If there is one thing I understand, it is this... we are all very busy.   Recently a client of mine told me that they receive over 300 e-mail messages a day in their mail box.  So many e-mail messages come in that they spend nearly a quarter of the day (and I mean after 5PM as well) watching their e-mail box to keep it clean.  Unfortunately, most of the mail this person receives in from internal discussions because the executive staff is spread out over the country and a lot of ad-hoc meetings take place via e-mail.

Here are some suggestions I had for the client that I hope will work for you...

1) If you are able to - put a stop to Ad-hoc meetings via e-mail.  An appropriate response could be - "This sounds great Susan, lets schedule a meeting next week to go over it with the team..."

2) Turn on your SPAM filter or ask the company to turn on a SPAM filter.  I once worked for a company that received on average over 5,000 spam e-mails a day.  The staff of 30 people never knew about this spam because it never made it to them.  And the occasional SPAM that did make it to them went into their SPAM folder on their local computer.  That is almost 200 SPAM e-mails a day for each and every employee.  IF you use the SPAM tools you already have you can reduce that number significantly.

3) Set up an additional email Box on your computer or on a FREE service like Yahoo, Google, etc where all of your OPT-IN e-mail is sent.  That way you can keep only important company e-mail flowing to your current box.

4) If someone sends you e-mail, you can respond to them with one of the following

      a) Please keep sending this sort of critical information

      b) Send this to a responsible person on my team (and that person is.....)

      c) Please do not send me this kind of information anymore.

5) Develop a company policy that states that e-mail is for company use and not for "FORWARDS", "JOKES," etc...

After a couple of weeks your e-mail load should be under better control.

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Philip Foster holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis on Coaching and Mentoring. He works with individuals to help them find and reach their full potential in life.

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