Consultant Marsha Egan has written a new book calling for people to shed the dead weight from their e-mail inbox and take control of their personal and professional productivity. She declared the second annual "Clean Out Your Inbox Week" for the last week of January. During this week, companies and organizations are encouraged to implement best practices for e-mail use in an effort to boost productivity.
"E-mail is an effective communication tool that we depend on more and more," says Ms. Egan. "However, we've developed a dependency to e-mail that saps productivity. Many people can't keep up with their inbox and simply declare e-mail bankruptcy. While starting fresh helps in the short term, it does little to change the ineffective behavior that got them behind in the first place."
Every year, workplace interruptions cost the US economy $588 billion. Poor e-mail habits cause workers to lose several hours every week. "There is a cure for our current e-ddiction," Ms. Egan says. "If you practice productive e-mail habits, you will not only loosen the grip e-mail has on you, but you will also reclaim hours of productive time every day."
First, set up rules for e-mail use. Let all of your clients and co-workers know how you prefer to use e-mail, and then practice what you preach. Ms. Egan also suggests that you turn off the automatic send and receive feature. It may seem hard, but learning to check your e-mail only at designated intervals will immensely decrease productivity loss due to e-mail distraction. Finally, regain control of e-mail by reconsidering its function. E-mail shouldn't trump the rest of your work; it should just be another task in your day. Lessen e-mail e-ddiction by learning how to manage, sort, prioritize, and then delete all of your e-mails."When you take the time to make a plan for your email and finally sort it all out, you will see that email doesn't have to be daunting and stressful. Once your system is in place, you might be amazed at how much time you can save or use to work on other things," says Ms. Egan. "You might be able to get to those other resolutions, after all!"
Marsha Egan is chief executive of EganEmailSolutions.com, in Reading Pa. More information can be found at her website,
