Our marketing team receives similar responses to this one on a daily basis.

Thank you for your interest, but we recently received training and consultancy on ‘time management and the use of outlook’, so let’s not waste your time, thanks again.

 
Here’s why it’s a shame that many leaders share this attitude.

 In today’s fast-paced business environment, email has become the primary mode of communication for our customers. While many view email management as a matter of time management, it encompasses much more than that. Reassessing how teams handle email can have a profound impact on productivity, collaboration, client relationships, and ultimately, the success of the business. Let’s explore why email management goes beyond time management and why it deserves a closer look.

1. Efficient Communication and Collaboration: Email serves as the lifeblood of team communication. By reassessing email management practices, teams can ensure...

Introducing others to LeanMail could change the game for everyone involved. If you're unfamiliar with LeanMail, it's more than just another email management tool. It offers a comprehensive system for sorting, prioritizing, and handling emails effectively.

The benefits are manifold:

• Never Drop the Ball: LeanMail ensures that no email goes unnoticed or unattended, helping you and your contacts stay on top of things.
• Never Late: With prioritization features, emails are responded to in a timely manner, eliminating delayed replies and fostering quicker decision-making.
• Total Overview: LeanMail provides a clear, clutter-free view of your inbox, so you can see what needs attention now, and what can wait.
• Work By Your Priorities: LeanMail lets you align your email tasks with your broader goals and priorities, making every response more strategic.
• Effortless Archiving: Finding archived emails is a breeze, thanks to LeanMail's efficient organizational system.

So, if you're plagued by slow...

You've clearly thought about the benefits of LeanMail and how it could enhance your team's productivity. While the reluctance to impose any cutting-edge solution is understandable, it's unlikely your team will discover LeanMail on their own amidst today's informational overload.

If you think about how much more efficient and effective you have become at managing email (perhaps you even wonder how you could get on without it), it would be a great shame to keep LeanMail under wraps. Let's not forget the Post-it Note story. Peer Collaboration is Key to Make Innovation Happen.

The fact is, without your proactive step to introduce it, this valuable tool may never see the light of day in your organization. Sharing LeanMail isn't imposing; it's cutting through the noise to provide a proven option. Offering this choice becomes an act of empowering your team to make genuinely informed decisions in a crowded landscape of possibilities.

One impactful way to bring LeanMail into your team's...

Adding a next action and a deadline to emails that require further attention is an enormously productive time-saving strategy because it helps you plan and stay organized. When you receive an email that requires more time or information to respond to, simply reading and analyzing it without taking immediate action can lead to inefficiencies and wasted time. Unfortunately, neither Google or Outlook provide the functionality to easily add a next action, but LeanMail does.

By adding a next action, you clarify what needs to be done to address the email effectively. It could involve gathering additional information, consulting with others, or scheduling a meeting. In addition, setting a deadline ensures that you allocate time to complete the task within a reasonable timeframe. This prevents emails from getting lost or forgotten amidst the continuous influx of new messages.

Without a clear next action and deadline, you may find yourself revisiting and re-analyzing the same email multiple...

In my latest blog post, “Harnessing the Potential: Unveiling the Benefits of Setting Limits on Information Consumption,” I debunked the myth of information overload and emphasized the significance of establishing boundaries for our intake.

Today, I will delve deeper into the advantages of embracing these limits, including heightened focus, diminished stress and anxiety, and amplified productivity.

1. Increased focus: Setting limits helps us direct our attention to what truly matters. By filtering out irrelevant information, we can concentrate on the essential knowledge and insights that support our goals and aspirations.
2. Reduced stress and anxiety: Overwhelm often arises from an uncontrolled flood of information. By setting boundaries and managing our intake, we regain a sense of control, reducing stress and anxiety levels associated with information overload.
3. Enhanced productivity: When we are no longer drowning in a sea of information, we gain clarity and can...

The Eisenhower Matrix is a well-known productivity tool that is widely used to help individuals prioritize their tasks and manage their time more effectively. However, while many people are familiar with the concept of the matrix, it is not always easy to apply it to our daily lives, particularly when it comes to managing our email.

One reason for this is that, until recently, there was no universally accepted tool or system for applying the Eisenhower Matrix to email management. While there are many different email management tools and apps available, few of them are specifically designed to help users apply the Eisenhower Matrix, specifically, to their inbox.

Another challenge is that email is a constantly evolving and dynamic system, with new messages arriving every minute. It can be difficult to keep up with the incoming messages and apply the matrix in real-time, particularly when some messages may shift from urgent to important or vice versa over time.

Despite these...

A recent report by Mail Manager has found that email is still the most widely used and important communication tool in the business world. However, the lack of proper email management has a significant impact on productivity. The Email and Document Management Usage Benchmark report surveyed over 1,000 decision-makers in the UK and US and found that one in three employees spend almost a whole day each week managing their inbox, while 91% of respondents use email for client communication and 61% prefer it to other communication tools such as Slack or Skype.

Despite its importance, email also presents a major productivity drain and workplace stressor. As many as 70% of respondents believe it is one of the biggest productivity drains in the workforce, and 73% think too much time is spent trying to find emails. The study also found that email is an essential part of good record management and quality management for the majority of respondents, while 62% still keep hard copies of...

Introduction

Interruptions are a common occurrence in today's work environment, with negative effects on productivity, stress levels, and quality of work. Numerous studies have been conducted on the effects of interruptions, leading to the development of various systems to help people manage them. However, conflicting ideas exist on how interruptions affect work, and how to mitigate their negative impact. This paper explores the findings of an empirical study by Gloria Mark and colleagues[1] on the cost of interrupted work, and how LeanMail's next action and due date columns can enable focused work by allowing users to note next actions in a separate column next to the subject line and add a due date to the next column.

The Cost of Interrupted Work

Mark and colleagues found that interruptions do not necessarily affect the quality of work, but people complete interrupted tasks in less time, experiencing more stress, higher frustration, time pressure, and effort. These results...

When a manager reads this blog, they might think, well, you work for the company and it’s your job. That should be good enough. And it would be if you were a computer or a slave, but you’re a living human being with your own goals, ambitions, and mission. So, your work needs to be meaningful.

While taking notes during meetings may seem like an additional task, it offers a bundle of benefits to enhance your professional growth. Here are six of them:

1. Improves Comprehension: Notetaking encourages active listening, which helps you better understand the information being presented. This deeper comprehension can make you more effective in your role.
   
   
2. Boosts Memory Retention: The process of writing things down aids in memory retention. This can be valuable when you’re tasked with remembering important details from meetings.
   
   
3. Develops Attention to Detail: Notetaking can train you to pay attention to finer details and subtleties, a skill that is valuable in many professional...

I asked ChatGPT how we should fix email.  Here’s what it said:

1. Establish clear communication guidelines: Set expectations for email usage, response times, and when it’s more appropriate to use alternative communication channels. 
2. Encourage concise and clear writing: Emphasize the importance of brevity, clarity, and focused messages to improve understanding and reduce miscommunication.
   
3. Use subject lines effectively: Encourage the use of descriptive subject lines that summarize the email’s content, making it easier for recipients to prioritize and search for specific messages.
   
4. Limit unnecessary email threads: Discourage excessive “reply all” and encourage individuals to respond only when their input is necessary, reducing email clutter.
   
5. Implement folder and tagging systems: Encourage individuals to organize their emails into folders or use tags to categorize and locate important messages quickly.
   
6. Explore alternative...