How soon do you expect others (or yourself) to respond to email?
Social media, email, texting, IM, and all the other tools that are relatively new forms of communication (most, within the last 10-15 years) promote this deep seated fear of missing out (FOMO), which drives us to not only check all our sources of communication frequently, but to also respond: “Studies estimate that around 70 percent of all adults in developed countries suffer from the creepy, sometimes all-consuming feeling that something’s happening and they’re not a part of it.” (See Boston Magazine article for more on FOMO).
A recent article from the Huffington Post does a nice job at pointing out many of the health concerns from feeling pressured to constantly respond to email: “workplace telepressure…. is not only a major cause of stress at work, it’s also a health hazard. The research….found that a fixation on work email can contribute to physical and mental burnout.
I believe we can all safely say that we would rather use email than typing and dictating letters or having to pick up the phone for much communication that we take for granted today, email is often cited as one of the largest time sinks at work. From this article, and my experience with hundreds of coaching clients and workshop attendees, one of the primary challenges of email is the perceived need to check and respond immediately.
- Unless you truly operate in life and death situations, or in situations where immediate email response is truly mission critical to your business (not the case for most people), then turn off your new email service’s notification pop-ups and chimes.
- Try limiting checking your email to 3-4 times a day (See great article about limiting email checking).
- Avoid the perils of senseless (or CYA) Cc’ing or the infuriating Reply All.
- Finally, and possibly the most important, is to set clear boundaries with your direct reports, peers, and even your boss and customers, around how often and with what frequency you will respond, and help those you email with regularly, become more clear about the urgency and time sensitive nature of their needed responses. Not all emails require an immediate response!!!!
Happy emailing.
Inciting Leaders 
Does anybody really “like” email? Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have changed the way people communicate to each other and for an entire generation an email address is only used to register on a social media site so the can “like” information they feel is important. Corporations can use this same approach to improve communications and reduce email with collaboration software like Salesforce.com’s Chatter, Yammer or Jive. Moving to collaborative communications will increase productivity, improve moral and help recruit and retain employees. They best way to reduce email is to stop using email!