How not to be a slave to e-mail: 7 tips from LinkedIn head

A huge number of people every day are faced with the same problem: e-mail, designed to optimize the organization and work processes and communication processes, often turns into an evil warden, makes you intently follow the members, if you are working on a conveyor tape. Costs you a little distracted as constantly accumulating information quickly turn a neat and clean mailbox dump rake which is the more difficult the longer you do not go back to the mail.

Today we offer you a few simple tips to manage the process of interaction with the e-mail from Jeff Weiner, chief executive officer LinkedIn. This person on duty has to keep in touch with hundreds of people every day, and he has a few tricks that allow him not to drown in this avalanche information.

My mail box is essentially became a central node in my workflow - through the mail, I regularly communicate with more than 4300 employees working in 26 cities across the world. I can not say that I've always been a fan of e-mail, or that I was not a situation where my work with the mail looked like a Sisyphean task.

Anyway, over the years I have developed some practical recommendations that allowed me to move from the concept of "mail controls me," the concept of "I control the mail."

1. Do you want to receive less mail - send less email

Such advice seems ridiculously simple, especially in the context of such a common problem, but for myself, I think this is the golden rule for successful email management.

This conclusion came to me while working in a previous company, where two employees most closely associate with me, left the company. They are very effective in communicating with people, a lot of work and, as it turned out, send a lot of mail. As long as they have worked in the company, the volume of mail that comes through e-mail, seemed completely normal, but after they left, I found that in my mail traffic decreased by about 20-30%.

All this activity in the post was not only their letters: there were my answers to them, and yet there were letters and replies from all recipients is attached to the correspondence. Often these messages are not demanded my compulsory participation in the discussion.

From the moment I set myself clear condition - do not write no apparent need. Result: less email and more order in the drawer without prejudice to the work activity. Since then, I try not to deviate from this rule.

2. Mark as unread emails pending

mark as unread letters fundamentally changed the way I work with mail. I walk fast enough for incoming mail, immediately respond to the most urgent, and remove unnecessary. Those letters, to which I need to come back later if there is time, I mark as unread. This eliminates the fear that an important letter read, and left unanswered, will be forgotten and will be buried in the bowels of the mailbox. This approach allows for a kind of ToDo-List, to which I shall return later.

Every time I try to finish with the minimum number of pending messages, and ideally they should not be at all. If this day I do not have time to go back to them, then they will start with the following working morning.

3. Set a clear timetable with mail

Over the past few years, my life goes on working days according pretty chotkomu schedule. The rise in the 5: 00-5: 30 am, an hour on email, reading news, breakfast, play with children, training, office, come home, put the children to bed, dinner with his wife, rest (usually watching TV a passing cleaning inbox during commercials and boring moments).

It was found that sticking to this schedule, I easily manage the mail, however, it is worth at least a little change order, as chaos starts in your mailbox.

In this case, you will not feel the mounting pressure of knowing that your box suddenly be left without attention. Observance of the schedule will help to keep everything under control. This helped Benjamin Franklin, and will help you.

4. itself understood

Remember the game of broken telephone? Then it was pretty funny, but now everything is considered in the concept of work and business, and it's not up games.

Words are very important, and in order to avoid ambiguity and misinterpretation of their need to be selected very carefully. The more straightforward and clear to understand your text, the less the likelihood of a second letter with the request to explain the first.

5. Think about the recipients

Often it seems that the field "To" and "Cc" perceived by many as one and the same. In fact, they can be used uniquely to make it clear from any of the recipients you expect an answer, and who sent a copy of the letter for the purpose of keeping it in the loop.

In fact, do not select the recipients, who are required to answer - it's the fastest way to make a panic and confusion in the conversation. 6 recipients instead of 1 and 5 copies of the recipient - this extra 5 possible answers, each of which may develop into a whole separate conversation.

6. acknowledges receipt

If you have specified as the recipient, and the letter is really addressed to you, do not be lazy to inform the sender that you have received a letter. Do not need a lot of words, you will just "accepted" or "received". This will be a sign that the information you received in full and proper volume and the consignor is not required to send you something else on the same subject.

If you do not confirmed receipt, the sender remains completely unaware of the letter. Maybe it got lost in the depths of your mailbox? If this is important information, the doubts and the excitement will force the sender to write you another letter with I am asking you to confirm receipt of the first letter, or ask someone else about your presence at work place. Involved extra people, sent and received extra letters.

7. Keep your emotions out of the mail

Email can be a useful tool if you use it correctly. She can become a destructive force if used incorrectly. The most common example - the use of email for the discussion of controversial and sensitive issues of conflict.

I will never cease to amaze how people use in correspondence words and phrases that will never be said in the presence of the same audience.

If you suddenly find yourself in a similar correspondence, do one simple thing - stop. To resolve the dispute or conflict can, taking the phone and call the recipient, either personally met him. Such delicate matters must be dealt with not in the text correspondence. The text does not convey the emotional component, intonation and other important things that could be decisive for a constructive solution of the problem.

(via jeff Weiner)