Electronic Mail

It is very obvious that email has become the way to communicate. Mail as well as fax is slowly fading into the sunset. Email is dominating the business and personal sectors of our lives and because of that we thought that we need to dedicate a blog post to examine it a little closer. Being around since roughly 1993, email provides simple and quick communication between people all over the world. Even though we were unable to find concrete data on the busiest day for email, from personal experience we extrapolated that Monday and Wednesday are very email-heavy. The business community accepted email very quickly due to its simplicity and speed. Communication can be sent across the world to multiple recipients at the same time in lightning speed and of course the same can't be said for snail mail.

As helpful as email is, it also may cause information overload and as research shows, it is responsible for productivity loss. Plantronics performed research into "How We Work" and found out that 83% of the surveyed people use email as primary way of communicating. On the downside, 53% of the surveyed people are overwhelmed by the amount of email that they get on a daily basis. To prevent yourself and others from feeling overwhelmed try to use email in non urgent situations. If something requires immediate attention, it might be best to call. With this said, when sending email, prepare yourself that it might not be immediately answered by the recipient. Also, try to designate specific times during the day where you check and reply to email. This will boost productivity because it will prevent the constant distractions that pull you from doing what you are focused on. Of course this will not be possible at all times, but it is a good to do this as often as life allows.

Additionally, the same research shows that 50% of people that were polled during the research said that a misinterpretation of an email message caused tension. With that in mind, the best way to prevent that is to quickly skim the email before sending it out to make sure the content is easy to understand and friendly. Clarify content that might need clarification. On the bright side, email is saving trees! Imagine how much paper is saved each day because of electronic communication. If you have any additional inquiries about email, give TechFarmer a call, or send us an email ;-) and we will happily answer all of your questions!