What would you do with an extra hour every day in your business?

And what if you could save an hour every day in your business  – for you and all your colleagues – without extending the working day or losing any productivity?

A study of 2,000 office workers last year found an hour of every day is wasted by re-reading old emails, needlessly checking for updates and sending emails to colleagues when it’s easier to speak face-to-face.

That translates to around five hours per week – or 230 hours-a-year – of lost productivity.

There are some tried and tested ways to make your day more effective. Number one is don’t fall into the trap of endlessly pumping out emails. Often they don’t get read, are misunderstood or don’t prompt the action that the business requires.

Wean staff off email dependency

Also high on the list of must-dos is weaning staff off their email dependency. Often it isn’t the most effective way of communication but we rely on it rather than having a simple conversation or making a call.

A necessity for anyone wanting some deep thought on a piece of work is to actively switch off your emails. Only check them at certain times of the day; deal with what’s urgent, side-line the rest until you’re ready to handle them.

Let your team and others know that’s what you’re doing. If they need to contact you ask them to use another method. Chances are that with the email umbilical temporarily removed they won’t, leaving you to get on.

We’ll be taking a deeper look at what you and your business can do to ease email dependency in a morning workshop with North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce on Friday February 14 (a memorable date!).

Join us on Sending Smarter Business Emails and spend those 230 hours a year doing something more productive!

*Thanks to consultancy services company SoftwareONE for carrying out the survey.

Like the course but can’t make the date or need another venue? Then drop me an email at david@helliwellmedia.com