Emails are the best and the worst means of communication. They are super easy, convenient, efficient, and fast. Importantly, they provide a permanent record of the conversation. On the down side, there are too many of them.
In the early days of email, I was left with 2000 unresolved emails in my inbox at the end of the calendar year (and I am told that this is by no means a record). I spent my Christmas holidays deleting, moving, replying, filing and otherwise resolving emails.
Lesson learnt, the hard way.
You can google any number of tips on dealing with emails, but for me the most important strategy is this. Deal with each email as it arrives or, where that is not practical, as soon as possible afterwards.
I know that many would like to see me hung, drawn and quartered for making such a suggestion. Dealing with emails as they arrive is disruptive, difficult and next to impossible. In fact, it is the worst possible strategy, apart from all the rest.
There is an analogy with telephone calls. Thirty years ago, the experts told me that phone calls were disrupting my day. I was advised to set aside a couple of hours towards the end of the working day to answer calls. I could then be productive for the rest of the day. I was not keen because I am by nature polite, but I was eventually persuaded to give it a go. I am not sure whether I lasted one week or two weeks, but I know that on the worst day I had 23 calls to answer after 3.00 pm. I left the office that evening at 8.00pm instead of 5.00pm and I had only responded to half the calls. I had to make the remaining calls the next day at the same time as new calls were being placed on the backburner. Never again.
It takes two seconds to pick up the phone to respond to a caller, but it takes a lot longer to call them back. After business hours, most of the callers have gone home so you have to try again the next day. Sometimes you have to try several times. Besides, think of your clients/customers. You are inconveniencing them. I remember once I had to ring Bob in a government department. There was a recorded message. “Bob cannot come to the phone right now because he is having his quiet time. This enables him to serve you better”. I examined this statement from all points of the compass but I could not see any way that this served me better.
On the one hand, the marketing gurus were saying to me “To stand out from the crowd, you have to provide outstanding service to your clients”. The production gurus were saying “Don’t answer their phone calls straight away”. Perhaps the gurus need a summit.
Think of it this way. If you are unable to resolve 10 emails in any given day, how will you resolve 50 in a week or 200 in a month or 2000 in a year?
Alternatively, hire a PA.
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