Today's HR Daily Advisor Tip: May 19, 2009

10 Tips for Managing Out-of-Control E-Mail

Topic: HR Policies and Procedures

In her recent book, E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide, Chan offers the following suggestions:

1. Turn off your computer's "you've got mail" signal. This is critical, says Chan. You must wean yourself from the temptation to open every e-mail the instant it arrives.

2. Check e-mail only at certain times. Even if you're expecting an urgent message, try to check while you are between other activities, not in the middle of them. And when you scan your message list to see whether that urgent e-mail has finally arrived, avoid the temptation to open other new messages.

3. Cluster your responses. Instead of responding to every message as you read it, Chan says, if one person has sent several messages, read them all, combine your responses into one succinct message. Write a new subject line. You'll save time—and so will the recipient.

4. Don't check e-mail while talking on the phone. Checking e-mail while you're on hold is one thing; reading and responding to e-mail while you're in the middle of a conversation is another. Both activities will suffer.

5. Never check e-mail in the middle of a meeting. It's distracting and rude.

6. If you really need to concentrate, remove yourself from temptation. Get away from your computer, says Chan. Take your work into a conference room or library, or go to a café. Use your laptop—but don't connect it to the Internet. (And leave your BlackBerry® behind.)

7. Focus on the e-mail you are writing. When you're crafting an important e-mail, ignore new messages that appear in your message list. You can look at them when you have finished.

8. Don't check e-mail just because you are bored. Checking e-mail should be a purposeful activity. If a break is what you need, take a break. Get up from your desk. Get some coffee. Take a walk.

9. Use the phone for discussions. E-mail is great for passing on information and asking questions, but it's usually more productive to discuss something over the phone than in a steady stream of e-mails.

10. And here's one of our tips for helping to control e-mail—just go to HR.BLR.com. It's a trusted source that answers all those questions you're writing all those e-mails about.