Keeping Email Chaos at Bay – 1

Posted on January 7th, 2010, by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.

Goodness, gracious–email can cause chaos and can help us resolve some chaos. I hear this in my workshops and in conversations and I live with it myself. Here are a few ideas related to email and Keys to Keeping Your Email Chaos at Bay.

Open your email a specified number of times each day (vs. having it on constantly). Even if you open it once an hour, that’s an improvement over having it on 100% of the time.
Only open if you have time to process/deal with the email that is there.
Set up and use all the “rules” you possibly can to sift & sort your email. If you don’t know how to do this with your program (Outlook, Eudora, or some other), then ask someone who does. Each little tip you can use makes a difference.
Use a clear, pertinent, succinct subject line (and this may be the whole message). For example: “Meeting Tuesday afternoon is canceled.” If this is indeed the entire message, then put EOM which means End of Message to let the reader know they don’t even have to open the email.
Use and teach others to use NNTR (No Need to Respond) or NRN (No Response Necessary).