Cutting down on email overload

Remember the days when you came into the office and got stuck straight into your work? Ah, the simplicity of working down a list of priorities, starting at the beginning and, in an ideal world, finishing near the bottom. Keep dreaming. We are now entering an era where the day's work cannot begin until you have answered your email.

But all is not lost. Technology may have created the problem - but it's also come up with the solution.

Around 30 per cent of email messages are worth reading. But as the other 70 per cent come pouring in, the useful ones vanish under a deluge of information intended to keep you in the loop.

In reality, all they do is cover the butts of your staff in their day-to-day work. By cc-ing you on an email, your colleagues can assume that you've tacitly approved their actions.

Of course, you don't need to know the wrangling behind every decision everyone around you makes. Your company gave its staff jobs so they can make decisions for themselves. But senior managers are copied in on everything, so more junior employees have recourse to justice if their bosses don't like the end result.

Silicon.com has come across senior directors who, after a two week holiday, come into the office on a Friday to deal with their mail so they can start work properly on Monday.

Enough is enough. Buy some email client software that filters your mail by keyword. Instruct your colleagues to put "fyi" (for your information) in the subject header when they are merely copying you in. Divert all these messages into a separate mailbox and keep them there for you to read at your leisure. That way, you might be able to get on with your job.