Emails can be a blessing or a bane. Most people now receive between 50 and 100 emails per day. At least 80% of them are rubbish, and enormous amounts of time can be wasted on dealing with them.

 

Here are some tips from the experts on how to handle them, so you have more time for the important things in life.

 

  1. The delete key is your friend. Use it ruthlessly.
  2. The spam key is also your friend. Use it enthusiastically!
  3. The block key is another friend. Use it judiciously!
  4. If an email starts or ends “send this to all your friends” it needs deleting! None of those threatened curses are actually going to fall upon your head, and your friends won’t thank you for forwarding hoaxes.
  5. Avoid double handling – open one email at a time and deal with it
  6. If it really can’t be dealt with immediately, assign it to a folder. A good system is to have folders for each day of the week, so you can tackle emails on the appropriate day
  7. Only check emails three or four times a day. Be disciplined!
  8. …and this is the important one…remember that email isn't a good medium for resolving conflict or setting up meeting times. Just pick up the phone instead of playing email ping pong, and meet in person to sort out differences of opinion.