Do you need an email intervention?

2 Minute ReacDo you spend more time on email than any other activity in your workday? When you are in meetings do you check your phone multiple times – not fully engaged in the discussion?  Is email the first thing you check when you get up in the morning and the last thing you check before you go to bed?You may be ready to blame all the other people in your organization for this phenomenon. However, we need to first look at own practices and evaluate how we are contributing to the email overload problem.Changing the number of emails you receive and subsequently have to read is directly related to the number of emails YOU send. Do you know what your number is? That is, how many emails you send a day. Check your sent mailbox to find out. If it is more than you imagined, you need to start considering a few things before you hit “SEND.”

• Is the message I want to send best delivered as an email or should I pick up the phone and call the recipient?
• Am I including people on the email that do not need to be included?
• Does anyone REALLY need this information? Or can I wait for the next scheduled meeting to share it?
• Did I hit “reply all” when my message is really on intended for the sender?
• Is emailing a “high pay-off” activity? Should I be spending more than 20% of my time doing this?
• Could my company initiate a “No Email Friday” policy to encourage people to spend their time doing more productive/proactive work?

After this email intervention, you may go through a certain amount of email withdrawal. One way to fill the void...identify which activities have the highest payoff toward meeting your goals and outcomes – and do those activities instead!What do your posts, emails, and texts say about you professionally? Find out here.