Ten ways to be a more effective sender and receiver

1. Plan and block your daily time to manage email. Three  times a day is efficient for the average worker. Do not let email run your workday. Set your synching to receive emails less frequently.
2. Follow the two-minute rule. If you’ve blocked the time to handle emails, handle ALL emails that can be done in 2 minutes or less right now. Handling emails more than once is unproductive and a big time waster. Longer responses go on your task list when you are scheduling time to get them done.
3. If the content and action is of urgent matter, consider if email is the best way to communicate. Consider phone call, in-person or texting to be absolutely certain the receiver also sees the urgency. (red exclamation marks are insignificant to many readers)
4. Set up folders to easily identify the emails you are keeping that you can refer to them later and/or process the action item. Folders need to be less than three deep.
5. Use drag and drop to put an email in an action folder or as a task on Outlook. Assign due dates of when it will be processed.
6. Set up filters and rules to maximize your time. Have folders set up to receive e-zines, meeting announcements, personal e-mails, groups or clubs you belong to.  Set aside time each week to handle reading, purging these.
7. Prioritize emails as they come in if you do not have enough time to handle all of them in your blocked time.  Sort them by sender or date to maximize your time.
8. Emails that are reference material do NOT belong in your in box.  Move them to email folders. Goal is to have no more than one page to scroll. If your in box is becoming a suppository of information it is more difficult to prioritize what needs to get done.
9. Use the subject line as the action you are requesting. Your receiver will be able to prioritize their action immediately. Never send an “empty” subject line.  Those are the first to get deleted.  Teach your receivers how to maximize their time and yours.
10. Send less to get less….. try it. It really works!  Test yourself for one week and see how much time you are using on email. Reduce it the next week by 30 minutes – to do something else you love!