Too Much E-Mail?

If e-mail traffic continues to increase at its present rate, the average corporate e-mail user will spend 41 percent of the workday managing e-mail messages in 2009.

Whoa. That's disturbing. If you are anything like me, you sometimes feel like you're drowing in e-mail? In fact, I feel like e-mail has nearly reached the point of ineffectiveness in many respects.

Here's help, courtesy of a recent article in Jugglezine. [By the way, I have to give another well-deserved plug for Jugglezine. It is one of the best, most relevant and well designed e-communications that I receive.]

Seize control
In this age of e-mail gone wild, is it possible to escape its ever-widening reach? Sure, you can turn off the sound that signals the arrival of e-mail to prevent distraction, and you can set aside several time blocks each day to address e-mail instead of checking your inbox constantly.

But those practices alone won't cut down on the sheer volume that clogs up your inbox. The solution is to change the way you send, write, and file e-mail. Here are eight high-impact techniques--all recommended by experts and road-tested by employees--to help you manage e-mail more effectively and seize control of your workday.

Send fewer e-mails. A 20 percent reduction in e-mails sent correlates to a 10 percent reduction in e-mails received, according to Song's research. Before you write a message, ask yourself three questions: Is this information timely and relevant? Does the recipient really need it to do her job today? Is this message appropriate? If the answer to each question is yes, then send the message.

Get the full article here.