Email Guidelines?

Recently, we got a huge circulation email suggesting email usage. We were told to think before we email and respond only if it was important, etc. The idea was that the senior guys were getting slammed with hundreds of emails. This is true in any organization. Even more if you have done your duties at the beginner level and moved up as a manager.

I think emails cause productivity hit. These are the obvious problems I see:

1. Context switching between work and email checking and work is not easy.
2. Usually one is on CC for more than half the emails they get. This means it is not important for you to take action. Why the hell do we need to check it then?
3. Emails are the portals for unimportant things to sneak through and disturb the daily routine.
4. Emails are parasites that slowly eat away 1/4th of your day without even you realizing.

That is one reason, I started the twice a day email checking policy. But, it is difficult. It is like Murphy’s law. Once I stopped checking emails, I started receiving phone calls about if I checked my email. But now it is not that bad. Things are slowly getting better for me. Two email checks a day at 12 and 5pm is sufficient to filter out most of unimportant issues or the issues that get resolved without me even having to take a look.