Do This to Avoid Email Problems

Email is everywhere in public schools across America. What’s worse is that it is getting more burdensome than ever. What is a person to do? Here are five tips from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge for Business Leaders E-publication.

 1. Make Action Requests Clear - If you want things to get done, say so. Clearly. There's nothing more frustrating as a reader than getting copied on an e-mail and finding out three weeks later that someone expected you to pick up the project and run with it. Summarize action items at the end of a message so everyone can read them at one glance. This rule  is mandatory for professionals who want to land a job in communications.


2. Combine Separate Points into One Message - Sometimes the problem is the opposite—sending 500 tiny messages a day will overload someone, even if the intent is to reduce this by creating separate threads. If you are holding a dozen open conversations with one person, the slowness of typing is probably substantial overhead. Jot down all your main points on a piece of (gasp) paper, pick up the phone, and call the person to discuss those points. I guarantee you'll save a ton of time.


3. Edit Forwarded Messages - For goodness sake, if someone sends you a message, don't forward it along without editing it. Make it appropriate for the ultimate recipient and make sure it doesn't get the original sender in trouble.


4. Check E-mail at Defined Times Each Day - We hate telemarketers during dinner, so why do we tolerate e-mail when we're trying to get something useful done? Turn off your e-mail "auto-check" and only check e-mail two or three times a day, by hand. Let people know that if they need to reach you instantly, e-mail isn't the way. When it's e-mail processing time, however, shut the office door, turn off the phone, and blast through the messages..


5. Use a Paper “Response List” to Triage Messages Before You Do Any Follow-up - The solution to e-mail overload is pencil and paper? Who knew? Grab a legal pad and label it "Response list." Run through your incoming e-mails. For each, note on the paper what you have to do or whom you have to call. Resist the temptation to respond immediately. If there's important reference information in the e-mail, drag it to your “Reference folder.” Otherwise, delete it. Zip down your entire list of e-mails to generate your response list. Then, zip down your response list and actually do the follow-up.


Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. For more information on how he and his associates can help your public school please contact our office at 734-404-5909 or visit our website at www.tomborgconsulting.com