The Best Email Management Strategies for the Workplace
Empirical results based on study by RWTH Aachen University
Business professionals sent and received a whopping average of 126 emails per day in 2017. Regardless of the amount received, read, and sent, we have to find appropriate ways to manage our emails every day. Two of the more adverse effects of overall increased email usage that may occur are 1) the feeling of being constantly accessible and/or 2) the feeling of “email overload”.
There are countless approaches in managing your inbox and having it under control, yet so far it’s not clear which type of context which strategy leads to the most effective email use.
A few months ago Mailbutler collaborated with RWTH Aachen University to conduct a research study exploring the effectiveness of different email management styles in the workplace.
Besides several statements on advices how to deal with email overload, the empirically grounded results of RWTH Aachen University’s study showed which email management strategies are really advisable to increase individual performance and productivity.
Email management strategies
299 responses were collected from the online survey. Researchers found that the use of several email management strategies is primarily determined by the email volume of the user. For example, the “alert” strategy (keeping your email client permanently open and check for new emails as soon as possible) and the use of a detailed folder system would lead to the use of different email management strategies.
To increase your email management performance, researchers at RWTH Aachen University suggested that the most effective strategies are:
1. Inbox Zero: aim for a clean and ‘0 message’ inbox
This well-known email strategy is a vigorous approach with the goal to always end your day with an empty (or close to empty) inbox. Developed by productivity expert Merlin Mann, the word zero originally refers to “the amount of time an employee’s brain is in his inbox.” As time and attention are finite, productivity may suffer when we constantly confuse our emails with to-do’s.
Inbox Zero, as researchers suggested, could be achieved with the help of different tactics. For example, snoozing your emails can help you deal with each email at the appropriate time, especially since this action doesn’t let you lose or forget an email.
2. To-do-list strategy: using your email client as a to-do list
Most emails include a follow-up action, either immediately or at a later date. Using your email client as a to-do list means you identify the tasks required from the emails you receive and vice-versa.
Researchers found that this has significant positive impact on individual email management performance. In this context, taking notes in emails , creating email tasks, as well as email scheduling can also be particularly valuable.
The study also yielded other interesting findings:
- The perceived usefulness of the email / email client has a significant positive impact on the use of email strategies.
- Email traffic (the number of received, read, sent emails, time spent reading and writing and the number of email partners) has a significant positive impact on the use of email strategies, in particular on ‘attention’ strategy and folder system strategy.
Don’t let your email inbox rise monotonously. The internet is full of advices on email strategies, as well as scientific literatures that deals with the topic in general — however many advice is contrary and also not scientifically sound. With these empirical results, we can now make concrete statements as to which advice really makes sense in order to increase your own email management performance.
(Original study and findings concluded by RWTH Aachen University. Article edited by Simone Wong. We thank RWTH Aachen University for letting us get involved in the above study!)
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