Focus, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER TWELVE

How to tame the email monster

Now that you have a good handle on how to deal with information overload and paperwork, there’s one more source of frustration that plagues just about everybody these days: email. On the one hand, it’s a brilliant way of communicating with people around the world almost instantly and it has revolutionised how we work. On the other, due to spam and the sheer number of even legitimate messages you get, it is also incredibly annoying and can easily pull you away from the things that should be taking up your time and attention. Not only that, sending emails can also be full of pitfalls. In this chapter you’ll find the best strategies for making email the great tool it was always designed to be.