Executive PA Australasia Issue 1 2021 | Page 62

DEVELOPMENT

Email overload is not so much about volume — it ’ s a lack of process !

Steuart Snooks is an email and workplace productivity expert who can help to ‘ revolutionise your inbox ’ and save 57 days per year ( and 15-20 % of headspace )
THE EXPERT
Steuart Snooks is an email and workplace productivity expert who works with busy professionals to help them get control of all their emails . He has developed a series of workshops , presentations , webinars , coaching and resources that outline the best practice skills for mastering your email .
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you are asked about your biggest challenge ? Frustration or problems when it comes to managing your email ? When I ask this question , the first issue mentioned is inevitably the volume of email received —‘ too many ’, ‘ too much ’ etc . Close behind this are complaints about the amount of spam and cc email received — a major contributor to overwhelming volumes .
What is often not mentioned is the real frustration at re-reading the same email multiple times and the constant anxiety and low-level stress of trying to keep track of everything .
The reason most people have this problem can be seen in the model below , which shows that for any organisation there are people , processes , tools , technology , and apps — what I call platforms .
w In the overlap where you have people working with technology without a good process , they quickly get overloaded . The volume of emails , texts , social media messages etc very quickly overwhelm people , especially if they don ’ t have a good process for handling them . w In the overlap where you have people working with a good process , but their tools , software or platforms are out of date , it makes work slower and more laborious . w In the overlap where there is a good process and good technology , but the people haven ’ t been
trained in the process or shown how to make best use of the technology , there is unfulfilled potential / productivity in the people and underutilised or wasted resource in the technology .
The missing piece when it comes to being effective with email is a lack of good process . In any organisation there will be 5 , 50 , or 500 people but there will be just one process for things like raising a purchase order , applying for leave , or paying an invoice .
But when it comes to email , there are as many different processes as there are people using email . Each individual is doing the best they can with what they know but they are not using a best practise approach . Email seems to have escaped the standardisation , systemisation and streamlining that has occurred for so many other business processes .
However , we have been using email for long enough now to have plenty of research into what are the best practises for managing email effectively . As productivity guru David Allen has said the timeless solution for managing your workload regardless of the technology involved is these three steps :
w You need a process that is consistent , reliable and requires minimum energy to perform w You need to apply some mental rigour to make a decision and identify the next action needed for
62 Chief of Staff | Issue 1 2021