Also, if the company offers email training, sign yourself up! Not many companies offer this type of training, but if it is available, take advantage of the offer.


The number of emails sent and received is estimated to be in excess of 100 per employee per day. So prepare to get a lot of emails and make sure you know how to manage large volumes of email. This can achieved using email filters and prioritising your work. It is essential that you action prioritised emails to free up your inbox (i.e., reducing the number of emails in your inbox, both read and unread). This can be done using your Outlook calendar and your Outlook task list (i.e., to do list). Make sure you update your task list with actions and the date that action needs to be completed. Make sure the due date is realistic and not wildly unrealistic. You may also want to use your calendar to set-up meetings with colleagues to track progress on work and keep projects on track.


A rather worrying statistic is that one third of all emails require an action. This means that up to two-thirds of all emails are for the attention of recipients or not work related. Hence, you will need to learn how to clear out unwanted emails from your inbox. This is where the delete button becomes your friend. Sometimes this is the


best way to deal with unwanted emails.


It is strange to think that managing email costs a company money. UK research by Waterford Technologies estimated that employees spent between 2 and 4 hours per day managing email. Over the course of a one year (based on 45 working weeks in the UK), two hours per day adds up to more than 55 working days per employee. Reading emails also takes time and with around half of all emails being difficult to understand, this means that poorly written emails can be costly. Writing well-written emails is therefore important. It is good practice to include a relevant title in the email subject. Emails should be limited to only those individuals involved in a particular project and should not be viewed as a way to impress the boss. Try to start your email by addressing an individual or group (e.g., Dear John). Try to avoid writing lengthy sentences and multiple paragraphs. A short, sharp list of key points is far easier and quicker to read and understand. When writing the body of the email try to focus on three elements - ‘who, what, when.’ Simply ask yourself, who am I writing to or to whom am I assigning an action? What am I asking someone to do? When am I expecting someone to respond? Finish your email with ‘thank you’


or an offer to catch-up or call for further clarification. This keeps the communication open and moving along.


Finally, research by Basex Incorporated estimated that email work interruption may cost the United States of America $588 billion dollars per year. This begs the question ‘What does work interruption mean?’ Well, this may be due to a variety of reasons such as frequently checking email and receiving email alerts that distract you from concentrating on one particular task. It has been estimated that around 77% of employees frequently check their emails with 6-seconds on average being taken to respond to emails. Email interruption (or in some cases intrusion) from colleagues is estimated to occur every 3 to 4 minutes. So it will happen on a regular basis during the average working day. Interruption can therefore change your focus and potentially hinder your personal performance. So what can be done to avoid email interruption? One very simple approach is to log out of your email whilst you are working on set tasks. This avoids email pop-up alerts and the need to keep checking emails. You can then log back into email between tasks. This will give you the opportunity to completely focus on the task at hand.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80