How not to be an email slave: 7 tips from the head of LinkedIn

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A huge number of people face the same problem every day: email, designed to streamline and organize work and communication processes, often turns into a vicious overseer, forcing you to keep an eye on incoming people, as if you were working on a conveyor belt. As soon as you get distracted a little, the ever-accumulating information quickly turns a neat and clean mailbox into a dump, which will become more difficult to clean up the longer you do not return to the mail.

Today we bring you some simple tips for managing your email interactions from Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. This man on duty is forced to keep in touch with hundreds of people every day, and he has several tricks that allow him not to drown in this avalanche of information.

My mailbox has essentially become the central hub of my workflow - I regularly communicate with over 4,300 employees in 26 cities around the world through mail. This is not to say that I have always been a fan of email, or that I have not had situations where my work with mail resembled Sisyphean work.

Anyway, over the years I have developed several practical guidelines that allowed me to move from the concept of "mail controls me" to the concept of "I control the mail".

1. Want to receive less mail - send less mail

This advice seems ridiculously simple, especially in the context of such a common problem, but for myself, I consider it the golden rule for successful email management.

This conclusion came to me during my work at a previous company, where two of the people most closely associated with me left the company. They communicated very effectively with people, worked hard and, as it turned out, sent a lot of mail. While they were working for the company, the volume of correspondence coming through e-mail seemed completely normal, however, after they left, I found that the traffic in my mail decreased by about 20-30%.

All this activity in the mail was not only their letters: there were my answers to them, but also there were letters and answers from all addressees attached to the correspondence. Often these messages did not require my obligatory participation in the discussion.

From that moment on, I set myself a clear condition - not to write unnecessarily. The result: less mail and more inbox order without compromising work activities. Since then, I have tried not to deviate from this rule.

2. Mark pending emails as unread

Marking an email as unread has fundamentally changed the way I work with mail. It is enough for me to quickly go through the incoming letters, immediately answer the most urgent ones, and delete unnecessary ones. The same letters that I need to return to later, if there is time, I mark as unread. This eliminates the fear that an important letter, read and left unanswered, will be forgotten and buried in the bowels of the mailbox. The same approach allows us to implement a kind of ToDo list, which I will have to return to later.

I try to finish every working day with a minimum number of such pending letters, and ideally they should not be at all. If on this day I do not have time to return to them, then I will start with them the next working morning.

3. Establish a clear mailing schedule

Over the past few years, my life on workdays has been going according to a fairly clear schedule. Wake up at 5: 00-5: 30 in the morning, one hour to the post office, reading the news, breakfast, playing with the children, training, office, coming home, putting the children to bed, dinner with his wife, rest (usually this is watching TV with the accompanying cleaning of the inbox folder during ads and boring moments).

It turned out that by adhering to such a schedule, I can easily manage the mail, however, as soon as the schedule is changed a little, chaos begins in the mailbox.

In this case, you will not feel the increasing pressure from the realization that your box will suddenly be left unattended. Keeping a schedule on track will help keep things under control. It helped Benjamin Franklin, it helps you too.

4. Express yourself more clearly

Remember the broken phone game? It was quite funny then, but now everything is considered in the concept of work and business, and there is no time for games.

Words are very important and must be chosen carefully to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding. The more unambiguous and clear to understand your text, the less likely you will receive a second letter asking to clarify the first.

5. Think about the recipients

It often seems that the To and Cc fields are perceived by many to be the same. In fact, with their help, you can unambiguously make it clear from which of the recipients you expect a response, and to whom a copy of the letter was sent in order to keep him informed.

In fact, not highlighting the recipients from whom a response is required is the fastest way to create panic and confusion in the correspondence. 6 recipients instead of 1 recipient and 5 copies are 5 extra possible responses, each of which can grow into a whole separate chain of letters.

6. Confirm receipt

If you are indicated as the recipient, and the letter is really addressed to you, then do not be lazy to inform the sender that you received the letter. You don't need a lot of words, a simple "received" or "received" will be enough. This will become a sign that the information you have received in full and due volume and that the sender is no longer required to send you something else on the same topic.

If you have not confirmed receipt, the sender remains completely unaware of the letter. Perhaps it got lost in the depths of your box? If this is important information, then doubt and anxiety will force the sender to write you another letter, asking you to confirm the receipt of the first letter, or to ask someone else about your presence at the workplace. Extra people are involved, extra letters are sent and received.

7. Keep emotions out of the mail

Email can be a useful tool if used correctly. It can also become a destructive force if used incorrectly. The most common example is the use of mail to discuss controversial, conflicting and sensitive issues.

It never ceases to amaze me how people use words and expressions in correspondence that they would never say in front of the same audience.

If suddenly you find yourself in such correspondence, then do one simple thing - stop. You can resolve a dispute or conflict by picking up the phone and calling the addressee, or by personally meeting with him. Such delicate things should not be dealt with in textual correspondence. The text does not convey the emotional component, intonation and other important things that can be decisive for a constructive solution to the issue.

(via Jeff Weiner)