Outlook is a necessary evil! Email is the most ubiquitous form of communication at workplace. Unfortunately, it has also become one of the biggest killers of productivity. According to Forbes, an average employee spends 23% of their workday checking emails, checking their email 36 times an hour! I have been prey to the email mania as well, until one day I realized it is completely taking over my workday. I was using email as a running to-do list, basically jumping onto whatever task came to my attention next through the inbox.
I have since then taken steps to reduce the time I spend superficially looking at my inbox several times a day. At times my team gets an immediate reply from me, which means I am regressing to the old, unproductive email habits. Therefore, writing this post is also an accountability check for me.
Don’t let Outlook control you! Here are some ways you can master your interactions with your email provider, ultimately making your day more productive:
1. Limit Checking Emails
This is a hard habit to form for many people. But once we get it right, it can free up so much time to do focussed work. If you are one of the people who check their email 36 times/hour, start by reducing the number of times you check your email to 5 times per hour to once per hour (I fall here currently), to only 3 times in a day. Check your email:
- First thing in the morning
- Right after lunch break
- An hour before you end of day
If anyone needs to reach you with more urgency, they will call you.
2. Remove All Email Alerts
Email alerts of all kinds add to the constant list of distractions we have in our surroundings. Remove all notifications that alert you of the arrival of a new email. These include:
- Sound
- Desktop alert
- Envelope icon in taskbar
- Email notification on your phone, if it is setup to receive work email (like mine is)
You can remove these by going into Outlook options:
3. Take Action
When you do check your emails, take immediate action. Decide to do only one of the following four things:
- Delete the email
- File it for future reference
- Reply to the mail, only if this can be done in less than 5 minutes
- Need to do some analysis or investigation before you can reply? Add a to-do reminder using the Tasks feature and set aside time to write the email if it is going to take more than 5 minutes.
4. Do Not Respond If You Are In CC
If you are in CC, it means either your response is not required or the person on the other end does not understand the meaning of CC. In either case, archive the email. If your response is really needed, they will reach out again, this time directly!
5. Use Rules and Ignore Function
Take advantage of Rules and Ignore function. Ignore email chains that are not relevant to you by using the ‘Ignore’ feature. This moves all previous and future conversations on that thread to ‘Deleted’ folder. Note that you can only recover emails on that chain if they are still available in the Deleted folder, so use this feature with wisdom.
Also use rules to automatically send unimportant emails (that you still feel like reading someday) to archive folders. These may include:
- Daily digests from various interest groups
- RSS feeds
- Push notifications from your company informing of organizational announcements
- etc
6. Keep Emotions in Check
You want to send that angry email right away, and you want to copy the entire world on the email?
Don’t let Outlook add fuel to your emotions! Add a 2 mins delay for sending emails to give you time to think if that email is really warranted or if your boss’s boss really needs to be on copy. I have used this trick atleast a couple of times myself!
7. Lead by Example
Emulate good email practices and your team will follow your lead!
- Don’t copy the whole department
- Limit sending off business hours emails
- Use ‘To’ vs ‘CC’ wisely
What other email best practices do you use to reduce distraction and increase productivity? Please share with our readers in the comments section below!
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Happy reading and see you next time!