Employees spend a large part of the working day answering emails, several studies have shown in recent years. For example, the Dutch Association of Professional Organizers concluded in 2017 that 39 percent of the five hundred office employees surveyed spend one to two hours a day e-mailing. In 2019, the average employee read and answered 126 emails a day, according to The Radicati Group, a market research firm specializing in technology.
It is not surprising that employees are addicted to their email, says Thijs Launspach, psychologist and author of books like Breeding pressure: The ultimate anti-stress book (2018) and Work can also be done (2020). ‘For some tasks you have to work long, concentrated. That’s often your main job, but it’s tough and slow. Mail is a typical example of superficial work. It takes little effort, goes really fast and if you have updated your mailbox, you get a reward from your brain: dopamine, because you have completed another task.’
So it seems like you’re being productive if you’re clearing emails all day. But anyone who fills in his working day on the basis of the mailbox always responds to the wishes of others and is interrupted all the time. With these tips you will be in charge of your mailbox and your working day.
1. Check your email a few times a day
Turn off your email notifications to avoid constant distraction. People know it’s better to call when something really can’t wait, writes Richard Wolf, founder of Email Handyman in his book Speedmailing (2017). He advises to open the mailbox only a few times a day. Plan fixed moments in your agenda, for example half an hour two or three times a day, to read everything and respond to it.
2. Your mailbox is not a to-do list
The most common mistake when it comes to managing mail? People use their mailbox as a to-do list, says Björn Deusings, time management trainer and author of Ready every day at 3 p.m. (2021). ‘During training sessions, I even see that people set e-mails to ‘unread’ again, so that they know that they still have to do something with it. This way of working is very unclear.’
Rather make a real to-do list. Start the working day by determining what you want to do in the coming hours. Check your calendar to see what appointments you have. Only then do you open your email to see if any important tasks need to be added to your to-do list. Deusings also advocates an empty inbox policy: archive or delete an email as soon as it has been processed.
3. Make agreements about how quickly you have to respond
The faster, the better, often seems to be the motto. Launspach: ‘Unless you work for customer service, an email really doesn’t have to be answered within an hour.’ Both Launspach and Deusings recommend that you agree with colleagues on how soon you will send a response. Also know that not every email needs to be answered. Some you can take for granted. Deusings: ‘Responding within 24 hours is a good idea. A quick answer isn’t necessarily the best.’
4. Set an automatic reply
Why only set up an out-of-office during holidays and not always, Launspach thought. Anyone who sends the psychologist and author a message will automatically receive a response stating that he reads his email a few times a day and therefore does not respond immediately. ‘That works very well. I manage the expectations of others in a simple way. People can call when it’s in a hurry, but hardly anyone does.’
Deusings also sometimes sets up an automatic response when he is just working. ‘It gives me a lot of peace. And nobody reacts annoyed to that.’
5. Don’t waste time on folders
Do you want to spend even less time keeping track of your mailbox? Then use the search function to find an email, advise Deusings and Launspach. It works fine in most email programs. So you can stop sorting messages into folders, which actually takes time.
And further: keep your emails short and concise, that saves both you and the recipient time.