prioritisation\u00a0 Fast response to important matters that require your decision. We tend [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdVSkC-1I","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6155,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions\/6155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/digital-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}