The Kardia Group

E-mail is a growing challenge and can feel insurmountable for those in leadership roles. There is no magic bullet for email overwhelm, but applying a number of smaller strategies can make a big difference.

Play to the Strengths of Email

Documentation: focus email use on clarity of information and clear expectations
Organization: use subject lines to specify the content and intent of the message (and change the subject line if the content of an email exchange changes over time)
Inclusion: match your recipient list to those people who need specific shared access to a common topic
Efficiency: use email to communicate where a quick communication or response is needed

Apply and Train Appropriate Expectations

Take the conversation to the phone, a meeting, or an informal discussion when email is no longer appropriate
Avoid email as a medium for emotional or politicized communication
Be clear with others about your own email practices and preferences (e.g., don't expect a response after 8 p.m.)
Respond, but don't react - don't get caught up in a false sense of crisis
Be specific about whether you need a response/confirmation or not
Confront inappropriate use of email immediately

Use Technology

Efficiency Tips

Know how to use your email program
Use labels, filters, and folders
Consider an email sorting program
Create standard responses/templates/macros for standard questions
Ask a colleague to do a draft if you're having a hard time getting a particular email started - a bad first draft is easier to work with than a blank page
Delegate categories of email that can be handled by others
Establish a schedule for maintenance - time to catch up on the accumulated non-emergencies
Track times of day when you respond efficiently to email (compared to when it easily becomes a morass)

Reducing Email Through Other Strategies

Provide answers to standard questions through an informative and transparent departmental website
Be sure that departmental procedures and policies are in place where possible and needed (reduces individual emails about matters that lack a good solution)
Proactively attend to climate issues, departmental tensions, and questions in other mediums, such as faculty meetings (reduces the probability that these tensions express themselves through email)