21-09-2005 19:44									#1
	Email - Waste of time! Suffering from ads?

I get daily research reports, and I found todays kind of interesting...

quote: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 Workers Waste As Much As Three Hours a Day Reading Poorly Written eMail A recent survey by Information Mapping, Inc. revealed that 80% of those surveyed deem email writing skills are 'extremely' or 'very' important to the effectiveness of doing their jobs. The results also showed that approximately 65% of the respondents spend from 1 to 3 hours per day reading and writing emails, with 40% "wasting" thirty minutes to three hours reading "ineffectively" written emails. Of the participating companies, nearly 50% had 5,000 employees or more, and more than 80% of those surveyed were of professional and managerial levels and above. Key areas within their job functions include training, documentation, information technology, human resources, general management and operations. Among the primary challenges and issues concerning emails that the survey exposed were: Recipient is not clear as to what should be done or how to act on the information Content is disorganized Critical information is missing or hard to find Content is too long, wordy and difficult to read Deborah Kenny, IMI's Vice President and General Manager of Learning Solutions, says "It is evident that organizations can greatly improve productivity and performance by helping employees write more effective email communications."

I had to laugh when I read this one. While I agree I waste too much time each day with email, it's not because they are poorly written. It has more to do with the fact that people send emails for no real reason. I still have to read them because there is a chance they may actually be important, but in many cases... there is nothing I need to know in them.

I think the biggest problem is the "respond to all feature" In many cases, people continue to hit respond to all even when comments or information is really only needed between one or two people on the original email list.

	21-09-2005 19:49									#2
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

My pet hate is when people mark their (mostly trivial) mails 'Importance: High' all the time.

	21-09-2005 19:56									#3
	Put an end to popups!

Email is already known as communication for the older.
Youth hasn't got time to waste on it, preferring messenger programs.

	21-09-2005 19:57									#4
	Support Apolyton

Or not include their name.

I'm supposed to know who ImTheLeet@hotmail.com is...??

	21-09-2005 20:01									#5
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

quote: Originally posted by SlowwHand Email is already known as communication for the older. Youth hasn't got time to waste on it, preferring messenger programs.

I can't type fast enough, it leads to embarassing pauses and/or me being constanty 2 minutes behind the conversation.

	21-09-2005 20:08									#6
	Suffering from ads?

Try some two handed conversations for a change then.

	21-09-2005 20:09									#7
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

Who here saw "Waste of time" in the thread title and went "Ooooh, that looks interesting!"

	21-09-2005 20:12									#8
	Re: Email - Waste of time! Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Ming I had to laugh when I read this one. While I agree I waste too much time each day with email, it's not because they are poorly written. It has more to do with the fact that people send emails for no real reason.

It's why you got so much spam and chatlike behaviour on internet forums as well. It's just so bloody easy to post whatever that comes up in your mind.

	21-09-2005 20:13									#9
	Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by alva Try some two handed conversations for a change then.

	21-09-2005 20:15									#10
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Japher Who here saw "Waste of time" in the thread title and went "Ooooh, that looks interesting!"

It was the cavalier use of the exclamation mark that drew me in!

	21-09-2005 20:15									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by SlowwHand Email is already known as communication for the older. Youth hasn't got time to waste on it, preferring messenger programs.

I can't see official businesses being conducted via PM.

Also, you don't need the other side online to send e-mail messages, great for communicating with people on the other side of the earth.

	21-09-2005 20:15									#12
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Ming, I suggest you implement a daily emails limit rule.

	21-09-2005 20:27									#14
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I dislike the custom in emailing, that the quoted text goes below the reply.

	21-09-2005 21:04									#15
	Increase the size of your Attachments

quote: Originally posted by Colon Ming, I suggest you implement a daily emails limit rule.

Hmmmmmmmm....

	21-09-2005 21:45									#16
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Email can certainly be a waste of time often. OK, spam is dealt with fairly quickly - even if you get a lot of it, a reader such as Thunderbird will let you deal with the spam in under a minute. The real problem is, indeed, people who write nothing of importance. And, likewise, people who write something that might be important but in such a confusing way that you stand no chance of understanding what they want.

	21-09-2005 23:56									#17
	Support Apolyton

and what of posting ?

	22-09-2005 00:34									#18
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I already suggested a posting limit previously but the response was lukewarm.

	22-09-2005 00:53									#19
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

If there was a posting limit everyone would just post really long posts... and who reads the long posts?

	22-09-2005 01:06									#20
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

not if the posting limit was in # of words and not posts.

	22-09-2005 01:14									#21
	Remove this text

notifthepostinglimitwasin#ofwordsandnotposts? (<-- 1 word)

	22-09-2005 02:30									#22
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

IMPORTANT: HIGH PRIORITY

DISPOSSITION: READ IMMEDIATELY

DEAR FRIEND:

MY NAME IS STUIE AKIMBO MATSWANA. I WAS THE OIL MINISTER OF NIGERIA UNTIL A RECENT ILLEGAL CHANGE IN GOVERNMENT. PLEASE HELP ME SAVE TEH LEGITIMATE OIL WEALTH OF OUR NATION FOR A FUTURE TRUSTEE GOVERNMENT. SEND ME YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION - ALL OF IT!

YOU WILL GET BOKU DOLLARS FOR HELPING OUT!

SINCERLEY YOURS,
STUIE AKIMBO MATSWANA
FORMER OIL MINISTER OF ZIMBABWE

NO, NO, I MEANT NIGERIA

	22-09-2005 02:57									#23
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

quote: Originally posted by SlowwHand Email is already known as communication for the older. Youth hasn't got time to waste on it, preferring messenger programs.

I agree. NYRA business is conducted by AIM. E-mail is too slow.

	22-09-2005 03:03									#24
	Tired of ads?

Not according to Ranger.

	22-09-2005 03:09									#25
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by SlowwHand Email is already known as communication for the older. Youth hasn't got time to waste on it, preferring messenger programs.

At IBM ~75% of all communication was instant messaging, ~20% email/notes, ~5% in person...

	22-09-2005 04:40									#26
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

That still doesn't mean instant messaging is suitable for everything. I like it a lot, but it's not for sending in-depth info, not for doing business or organzing conferences, etc. It's great, though, for a quick discussion on a specific subject or an exchange of ideas - and IM is especially great when both participants are fast typers.

	22-09-2005 06:42									#27
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by OzzyKP NYRA business is conducted by AIM. E-mail is too slow.

An NGO saying that e-mail is too slow.

	22-09-2005 06:47									#28
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by Asher At IBM ~75% of all communication was instant messaging, ~20% email/notes, ~5% in person...

Nice

	22-09-2005 15:04									#29
	Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by Asher At IBM ~75% of all communication was instant messaging, ~20% email/notes, ~5% in person...

Um, they don't use telephones anymore?

	22-09-2005 16:56									#30
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

My job involves lots of communication in various formats. I'm ruthless about E-mail, action or discard all of it every day.

One saving grace is most people I work with write well. We have rules about writing, our own syntax and a culture which highly values brevity and accuracy. People are always striving to do it better.


I've seen some of the slop that passes for communication in other organisations and I feel your pain.

One good thing to do is have "action" or "information" markings on your E-mail. Addressees then know if they need to look at something or not. I pretty much trash all my information messages without reading them beyond the title.

If you have priority settings its important that using higher settings has consequences so that people don't use them for everything i.e. a copy at this level goes to the Big boss or must be actioned within a timeframe etc.