Sunday, November 20, 2011

Ping Pong Ball or Bat?


The volume of emails received on a daily basis has been described by managers as a significant cause of stress, a sense of loss of control, and a reduction in productive performance levels.

In 1964 Eric Webster wrote ‘How to Win the Business Battle’ in which he established that managers:

  •  Spend less than an hour alone each day;
  •  Get interruptions on average every 8 minutes;
  •  Spend around 18% of their time being ‘creative’;         
  • Spend more time talking than thinking;
  • Allow the business to run them, rather than them run the business – being reactive rather proactive, and
  • Have as much mastery over their environment as a ping pong ball.



These observations were made before the advent of the internet and the introduction of the blessed email – so what, if anything, has changed?  Nothing.


On a daily basis, at any point where we break for ten minutes, almost as one person everyone reaches for the mobile phone, and checks their voice mails and email messages.  Every break is the same and at the end of a stretching day where concentration has been demanding, people go off to their rooms not to relax but to ‘catch-up’ with the emails they feel they have to respond to.


In an article by Graham Allcott ‘Trainer’s tip: How to take back control of your email inbox’ http://tinyurl.com/6zpvwvw  he points out that research carried out by the Universities of Glasgow and Paisley discovered that one third of email users get stressed by the heavy volume of emails they received.

There is a common belief that one must respond to emails as though they are all urgent, but the impact of this response is reducing the quality of performance in other areas such as reflective thinking, creativity and quality of performance.
  • Only 16% of managers have had training in how to use their email system effectively and how to manage their emails.
  • Managers feel overwhelmed by the number of emails they receive every day with 84% stating that they receive unnecessary emails and dread looking at their inbox.
So what are the keys to more effective email management?  When we run email workshops we work on the following:
  •         Reduce the amount of time you spend dealing with emails
  •         Manage your inbox and reduce unwanted items
  •         Reduce the stress you feel in managing your emails
  •         Improve the quality of emails you send and receive
  •        Reduce the number of emails you receive
  •         Get better responses to the emails you send
If I had to pick one technique to help take back control and to reduce
stress levels it would be ‘manage your Inbox’.


Two simple actions:


Stop the system pinging to tell you that an email has been received. This is a constant distraction, you interrupt yourself and stopping and starting other work is very costly in time and performance quality.  So if you don’t know how to turn off the message that appears and constantly tempts you away from your work, on Outlook it works like this:

  • On the top ribbon click on ‘Tools
  • Select ‘Options’
  • Select ‘ Preferences’
  • Go to ‘E mail Options’
  • Select ‘Advanced e mail Options’
  • Under the heading: ‘When new items arrive in my Inbox’ Clear the tick box ‘Display a new mail delivery alert (default Inbox only)’
  • Apply and then sit back and concentrate on your current piece of work
You decide when to take a look at the Inbox. Then ask yourself these questions:


  1. Am I handling emails more than once?
  2. Do I have an effective email filing system? Try the following: 
  • Use an @sign at the beginning of a folder to bring it to the top of your list.
  • Set up an @Action folder for items you need to react to and prioritise it using the system.
  • Diarise when actions need to be completed.  
  • To place an email in your calendar:
a) Highlight the relevant email
b) Go to edit, then Copy
c) Go to your calendar and select the relevant date and time
d) Paste email at the bottom of your calendar entry
e) Complete the subject line and timings
  • Use flags for follow up
  • Do not use your Inbox as a storage facility
There are so many ways you can manage your emails and take back control. Don’t allow yourself to be the ping pong ball, make yourself the bat.






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