10 top tips for minimising email stress and irritation

A friend of mine has IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and insists on sharing with me how she is doing with her condition each time we meet. Bread is the worst, she tells me, and she has to avoid white wine. She goes on: “I’ll never cure it. The best I can hope for is getting it under control.”

Strangely, this got me thinking. Her statement applies equally to emails. We can only hope to be less dominated and stressed by them.

So, here are my top 10 tips for getting email irritation under control:

• Send fewer emails. Yes, I know that sounds smarmy. But send fewer and you’ll get fewer. Think about copying in fewer people: who really adds value to the discussion?
• Unsubscribe. From external lists and internal lists. Search for ‘unsubscribe’ in your email folder, then do it. If you are on an internal weekly distribution list just in case, don’t.
• Sort your inbox, once a day, by ‘Conversation’ – then delete all the emails under the first email of that conversation.
• Don’t be too helpful: Remember Pavlov’s dogs? Many times, a problem will solve itself.
• Write fewer words: The challenge is to reply to the email in half the words while still achieving the objective.
• Use ‘if yes’ to halve the email conversation thread: Using it after you have asked a question moves the thread on another step. For example, “Did you mean about the graphic design? If yes, then I would do xyz”.
• Don’t be urgent: Email is not an urgent form of communication. You wouldn’t email the fire brigade if your house was on fire.
• Don’t organise meetings via email: A friend creates a simple table with names of attendees across the top and three times he can do below. Then he asks them to write ‘y’ or ‘n’ on each.
• Add a link in your email signature to your diary. Then people can just book without needing you.
• If you are using Microsoft 365 check out ‘MyAnalytics’, where you can see how many emails you send, receive, and with who. You’ll be intrigued. Then, ask your colleagues, and compare. Find out who sends the most emails. Maybe you then need an email agreement.

Let’s get this ‘condition’ under control.