Your business email is a very useful tool, if used properly. Unfortunately, there are plenty of ways that your email can also serve as a major time sink. For this week’s tip, we wanted to explore a few ways to help keep email useful, rather than distracting and stressful.

Use Alternative Means of Communication

Sure, you have email… but that doesn’t mean that it is the only communication tool you should be using throughout the day. There are plenty of situations that the average worker will encounter that aren’t well-suited for email but are perfect for the other solutions that businesses commonly use today - such as instant messaging tools. Asking a coworker, a quick question, for instance, is much more likely to receive a timely response via an IM or a quick phone call than an email. Other situations may even call for (gasp) a face-to-face conversation.

Regardless, the more cluttered and filled your email inbox is, the less efficiently you will be able to use it. One of the best ways to reduce this clutter is to encourage the use of these other methods when appropriate.

Set Standard Response Times

On the topic of multiple means of communication, ask yourself - how long do senders in your company give the recipient of a message to respond? Different communication methods will each demand an etiquette that is internal to your company, so it only makes sense for you to take the initiative to establish this etiquette yourself and include it in your documented company policies.

Furthermore, many employees can become so accustomed to reactively check their email as it comes in, they may check it after hours and forget about an important message by the next morning. Alternatively, they might start to bother your other employees with work after hours. Neither situation would probably end well, but you can help avoid them by encouraging employees to schedule these after-hours emails to be delivered at the beginning of the workday.

Lead by Example with Your Formatting

Now (ignoring the fact that the two examples that follow are utter gibberish) which of these two options appear easier to read?

A
Hello, Potential Client,

Buzz metrics rockstar low hanging fruit alpha A/B testing monetization buyer crowdsource angel investor hackathon leverage supply chain vesting period. Virality equity channels MVP mass market creative success. Founders hypotheses advisor. Stock mass market gen-z seed round client user experience customer research & development equity. Success agile development deployment market business plan iPad partnership. Technology buzz buyer. Churn rate sales marketing. Channels startup partnership analytics accelerator learning curve infrastructure burn rate. Startup twitter growth hacking branding pivot. Business-to-business angel investor partner network marketing seed round deployment. Scrum project iPhone direct mailing series A financing business model canvas technology niche market seed round business-to-consumer deployment infrastructure hackathon buyer prototype. Disruptive user experience return on investment angel investor android.

Thank you!

Or B:
Hello, Potential Client,

Buzz metrics rockstar low hanging fruit alpha A/B testing monetization buyer crowdsource angel investor hackathon leverage supply chain vesting period. 

Virality equity channels MVP mass market creative success. Founders hypotheses advisor. 

• Stock mass market gen-z seed round client user experience customer research & development equity.
• Success agile development deployment market business plan iPad partnership. Technology buzz buyer. 
• Churn rate sales marketing. Channels startup partnership analytics accelerator learning curve infrastructure burn rate.

Startup twitter growth hacking branding pivot. Business-to-business angel investor partner network marketing seed round deployment. 

Scrum project iPhone direct mailing series A financing business model canvas technology niche market seed round business-to-consumer deployment infrastructure hackathon buyer prototype. 

Disruptive user experience return on investment angel investor android.

Thank you!

These two examples contained identical text - but Option B appeared easier to read, didn’t it? Formatting emails more intelligently can help you get your message across more quickly, and more effectively. Using different paragraphs to break up your content, experimenting with the formatting, and generally making it easier to read will help motivate your recipient to absorb the message you’re trying to communicate.

Set Up a System to Follow

Finally, a solid means of speeding up your use of email is to use the built-in features and functions that most platforms today have to allow improved functionality. There are a bunch of assorted means for you to have your incoming messages automatically sorted into different folders and tags, assisting you with the organization of your email and helping you to prioritize how you attend to them.

Data Net is here to help you with your business’ communications, and your other IT needs. Give us a call at (760) 466-1200 to learn more about what we can do and subscribe to our blog for updates!