Work Smarter, Rule Your Email

Introduction

This book is for people who get too much email, which is a bit like saying, This book is for people who have email. All too often, email feels like more of a hindrance to productivity than an effective communication tool. It’s hard to think of a technology that is so widely used and yet also so widely resented. As a recent Vision Critical study found, more than 75 percent of workplace email users think of email as hostile, boring, and a waste of time, while less than 25 percent see it as friendly, interesting, manageable, necessary, valuable, important, or useful.

But email can be a useful, valuable, and manageable part of your work life—once you set up your email system to allow you to focus your attention on what matters most. Having an effective email system doesn’t mean finding a way to reply to every message. Instead, it’s about being able to efficiently and effectively complete your most important and valuable work—which often gets squeezed or sidelined by the pressure to read and respond to each incoming message.

That’s why an effective email system begins with a decision to be selective about which messages you will actually address or even see. Many of us are already making decisions about what to answer and what to ignore; we’re just making those decisions inconsistently or haphazardly, depending on what catches our eye or how much time we have on a given day. And if we are addressing every single incoming message, it’s often with an implicit or unconscious decision to prioritize our gold-star standing as an email correspondent over working on tasks that are more urgent, projects that are more important, and personal activities that are more