06 Sep How productive people use email

Plumbing supply giant Tradelink have edited this article written by Matt Reynolds for their industry magazine “Unplugged”. How productive people use email is approximately a 3 minute, 30 second read discussing daily priorities. You can read the full article below or on page 26 here, Enjoy!

How productive people use email

Are emails wasting too much of your precious time and money? Our ‘plumber from the trenches’ Matt Reynolds gives advice on how to be more email productive.

Once upon a time, the typical Australian plumber carried a tool box, a shovel and a lunch box. Today, we carry smart phones, fire off emails during smoko and store our most important information in a cloud. We may hold in our hands the same potential as powerful CEOs, Hollywood actors and science geniuses, but do we use all this new gear in the most productive way?

We all spend hours each day sending and receiving email and it can waste a lot of valuable time ­– if we’re not doing it right. Luckily, being a productive email communicator isn’t rocket science; it’s as simple as following a few easy steps.

• Relevant subject line: I can’t tell you how many emails we have received with the subject ‘plumbing’ or ‘plumbing works’. A subject line in an email should clearly outline the content such as ‘10 Bank St, South Melbourne: valves for Thursday 23 May’. Remember, your recipient is probably receiving a lot of emails. Make it clear and concise, so it doesn’t get lost in their inbox.

• Keep it short and sweet: Don’t let your email turn into War and Peace! Long emails containing too much info won’t get actioned quickly. Other people are like us – busy! So keep it to 100 words or less so it can be read and understood in less than a minute.

• Make replies easy: Where possible, construct your emails so people can reply with one key stroke. For example – “Bill, I’ve found the tempering valves you need. Reply ‘Y’ if you want them onsite Thursday morning”. That’s one less email Bill needs to think about constructing a response to, giving him more productive time onsite – and you’ll likely get an immediate response too. Bonus!

• Separate your enquiries: If you’ve got six enquiries, don’t send them all at once! Separate them into six emails. Your recipient won’t feel as overwhelmed and can respond to them as they tick each tasks off their list.

• Signing off: Be polite and, where possible, end your emails with something nice. As more and more of our life moves digital, personal touch gets lost.

These steps might not seem like much, but if you add up the time they save you over the days, weeks and months, it will equal huge savings by the end of the year

Find Matt on Twitter @MrMattReynolds