10 Tricks To Get Control Of Your Email.

I say email is dying! New generations are moving towards texting to communicate — I welcome that improvement! But email is still around for the short term — and if you're like me — you get hundreds of emails a day. And if you're like a lot of my clients, it's hard to navigate all that email without a few tricks. So here they are:

1. Eliminate your email alert setting in Outlook or MacMail. If you find yourself watching the email alert bar move up and down or the small circle alerting you to the number of unread emails - you're letting email control YOUR life.

2. Read certain times of the day. Set up times during the day to read your email — say 9 AM, Noon, and 4 PM. Otherwise, do real work. If it's an emergency, let everyone know to call, stop by or text message you with an 'URGENT' or 'IMPORTANT' header.

3. Take action, delete or file. So many people who jump into email and need to jump out quickly tend not to act on emails. They scan and then move on — they know they need to do something with the email, but they don't have the time. So they whip through their list and then rush off to a meeting. If you commit to an email, read it and then act, delete or file. It's that easy.

4. Don't start chain emails, pick up the phone. Even better, instead of writing a long and boring response email (that no one will really read), pick up the phone and take care of the issue immediately.

5. If it isn't filed, trash it. I know it's hard, but kill email whenever you can.

6. Don't print emails — only if you REALLY have too. If you print, you have now brought the electronic into the real world. And you have to now find a place for all those emails. Good luck!

7. Minimal file folders — no parent/child lists. I love it when people have HUGE lists of file folders and sub-folders. Don't you know about search? I use search every day and it works perfectly.

8. Clean up daily. If you decide to file the email, do it immediately and don't let them build up. At the end of every year, I bunch up all of my filed emails and archive them. Guess what? I only access the archive a few times a year. Go figure.

9. Email is a POOR communication vehicle. You have to realize email causes a lot of problems — missed messages, hurt feelings, arguments, unnecessary wasted time, etc. It's NOT 2-way communication. Pick up the phone or stop by the person's office. And if it's really important, set up a (short) meeting.

10. Don't worry. So many people obsess about email — they love to complain about it. A number of years ago, I took an approved sabbatical from work for 30 days (we were allowed those back then). I set up an email rule to let everyone know not to email me (I wouldn't be reading them) and that I would be back in 30 days. Guess what? I still received 3750 emails. Under the advice of my coach, I:

• Took the emails and filed them in their own file folder named 'Sabbatical'.
• I only read emails from my boss to me.
• I only accessed that file five times over the next three months.

What Would Happen If You Disconnected From Email?

Take a trip with me. You have your smartphone and you unlink your email settings from your email server, making it impossible to receive email on your smartphone. You could probably still access your email via the browser on your smartphone — but that is so time-consuming, you'd rather not.

Your last email to your team, clients, and colleagues is to let them know you will be checking email at regular intervals during the day while you are at the office and if there is an actual emergency, to call you on your smartphone. But for all intents and purposes, you are not reading or responding to emails when you're not in the office.

What would happen?

1. You might get a few more phone calls.

But that's not a terrible thing. Instead of getting into a viscious email communication chain on some obscure topic, you can probably handle it with a quick 3-5 minute call. And you can group your callbacks and keep them short.

2. You get more organized and focused when you did access your email at the office.*

Initially, it would build up. But as team members, clients, and colleagues would notice, email would cease to be a primary communication vehicle for you. Since you only had a limited amount of time to read your email, you would only focus on those emails that were from key members of your team or were directly sent to you. Anything else most likely can fall by the wayside. *I totally understand if you spend 90-100% of your time away from the office — your smartphone is critical. But what would happen if you just checked emails when you opened your laptop? Or if you checked your smartphone at discreet times during the day and not ALL the time?

3. You would get slower replying to email.

No more quick responses — email is not texting or twitter. In fact, I would ask you not to use those tools either. The whole idea is to limit interruptions to your day to be able to focus on the important and strategic things happening in your life. If it's tactical- or emergency-based use the phone.

4. You would get faster communicating with your staff, clients, and colleagues.

No more long-winded emails — no death-defying email chains that go on forever. Just small phone interruptions (or grouping of phone calls) to connect and engage, manage, or inform. You can get a reputation of fast phone calls, keep them to 1-2 minutes or less and focus on the task at hand and make decisions or take action. Email prolongs debate — how many times have you been put through the email wringer with various vicious email cycles?

A number of clients of mine have done this and they've found a significant lightening of their load AND they are getting more things done. Why?

Email is not a very good communication vehicle.

It takes a long time to compose an email, there are many instances when you do give direction and someone doesn't see it, or the email message is misconstrued in a way where you come of yelling or reprimanding. Bottom line - email is not 'two-way' communication — it's a broadcast medium. In fact, it's worse, when you run into CC: and BCC: transmissions of the same email.

These reactive responses deliver the wrong message — not promoting or pushing projects and people forward — they actually get into email ruts. Trust me — I've been there.

Finally, email turns into heroin for some people. You know who you are — reading your email constantly like a stock ticker — responding instantly to people. How much productivity is wasted with this type of communication? What might be a better way of communicating?

So if you're brave — try unlinking your email today. If you just want to try it, don't check your email at all today — have an email response: "I won't be able to check my email today on my phone, please call me if it's urgent."

Go for it.