What that statistic doesn’t tell you is how much time you spend writing, editing and crafting each email.  If you’re trying to manage your time more efficiently, one question to ask is - would it take less time to do this by phone?  Or would it be more effective by phone?  It’s not just that email - but the trail of email you are about to create that you must consider, not to mention, the lost opportunity of building a relationship over the telephone.  Go to your data base, look up the number, and dial the phone.  

Let’s imagine that each email message you read takes approximately 1 minute to scan, another 1 minute to consider, and 3 to 5 minutes to write a response.  That’s up to 7 minutes per email - and I haven’t even calculated the ones you are just receiving, reading and deleting.  You can bet that while some email correspondence may take less, many may take more time.  38 emails times 7 minutes is 266 minutes –that’s four and a half hours of email time.  Half your workday.  So the 25% number could be low. 

What are some other tips that will help you to change the email/time equation? 

• Internally, keep your answers friendly but very brief. 
• Let people know that you prefer the telephone for scheduling internal meetings. 
• Tell people not to copy you unless you must be informed or unless you must take action. 
• Include in your own subject lines whether an email requires action. 
• Become a pithy, high content writer. 
• Create scannable email with bullet points, bolds, and underlines so people can quickly review and respond.  Encourage those who work for you to do the same.  Your
• Unsubscribe from all the lists you don’t want to be on - that waste your time. 
• If you have an executive assistant, work out a plan so they can respond to certain people and types of communications. 
• Don’t check the email constantly - batch it at points in the day when you can take a break from the high priority, high concentration tasks you have.

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The November/December issue of The Conference Board Review has an article I want to recommend on The Attention Deficit.   The issue about productivity in a world of constant communication is important.  This isn’t about interruption - there has always been interruption in the workplace.  From the guy who stops in midday to tell you what his kids are doing to the friend who always calls you in the office while she’s traveling or in her car with nothing to do — there have always been those.

What’s new, as the article points out, is the sheer number of such devices and their intrusive nature, from e-mail to instang messaging, XML feeds, blogs, social-networking sites, cell phones, pagers, “they connect the knowledge worker, but to what?”

According to BASEX, a New York-based IT research company, a thousand executives and knowledge workers last year repored receiving on average 200 e-mails, instant messages, phone calls (office and cell) and text messages a day.

One of the most relevant points for the leaders who are readers of The Power Speaker Blog is this - “Many people permit their e-mail to deflect them from their plans for the day.  Their inbox, in effect, becomes their daily schedule.  People end up working on stuff that’s not important.”

Here’s my own QUICK QUIZ: Are Your E-Mail Habits Getting in the Way of your Career?

• Are you anxious to hit the reply button as soon as a new email comes in?
• Are you checking your email more than 4 times per day? 
• Do you get sidetracked answering email when you know other things are more important?
• Do you spend too much time replying?
• Are your messages too long?
• Do you find yourself answering surveys, checking out unimportant attachments, and otherwise, getting sidetracked?
• Do you feel that email “relieves” your stress when you don’t want to do something else, or something you’re working on seems too difficult?
• Does it drive you crazy to have anything sitting in your inbox?

If you answered yes to half or more of these questions then it’s time to look at your email habit as a habit.  Unless you have the type of business (or an explicit promise to your clients and customers) that you will return all email correspondence within the hour, then you need to set strict guidelines and stick to them.

Why? You’ll never get promoted to the top or stay at the top if you can’t manage your time, and more important, execute what’s important.

E-mail is literally threatening many rising stars future.  I’m not old fashioned about this - I’m as connected as the next person.  But you know who you are.  This is about more than your productivity, it’s about creativity, time to think, innovate, plan, prioritize, and move your organization forward. 

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