Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload

The latest e-mail newsletter from Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge site highlighted a past article on mastering e-mail overload that is actually quite good.

The author, US-based professional speaker, facilitator and coach Stever Robbins, writes:

"Being at or near the top of your organization, everyone wants a piece of you. So they send you e-mail. It makes you feel important. Don't you love it? Really? Then, please take some of mine! Over 100 real e-mails come in each day. At three minutes apiece, it will take five hours just to read and respond. Let's not even think about the messages that take six minutes of work to deal with. Shudder. I'm buried in e-mail and chances are, you're not far behind. For whatever reason, everyone feels compelled to keep you "in the loop."

Fortunately, being buried alive under electronic missives forced me to develop coping strategies. Let me share some of the nonobvious ones with you. Together, maybe we can start a revolution."

It has some great practical examples comparing good and bad e-mails. BTW If you want some more tips on writing effective e-mails, drop me a line and I'll send you a copy of my own tip sheet. Contact details are on my website.

PS Did you know that HBS Working Knowledge is also available via RSS and as an AvantGo channel for your PDA?