HOW TO HANDLE THE DREADED OFFICE EMAIL
Experts argue that it is not compulsory to respond to
every work email one gets
Author Charles Duhigg
says he judges his performance at work by his email activity. Specifically, the
fewer emails he sends, the more effectively he must have been working. For
many, Duhigg’s admission is nothing short of a revelation as people usually
struggle to manage their work inbox.
According to an oped in The New York Times by Wharton
professor Adam Grant, there’s a link between how you handle email and how
successful you are professionally. It cited a Microsoft study that found the
least effective managers were also the slowest to respond to emails. Plus,
Grant says, it’s downright rude to ignore all your emails. His rejoinder to
folks who insist that their inbox is “other people’s priorities”: “Your
priorities should include other people and their priorities.” In The Times
article, Grant recommends letting people know when you can’t help them out by
saying, for example, “I don’t have the bandwidth to add this.”
Grant acknowledges that you don’t have to respond to
every email you receive. On his “no” list: strangers asking you to share their
content on social media or to introduce you to some fancy people in your
network.
Just because you miss an email (or two) doesn’t mean
you’re an unsuccessful person. As Laura Vanderkam writes in her timemanagement
book I Know How She Does It — “Better to realise that anything you haven’t
gotten to after a week or so will have either gone away or been thrust back
upon you by follow-up messages or calls. You can probably stop thinking about
it. Earth will not crash into the sun.”
The takeaway here is about shifting your mindset.
Spending an hour or so every day addressing thoughtful emails with thoughtful
responses isn’t necessarily a waste of time. While you might not win any awards
or even brownie points for being the most responsive emailer of all time; but
at the very least, you’ll show some respect for people who used time and energy
to write to you.
businessinsider.in
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