Inbox Detox…And the Habit of Email Excellence

by: Marsha Egan

Published by: Acanthus Publishing

Reviewed by Connie Anderson

Email! Some days I love it; others I hate it. We have let it run amuck and become a major infringement in our productivity.

The author/publisher of this well-done book is a professional coach in Pennsylvania. She is a leading authority on email productivity. Every business–large to one person–needs to read this book and implement her ideas for effective email use.

However you know that “you’ve got mail,” this has made us become reactive–and this can be very disruptive to our workflow and productivity. Unless you are in a back-and-forth email conversation of utmost urgency (and then a phone call might be better), we don’t have to reply that second.

In companies, IF your supervisor uses email for everything, including urgent must-do/attend meetings, it means that employees must be on top of their email all the time or suffer the consequences of this dysfunctional used of email. This can extend their day as they feel pressured to read emails in the evening.

Every time we stop to answer an email, it takes time to get back into the other project. One study estimated that the average time to return to any suspended projects was 9 minutes, 33 seconds. And this does not include the time to answer the email. Another study found that interruptions now consume 2.1 hours a day–or 28% of our workday.

Egan’s evaluations in Part 1 was mind boggling to realize all the ways we can get back in control of our email and inbox, and these changes are worth the price of the book. She recommended allowing yourself a month to change our email habits.

Her guidelines for owning your habit and managing your email are easy to implement. It just takes time and tenacity.

Egan also writes about how to write effective emails, including grammar, spelling, paragraphs, subject line, signature, etc.

I will keep and refer to Inbox Detox often–just as soon as I have my inbox, outbox and sent messages cleaned out–and I am less blogged down. Actually I have instituted some suggestions already.

Armchair Interviews says: Egan reminds us that we are in charge of our time and how we mange our email. Excellent for anyone who has email.

Author’s Web site: http://EganEmailSolutions.com