Workplace Challenges | Recognition | Professional Development | Job Termination

Workplace Challenges

Practise effective message management

A recent study found that the average worker deals with an almost overwhelming number of messages each day through mail, phone, fax and e-mail. But very few people receive any advice on how to organize this communication flood.

APRILLE JANES

[ 2002-03-13 ]

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Luckily, an effective system is not difficult to establish and maintain. And although the forms of delivery may differ, the principles are universal for each kind of message.

First, set aside specific times each day to deal with your particular sources of communication. Twice a day is recommended.

Stopping to answer the phone or check e-mail every few minutes is distracting and eats into productivity. Most people deal with an average of 190 messages each working day. It's easy to understand why constantly checking messages can become a hidden time-stealer.

Once you establish your times, be reliable about picking up and replying to your messages. When people realize you can be trusted to get back to them on a timely basis, it helps eliminate multiple follow-ups. This, in turn, reduces your message load further.

Whenever possible, handle each message only once. Most of us practise this principle with our "snail-mail" and faxes. As paper crosses our desk we sort, file or discard to prevent being buried. But the same standard can be applied to phone messages and e-mail.

Respond to voice mail right away or commit the message to paper. Then clear your voice mailbox except for what must be saved for future reference. The fewer messages you keep, the easier it will be to retrieve these exceptions.

The same holds true for your regular mail, faxes and e-mails. Scan for content and immediately answer what you can unless time is a constraint.

Create a filing system for follow-up. For your electronic messages use your e-mail program and include folders such as "To Do," "To Read" and "To Follow-up". Also include directories for specific topics and people you do business with often.

Use a similar system for the physical pieces of paper you receive. Move any correspondence you can't deal with right away to one of these files.

Later, when time allows, review all your archived electronic, voice and paper messages and process them in a clean-up session. Be trigger happy with that delete key or your wastebasket. The less you keep on hand, the easier it is to find those messages you really need.

And finally, don't be part of the problem. Observe some message etiquette when sending your communications out into the world.

State right up front what your message contains.

For a voice message, introduce yourself immediately and the topic. Speak slowly and repeat your phone number twice so that the listener doesn't have to replay your message to be sure they understood. A good trick is to write the number as you speak. This forces you to slow down to a pace that is easy to follow.

When sending e-mails, enter complete information in the subject line. Subjects like "Hi" or "Today's News" aren't very helpful and make it difficult to scan for topics or priorities. This practice also makes it easier to find a message later.

One word about e-mail etiquette in particular. Resist the urge to forward the latest joke or chain letter. Trust me, you will not have bad luck for the next 10 years if you don't send these things on to everyone in your contact list. The only purpose for these messages is to clog e-mail systems.

Last, but not least, in all your correspondence and messaging, keep it short and sweet. Be respectful of the recipient's time. Remember, they are swimming in the same flood. Anything we can do to help each other stay afloat makes everyone's work day a little easier.