Thursday, November 3, 2011

Productivity And Your Daily Email Routine

As the pace of technology continues to quicken, email is still the mainstream business communication tool, and most of us are "in" email (85+% of us - use Microsoft Outlook) - all day long.

Yet, there's some challenges surrounding our constant use of email (from consulting firm, Alexander Proudfoot):

  • One of the biggest time-wasters reported by office workers is managing email.
  • 39% of office workers feel lost and even frustrated when it comes to organizing and managing email.
  • Over half of the participants surveyed said they receive up to 75 emails each and every day, and felt that a number of those emails were a result of being CC'd unnecessarily.
  • 48% of the respondents say they spend between one and six hours each week searching for emails, project notes, and files.
  • The average knowledge worker now spends close to 13 hours per week on managing email.
  • Office workers spend up to 7 work weeks a year looking for misplaced documents.
According to the research from MarketTools, Inc., 96 percent (and 92 percent of 18-24 year olds) said they expect their email communication in the workplace to increase or to stay the same over the next five years.

Fifty-three percent consider email the most effective method of communication with colleagues, even beating out face-to-face meetings and instant messaging (49 percent and 42 percent respectively).

BOTTOMLINE: As we spend more time using email as a business tool (at the office, on our smartphones, on our tablets), we need to be aware of how our daily email routines affect our personal productivity. Multiply that by the number of people in your organization, and more effective email habits can have huge impact on organizational productivity.

Thanks to Skip Reardon / Six Disciplines, LLC.
http://www.sixdisciplines.com/_blog/The_Six_Disciplines_Blog/post/Productivity_and_Your_Daily_Email_Routine/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BeExcellent+%28Six+Disciplines+Blog%29

 

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