Tweet

Change Your Mindset To Manage the E-Mail Overload

Guest post by: Gihan Perera

Article Overview: Despite the fact that e-mail is one of the oldest Internet technologies (it’s been around since the 1970s), many people still struggle with managing it effectively. The most important first step to managing your e-mail is to change your mindset. Rather than seeing it as a necessary evil that’s inevitably going to harm your productivity each day, treat e-mail as a powerful communication tool that can improve your productivity.

Change Your Mindset To Manage the E-Mail Overload

For many people, e-mail is the bane of their professional life. Despite the fact that it's one of the oldest Internet technologies (it's been around since the 1970s), many people still struggle with managing it effectively. It's not unusual to see e-mail in-boxes with hundreds - and sometimes even thousands - of messages, which causes the owner stress, frustration and hours of lost productivity each week. Some people simply give up and declare "e-mail bankruptcy", deleting everything and starting again, assuming that if something was important, the sender will follow up anyway. However, this is only a short-term solution, and before long the empty in-box fills up again.

The most important first step to managing your e-mail is to change your mindset. Rather than seeing it as a necessary evil that's inevitably going to harm your productivity each day, treat e-mail as a powerful communication tool that can improve your productivity.

Of course, that's easier said than done. However, I firmly believe that the problem is not with e-mail itself; it's with the kind of e-mail we receive, the way we perceive e-mail, and the way we manage e-mail:

• We receive some e-mail that's unnecessary, unwanted, inappropriate, unproductive and unimportant - and that gets in the way of the worthwhile e-mail.
• We often perceive e-mail as being more urgent than it is, and that means we don't get our important work done.
• We don't have techniques to manage it, so we feel stressed and overwhelmed by it.

If those problems sound familiar to you, start by adopting these three key principles, which will help you change your attitude towards these problems:

1. Don't let your in-box set your priorities. Your in-box represents other people's priorities, not yours. So never use it to decide how you'll plan your day. Be clear about your priorities first, and don't vary from them unless absolutely necessary.

2. Use e-mail for important, not urgent, issues. E-mail is a deferred communication tool, which means you shouldn't expect others to read your e-mail immediately, and they shouldn't expect it of you. Use it for important issues, but use other communication tools for urgent issues.

3. Treat e-mail as just one of many communication channels. There's no law that says you have to do everything by e-mail, and there's no law that says a conversation that starts by e-mail has to continue that way. Be flexible and willing to switch to other communication channels as needed.

Adopting these principles means changing your attitude towards e-mail, and I hope that this immediately helps you see e-mail in a more positive light.

Related Articles
  The Truth About Information Overload
  Web Information Overload - Consider RSS
  Internet Marketing Requires The Right Mindset
  Legal Marketing: Email marketing and trends in open rates
  Article # 35 Managing Your Time When You Have None
  Eliminate Information Overload: Keep it Simple
  Keyword Overload can Kill a Web Page
  Do I Need to Have a Millionaire Mindset to Be Successful? Secret Revealed
  The Key To Your Success Is In Your Mind
  The Art & Power Of Making More Wealth From Within
  Noise Reduction part 1
  From Chaos To Control
  Managing Resistance
  E is for Email Marketing
  Dealing with Email Overload – Tips and Best Practices
  7 Keys to Managing Change
  SME's - the impact of government mindset on entrepreneurship
  How to Manage Your Email & Inbox – Lessons 31-35
  Creating a Successful Business Mindset
  The Millionaire Mindset Part 3 of 4

Article Tags: email, information overload, productivity



Related Forum Posts
Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - Hi GT It is only fairly recently that people in South Africa have been able to get full use of Paypal as we were only able at one time to make payments but not receive them. Fortunately this has now changed. I have received money through Global X Change for one of the affiliate programs that I promote and have found them pretty good as the money is normally transferred directly into my bank account within 2-3 days and I have not had any problems with them. MichelleJ
Re: What exactly do you need to start a business - Hi phummy, I’m not sure what options you have in Nigeria or maybe you already know what you want to do but like any business, it’s all about supply and demand. Is there an interest in the product or service you are selling? Have you researched the market, perhaps approach other competitors to see what they have to offer, do you have any experience in the field. When you have researched your niche and decided what you want to do then it’s time for your business plan. Set your budget (very important) and stick to it, will you be working from home or an office and what equipment/stationary will you need. Manage your time effectively to concentrate on things that will push your business forward. Set realistic goal’s and stick to your plan. Coming to places like this forum are a godsend as you can save yourself time and grief by coming here and asking questions, good luck to you, Mal.
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris
Focus Brings Long Term Results - Over the past 2 years of venturing out and running my own business and not working full-time in a job I have tried numerous business opportunities. I have tried businesses in providing student accommodation, share trading and options, renting and selling paddles to dragon boat clubs and selling toilet odour eliminator products online. This was opportunistic thinking and diminished my efforts as I got started by adding more work rather than focusing on one business. It was all very tempting to try and run them at the same time to see which one would take off. Unfortunately there was no focus and when times got tough I jumped across to work on the business that interested me more. Opportunistic Thinking Is Bad If you are like me and see that everything is possible and always keeping an open mind about business ideas, then you will find it irresistible to try new ideas. Trust me I’ve learnt the hard way. So how have I changed this? I’m a huge fan of Yaro Starak’s blog - entrepreneurs-journey.com and one day he wrote a post about his coach Rich Schefren who was launching a new coaching program. As usual most internet marketers have a system to launch their new products and give away a lot of free quality information that can be applied straight away. They do this so they can build rapport with you and show that their information is useful before they start their sales pitch on you. As I knew the information was free and they just wanted my email address, I downloaded Rich’s eBook, the “Internet Manifesto“. If you haven’t read it, I would recommend you get a copy of it immediately. The Change in Mindset After reading the “Internet Manifesto”, I had a profound moment that I would change the way I operate my business. My mindset went from “thinking opportunistic” to “thinking strategically” meaning if I wanted to build a long term business I would have to set up the right systems and hire staff to leverage my time. I realised that I couldn’t do everything myself. Rich’s famous flowchart accurately shows how most Solo Enterpreneurs run their Internet Businesseses today. (I’m one of them and have taken action to outsource a lot of my work since then) Rich Schefren's Internet Manifesto Since then I have taken action to sell my businesses that are not part of my goals and made a mental decision to not start new business opportunities. Focus Is Key Since I was compelled to find out more, I downloaded the rest of Rich’s series of books which are listed below: 1. Internet Manifesto 2. The Missing Chapter 3. The Final Chapter 4. Attention Age Doctrine Part 2 5. Maven Matrix Manifesto 6. The Entrepreneurial Emergency Through this series I learned that I needed to focus on one task at a time, not five at a time (today’s generation calls it multi-tasking). Making that shift helped me improve time efficiency and also get tasks completed that generated more money. Additionally, you need to use your strengths to focus on a task and learn to outsource the rest that you are not good at. This is the key to long-term success in any business. Tyrone Shum Focus Strategist


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Here's a great ROI

Do You Pretend To Listen To People?

How do you keep it together on a daily basis?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.