Reducing E-mail Overload

09/24/2009

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
Thich Nhat Hanh, 1926 - 2022

It's easy to be overwhelmed by e-mail. In his Harvard Business Review article, "Death by Information Overload" (September 2009; hbr.org), Paul Hemp offers these tips for reducing e-mail overload...

To avoid constant distractions, turn off automatic notification of incoming e-mail. Then establish specific times during the day when you check and take action on messages.
Don't waste time sorting messages into folders; inbox searches make that unnecessary.
If you won't be able to respond to an e-mail for several days, acknowledge receipt and tell the sender when you're likely to get to it.
Make messages you send easy to digest by writing a clear subject line and starting the body with the key point.
Before you choose "reply to all," stop and consider the e-mail burden that your choice places on each recipient.

A Tool Kit for Managers

Exchange has packaged six of its practical management resources into a single “Manager’s Tool Kit” and is offering the entire set at a 33% discount — separately these resources would cost $175, but we are offering the entire Manager’s Tool Kit for only $112. Resources in the kit include:

The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organizations
Managing Money: A Center Director’s Guidebook
Beginnings Workshops Book #8 — Professionalism
250 Management Success Stories from Child Care Directors
Developing Capable, Creative Teachers CD Book
Leading People in Early Childhood Settings CD Book

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.