email tips

As product manager of Rackspace Archiving, I have the fortune of speaking to many of our Rackspace Archiving customers. I also encounter those of you who don’t use the product, but have come up with some creative and surprising – sometimes potentially damaging — ways to archive email. And there are a number of you who don’t archive email at all.

Did you know that we spend about 13 hours a week in our email inboxes? Replying, responding, forwarding and emoticon-ing takes prime productive time away from the big stuff, like working on your strategy to take over the market and planning the office Super Bowl pool.

Emails that get to the point are much more effective than poorly worded emails that lack focus. Constructing your emails for maximum efficiency is one more way you can increase productivity. Here’s a section-by-section primer to get you started.

What would you do if you lost the draft of that novel you’ve been working on? How much time would it take to re-type? Can you ever re-take that picture of your son smiling in the bathtub when he was 6 months old? Never. If you have to take work home and lose that “do or die” spreadsheet, what ramifications would you suffer? Scared yet? Good. This productivity tip will not only save you time, but also save you money and anxiety in the event your computer crashes or your laptop is lost or stolen.

 

Even before we started our Productivity Rx series, we were on your side when it comes to productivity. As a reminder of some of our favorites, here are a few classic posts containing tips and tricks to save time and increase efficiency.

Another email alert has popped up on your screen; you just left a meeting and have another one in an hour. And your mind shifts with the tide of conversation filling the cube farm. Are you going to have to come in on the weekend again to get things done?