How to Stop the Email Madness and Save a Boatload of Money!

There are literally billions of emails sent each day and many of them are simply not needed and result in “make work” projects. This is a huge productivity drain on your business!

According to a Washington Post article the average worker spends 4.1 hours per day doing email while this Forbes article suggests 2.5 hours a day per person for email!

If you have 50 staff working for you at an average cost of $50/hr and they are each wasting 2.5 hours a day on email, you are losing $6,250 dollars a day. This is $31,250 a week or $1,625,000 a year just because you don’t have better systems in place for business email!

So, what can you do about it?

Here are 12 tips that you can implement in your business to stop the email madness and reduce the flow of money down the drain!

12 Ways For Your Business To Efficiently Manage Email

1. Don’t send an email if you can handle the issue with a simple face to face conversation, phone call, etc.
2. For simple issues that require immediate response, an instant message can be a better solution than an email. It is quicker and doesn’t lend itself to long drawn out prose! However, a voice conversation is always much better.
3. Don’t send an email for a complicated topic that needs to be thought out and discussed by multiple people. Schedule a meeting for this.
4. Only check your email a few times a day. Do not operate your business from your inbox!
5. Create email free time zones – times of day where you do not check your email . . . at all!
6. Remove all newsletter and subscription emails from your main email address. Either create a new email address to handle these distractive emails or build rules to automatically direct them into a folder for your review outside of normal work hours.
7. Create project or subject archive folders. Once an email has been dealt with, file it into the appropriate project or subject folder.
8. ALWAYS use a descriptive but short subject line. Preferably include a project or subject title. Indicate whether the email is for info or action purposes. Juliet Funt from Whitespace uses the following subject line codes at the start of the subject line in her emails:
   1. NYR- Need your response
   2. NYRT- Need your response today
   3. NYRQ- Need your response quick
   4. NYR-NBD- Need your response next business day
9. Only address the email to people that have an action. Other people requiring the email for information should be in the cc: line and these should be kept to a minimum.
10. Do not touch an email more than once. Deal with it and then delete it or file it.
11. D3 rule from Foundr magazine. Do one of these three things with each email in your inbox:
    1. Delete it – if no action is required and it is not needed for future reference
    2. Deal with it – take action as required
    3. Defer it – file it into a subject or project folder or place a item in your calendar for a future action that may be required
12. Create a OPP (Other People’s Priorities) folder. File all emails into this folder if they are a priority for someone else and not for you. Only come back to this folder when you have spare time for it.

Take Action

Stop allowing inefficient communication from draining the profits from your business!

Set aside some time this week to create an email time reduction plan by implementing some of the ideas suggested above. Even if you can recover 1 hour per day per employee this can add up to substantial savings and allow more productive time for your business!

Finally, take a look at these posts for more information:

• Time is Valuable – Stop Wasting It
• Do You Suffer From Continuous Partial Attention Syndrome
• The Cost of No Change
• 5 Remarkable Principles That Guarantee Business Breakthrough
• Is Your Business Throwing Away Money

“Forget outside competition when your own worst enemy is the way you communicate with one another internally!” Jack Welch

What email productivity tips do you have that may provide value to other readers? Leave your comments below!

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