Slay that mail!
At last, someone with an attitude to corporate email similar to my own:
My e-mail strategy at work is easy to execute, yet deceptively complex: I save roughly 1 percent of all e-mails I receive. I act on e-mails when they arrive, deleting or printing them right then. My inbox never contains more than 25 e-mails. And I delete recklessly: I am extremely optimistic that I will never need certain types of e-mails again.
Granted, I allow my inbox to get a little bigger - 34 emails. Any more than this and I’d have to start scrolling to see them all. Also, I don’t know what percentage of emails I hang on to, but I only keep the ones directly relating to projects that I am currently working on, and once the project is completed… I start deleting.
The other thing I’ve found with Outlook is that I can get it to colour code which emails are sent to me and which ones I am cc’ed on. I tend to read the cc emails last.
There is an incredible amount of unnecessary email flying around inside companies. Local announcements sent to the entire company, for example, or the ever growing thread in which each person who replies feels the need to include an extra couple of people.
And then there are the bloody chain letters, like the one I received yesterday warning me about mobile phones igniting petrol fumes - which is of particular interest as I don’t have a car. I really wish that people would learn to use Snopes.
Thursday 29 Jul 2004 | Paul | The Pit
