Email is one of the biggest sources of time wasters.
Email is proven to be one of the biggest time wasters at work today. It is calculated that the percentage of time that is dedicated to its management is between 20 and 30% of the working day.
It is also estimated that slightly less than 20% of the messages received are important for work, that is, in addition to being time consuming, their usefulness is quite limited.
There are even workers who use the mail to transfer their tasks to a colleague, in a totally selfish way. The partner has to spend precious time simply turning down the homework assignment, let alone getting it done.
Separate email from workflows, especially important ones.
You should substitute all email-based information exchanges, looking in each case for the most appropriate alternative. Many times using the telephone is a better option, as we transmit the information by word of mouth, we make sure that the interlocutor receives and understands it, and we can resolve any questions on the spot.
Substitution can be done progressively, starting with the least important, least critical processes. You can also propose a collaborative system, for example in the cloud, and limit the sending of files as attachments to messages. Instead you can start by sending a link to the documents and then limit yourself to a notification, a statement.
It is very important that the mail is not the tool to manage the documentation. For example: How long does it take to find something that was mailed to us? We must use a Document Manager, which is specially designed for that.
In terms of security and confidentiality, email is one of the most vulnerable IT tools. Every day we hear news about email messages lost or read by the wrong people.
Manage essential mail better.
There are applications that allow you to filter all incoming mail, letting only what can really affect your business pass through and significantly reducing useless mail. Starting them up is very simple, just configure the filters according to your needs.
As for the messages that do reach your inbox, the important thing is to identify them appropriately: which are relevant, which are urgent, tasks to be done or personal email. Once identified, all those that are not useful must be eliminated and those that are useful must be tagged and archived. For this there are also tools that allow you, for example, to assign colors to the different types of messages, facilitating their management.
Finally, avoid feeling bad about not having your email inbox empty. You have to remember that the important thing, always, is to have the job done well.
