Don't drag old email habits into 2012

At the start of the year, a government agency called in response to a letter I sent them on a routine matter. It was no routine response, however, as the letter was sent back in August.

I discovered that they have been backlogged for some time, and it reminded me that they aren't unique - many of us use the end of the year lull to catch up on our email, letters and other correspondence.

Many professionals don't even bother. They simply delete all the email in their inboxes, and dump all their correspondence without even reading it. They 'start all over again' and it's your bad luck if they happen to 'forget' about your matter, reasoning that if it's important, you'll call back.

You may be appalled at this end-of-year practice, but from one point of view, it's understandable.

After all, average working professionals process more information in a day than their grandparents did in a month. To make matters worse, research shows that this flood isn't letting up anytime soon: scientific information doubles every five years, and Internet traffic doubles every 100 days.

If you're like most people, you are probably not just behind, but dropping further behind each day. Take a glance at your email in-box; if you have more than 30 email messages sitting in it awaiting your attention, then you might be in trouble.

This isn't a problem that will go away if you change jobs, take an extended vacation or migrate. Instead, it's a reality that has come upon people who work hard, but use old habits at a time when they are no longer useful. It's a bit like reaching for the buggy whip every time you head out of the house to the car. You need to upgrade your habits. Badly.

Fortunately, there are a handful of books that are tackling the problem of learning new habits, and unlearning old ones.

Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan and Switzler does a great job of describing the environment that we need to create to bribe, cajole or pressure ourselves to make slow but steady improvements.

Their research shows that we consistently overrate our ability to change habits when we make the near-universal mistake of thinking that willpower is enough.

They point to examples like the effect of plate size on weight loss. Dieters who reduce the size of their plates, automatically reduce the size of their portions and end up eating fewer calories. Also, companies that restrict the size of email inboxes often force users to become more skilful at managing their email.

Most, however, have no such restrictions and if you want to stay on top of your email in 2012, you must make up your mind to:

1. Schedule time to read and process email each day. Don't dip into your in-box just to see what's happening and resist glancing at your BB just because something interesting might have popped in.

2. Keep your receiving email in-box as clear as possible. After you have read your email, empty your in-box and make it available for further messages. Move messages to folders. You may have noticed that the old practice of 'leaving my email in the in-box where I can find it' has turned into 'leaving it my in-box where I can lose it forever'.

3. Place reminders on lists or a schedule. Once you have processed your email messages, use a central to-do list or a schedule as your 'control room', rather than your inbox. This allows you to manage many more reminders of future action.

If all this seems a bit foreign, compare it to the way you manage your PO Box or mailbox. No one skims their mailbox; taking out some letters, leaving the others behind. Instead, you remove them all at once, leaving your mailbox free to collect new messages.

These best practices are being used around the world to combat the problem of email overload, and represent strategies that are needed to deal with today, and tomorrow's flood of information.

Don't be the one stuck with old buggy whip habits at a time when email volumes are likely to continue to increase.

Francis Wade is a consultant with Framework Consulting. Send feedback to francis@fwconsulting.com