The other day I was working with a client who was looking for an email about a meeting change.

It was difficult to find, because it was hidden among the 970 emails sitting in the inbox!

And this is not the worst case I have seen. On average, people receive 50 emails per day, and many of us don’t have clear strategies to manage the influx.

The introduction of email has seen one of the biggest downturns in productivity in our modern time.

Before email, the time burden sat squarely with the sender. They had to write the letter, find the stamp, mail it, and consider the time delay in the delivery – which forced them to consider if it was worth sending at all.

Today it is the reverse. The sender, who often ccs everyone (just in case), quickly types a note and hits the send button and the burden is then on the receiver.

Sending, answering, deleting and filing emails accounts for approximately one to two hours of your time each working day.

With that in mind, here are 18 expert suggestions to keep email from paralysing you.

Recipients:

• Don’t turn your email on as you start up your PC – tackle one major job before you check your email. That is, take care of work before emailing.

• Set up folders in your inbox by client or topic, and before storing an email in a folder, ask yourself: “When will I need it?” If you can’t answer that, then delete the note.

• Use filters to capture important keywords, such as a current project, key client names (in Outlook, look under Tools > Rules Wizard).

• Use the preview page feature to view the message without opening it. If it doesn’t pertain to you, delete it.

• Teach people to put the main issue(s) in the first two lines.

• Turn off the “You’ve got new mail” flag.

• Look at email only at set times each day; have it update only when requested (in Outlook, look under Tools > Options > Mail Setup). Consider using an auto responder to notify senders that you only look at your emails twice a day.

• As you read your email, copy and paste the action items into your to-do list (immediately).

• Don’t feel you have to respond immediately (or at all). Consider if a response is worth $10 (which is about what it costs for you to reply to an email).

Sender:

• Keep messages short. If you can’t say it in 10 lines, pick up the phone.

• Don’t email rebukes. Email should have zero tone of voice. Otherwise you run the risk of creating animosity (and more emails).

• Make the subject line a summary of your message. For example, “Thursday meeting rescheduled to Friday”, not “Meeting rescheduled”.

• Don’t cc everyone automatically.

• Make your action item clear at the beginning of the message.

• When emailing a group, note if you want recipients to answer everyone or just the sender.

• Re-read and spell-check before sending, to eliminate typos or misunderstandings.

• Avoid meaningless subject lines like “Urgent” or “Please Read”. If it is urgent, then put in the subject line the date by which you need a response.

• Come up with internal protocols. For example, NB 4/5 in the subject line means “Answer by 5th April”.