The Stress of Email
The amount of anxiety generated by email is increasing. I think this is something that needs to be looked at seriously. In this month's Breaking Free we'll take a quick look at what causes the stress and how best to lessen its affects.
Causes of Email Stress
Nearly everyone I talk to is drowning in emails. Many professionals claim that email is one of the most stressful parts of their jobs. Why is it so stressful? Here are some of the top reasons that I've gathered:
- I am overwhelmed by the number of emails that I get every day. I can't possibly read them all.
- I have difficulty replying to all of the emails that I get. I often spend my personal time 'catching up'.
- I am often distracted by emails. I feel pressure to respond to a message as soon as I get one.
- I am annoyed on a daily basis when I am talking with a co-worker and they turn their attention to their email (PDA, laptop, cell phone).
- I feel threatened by the 'permanent' nature of emails. Once I say something, it's like it's written in stone.
Do any of these pertain to you and your emails?
This is Your Brain on Emails
Ok, I don't have a picture of a scrambled egg here, but it would be appropriate. Consider this: the average 17th century Englishman had as much information stored in his brain in his lifetime as is contained in your big-city Sunday newspaper.
Even as little as 10 years ago, we did not have to try to respond intelligently to a multitude of complex issues in the first 1/2 hour of our day - as we do now after opening our morning emails.
The amount of information that your brain has to deal with on a daily basis is incredible!! The amount of connections that your brain has to make between all of the information is astronomical.
For many folks, much of the information that they receive in their day is driven by email communications. As an example, I just got off of the phone with a client and what did he close the conversation with... "Ok, Trac, you'll send me an email reminder, right?" So what can we do?
Reduce the Emails (or their size) & Reduce the Stress
Ok, I know that email is a great convenience for many of us. But, wouldn't you agree that if the messages were shorter and cut right to what needed to be communicated, life would be a little easier?
Here are a few rules that could help all of us do just that:
- Emails should contain as few words as possible. Write with intent. If you can't keep the email to the size of one screen, send an agenda and schedule a meeting or teleconference. This can save time on both ends: your typing and their reading. Besides, there are many people who don't read more than the first few paragraphs that fit on their screen.
- Make it easy to see gist of the email. Be sure that you, first, absolutely need to send the email and, second, that you are sensitive, succinct, and specific. After all, a real live human being is going to have to read your email so be conscious of their feelings, their time and make it easy on their brain to understand.
- Only use emails to share data and information or to schedule in-person conversations. If you follow this rule, you will notice that your emailing will be much more productive for you and your team. You won't have to try to ascertain from the subject line if you should read that email now or wait until later. You will know that your emails are not going to create an emotional storm.
- Filter all of your personal and company emails through this filter: NEVER send an emotionally charged email unless is it purely positive. We think that by emailing we won't have to deal with emotional issues but, in fact, it is exactly the opposite. A tremendous amount of person-hours are wasted because of 'flamagrams'. It saps the energy from both the sender and the receiver. If the same people would've just picked up the phone or met personally, a lot less time and energy would've been invested in the situation and, thus could've been invested in more productive matters.
- Lastly, if you happen to break the above rules, call the person immediately on the phone, apologize for the email and discuss the issue together. This truly will save you a lot of time, energy and emotional turmoil.
I hope that you find this coaching regarding emails to be helpful to you and that you are able to implement them in your business.
What they're saying...
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