We have all become dependent on e-mail. We use it to schedule meetings. We use it to get our news. And we use it — a lot — to communicate with customers, colleagues, friends and family. According to The Radacati Group, a market research firm, the volume of e-mails has exploded in recent years. More than 170 billion are sent around the globe every day. That accounts to two million every second.

Some say that e-mail has made them more productive and efficient. Others say that e-mail has taken control of their lives, and still others feel that it is a tool that allows them to hide behind an impersonal communication device instead of taking the time to actually talk to people. Recently there has been a movement to get back to the basics and simplify life. “E-mail Free Fridays,” a concept crossing the nation, is an attempt to help people move away from their computers and, literally, return to conversing with people face to face. It is an interesting concept that may be worth a shot for better production and solidarity. In addition to E-mail Free Fridays, here are some other tips that might help you manage your e-mails better:

• Don’t check your inbox as often. You can set your e-mail program to check for new messages as often as you want. Many people set their systems to check once every four hours to eliminate distractions.
• Delete or file messages you’re done with. Create folders for related messages you want to save and delete the rest.
• Use a calendar to help you. Set an appointment in your calendar and cut and paste the message of an e-mail you need to follow up on in the “notes” section of your appointment. This way you can delete the original message and address the task when it comes due.
• When sending an e-mail, use an appropriate subject line or change it if you have a message you want to keep that has a vague headline. An example of a specific emendation is “Project due on Friday 5/16/08.”
• Don’t answer e-mails after hours. Doing so alerts people that you are working and invites them into your private time.

Let me know if your organization has tried E-mail Free Fridays and how it impacted your productivity and interpersonal relationships with your colleagues, your customers and your friends and family. If you have not tried this and you think it may work in your organization, e-mail this week’s edition of Across My Desk to those charged with decisions in your organization. Just don’t do it on a Friday.

Have a great week!

Anne Llewellyn, RN-BC, MS, BHSA, CCM, CRRN
Editor-in-Chief of Across My Desk, Case in Point magazine, and the Case Management Resource Guide
allewellyn@dorlandhealth.com