The influx of junk/spam/miscellany/humour and personal email can amount to a constant barrage of emails which stay tantalisingly in reach to sorted/deleted or actioned in the work space of 100% of office based workers the world over. This article looks at the problem in detail, suggesting ways to flatten this unhelpful mountain of information and providing hints of a possible better way in the near future. Come on... lets face it at the beginning of the working day whats the first thing you do, after that run for coffee and anguished sigh ? Of course? Yep... same here ! Most mornings we start by dealing with that oh-so-familiar scourge of the e-connected, the humble email client. The interesting thing is that we are perfectly willing to screen calls, staff secretaries and plan our diaries meticulously but email tends to get under the wire every time letting you know about the next social, someones missing pet or a car for sale in fact anything but the issue in hand, that of actually doing the work you are paid to do. The problem as I see it is that email has now fallen foul of that old chestnut ; that which supported memo writing as the accepted way of doing business prior it email for centuries Its the way its done round here. Why change it when it is not broken Here are a few of the techniques for conventional email I have found can make you more effective in your use of the tool and beg the question as to whether email is still the right tool for corporate communication or if our requirements have begun to outgrow it. Organisation is everything: Make use of local folders for email and make a point of saving anything remotely on-task in a designated folder. Ensure that a backup strategy is in place to archive this folders collection in the event of accidental corruption or deletion of the data. Do not feel obliged to read everything straight away: Set up a Junk mail folder and move anything you feel falls into this category straight to this folder Make sure that the people you do business with do not expect you to deal with email as a matter of urgency. If you do not want to be disturbed let them know. Lets now look at the outline of a tool of the near future with would help us alleviate this problem. I feel it would be one that understands your current priorities and acts as an agent on your behalf limiting the range of mails you actually need to see when your time is short to those about your tasks in hand while managing the mail your receive so as to reduce the chances of you overlooking something of importance. In summary, I personally think that email has started to become cumbersome for the purpose it is used for in todays business world and should and will be soon replaced by tools which are more fit for purpose than it in todays commercial environment. I would welcome any comments from you as to what you consider the future of electronic based communication should look like. |
