Managing Your E-Mail: Thinking Outside the Inbox [Paperback]

Christina Cavanagh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0471457388 | ISBN-13: 978-0471457381 | Edition: 1

Manage information overload to save time and money

E-mail is one of the most useful and efficient business applications ever developed. However, many people today dread the chore of sorting through an inbox crammed with messages that don't concern them and spam they don't want. In fact, research shows that North American office workers waste up to twenty hours every week sorting and managing their e-mail messages, causing more productivity loss than gain. Finally, there's a straightforward guide dedicated to helping workers and organizations tame the e-mail monster and take back their time.

Managing Your E-mail is a simple, accessible reference for workers and organizations that want to get the most out of this ubiquitous and sometimes overwhelming method of communication. With new strategies for dealing with e-mail inefficiencies and practical tips on getting and staying organized, it will free up hours of time each week for what's really important. It examines the categories and patterns of e-mail misuse and presents practical, research-based explanations, solutions, and quick tips on topics such as:
* Best practices for responding to e-mail
* When to choose more traditional communication methods over e-mail
* How to structure an e-mail for high-impact
* How to craft more readable and understandable messages
* Legal pitfalls to avoid
* Common e-mail myths
* How to reduce e-mail volume in your organization

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Manage information overload to save time and money

E-mail is one of the most useful and efficient business applications ever developed. However, many people today dread the chore of sorting through an inbox crammed with messages that don’t concern them and spam they don’t want. In fact, research shows that North American office workers waste up to twenty hours every week sorting and managing their e-mail messages, causing more productivity loss than gain. Finally, there’s a straightforward guide dedicated to helping workers and organizations tame the e-mail monster and take back their time.

Managing Your E-mail is a simple, accessible reference for workers and organizations that want to get the most out of this ubiquitous and sometimes overwhelming method of communication. With new strategies for dealing with e-mail inefficiencies and practical tips on getting and staying organized, it will free up hours of time each week for what’s really important. It examines the categories and patterns of e-mail misuse and presents practical, research-based explanations, solutions, and quick tips on topics such as:

• Best practices for responding to e-mail
• When to choose more traditional communication methods over e-mail
• How to structure an e-mail for high-impact
• How to craft more readable and understandable messages
• Legal pitfalls to avoid
• Common e-mail myths
• How to reduce e-mail volume in your organization

About the Author

CHRISTINA CAVANAGH is an internationally recognized expert on the subject of e-mail. She is Professor of Management Communications in the MBA program at the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario. She is also a business consultant who conducts e-mail workshops for Carnegie-Mellon, Revenue Canada (equivalent to the IRS), Siemens, and other major corporations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471457388
• ISBN-13: 978-0471457381
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,416,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not buy this book . . ., March 21, 2007

By 

Busy Reader: Get To The Point (California, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Managing Your E-Mail: Thinking Outside the Inbox (Paperback)

. . . unless you began using email yesterday. It is a classic example of unhelpful, non-writing. My heart sank when I turned the first page and noticed the font size - about 14 points, with 1.5 line spaces. This is a magazine article, inflated to book-length. On the plus side, you won't need a separate, large print edition. If you want the only useful suggestion in this book, here it is: send less email, and maybe you'll receive less. You'll only reach this pearl of wisdom after enduring over 100 pages of drivel, such as, "The sent folder contains copies of all the email messages you compose and send." Really? Eureka! My life is transformed! The author has managed to fill 185 pages with similar sentences, each of which should be punctuated with "DUH!" If anyone has a good strategy for controlling email - and I don't want to read long stories about hamsters, either - I'll be glad to buy their book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book was not helpful at all, December 30, 2006

By 

Michele Defilippo (Phoenix) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Managing Your E-Mail: Thinking Outside the Inbox (Paperback)

After reviewing all the choices in this category, I purchased this book because the description promised solutions to e-mail overload. As a busy entrepreneur running a 10-person team from a home office, e-mail is a very big part of my workday. I was looking for solid strategies to help me use this tool more efficiently and effectively. Instead, I got an eye-glazing management analysis, pitifully short on solutions. Directed at managers and employees of large corporations, the book is all but useless for anyone else. The so-called solutions were just short of insulting. A few standout examples: "Don't send unnecessary e-mails"; "Don't read every e-mail you get"; "Pick up the phone instead of sending an e-mail." Ya think? Maybe there really is no solution, but after slogging through 189 b-o-r-i-n-g pages, it would have been nice to come away with ONE solid suggestion that could be implemented. I can't say I got even that.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, March 1, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Managing Your E-Mail: Thinking Outside the Inbox (Paperback)

This excellent short guide to the promise and peril of e-mail reveals some surprising and little-noted facts. Far from creating a paperless office, for example, e-mail has multiplied the paper businesses consume. Along with making communication more convenient, immediate and spontaneous, e-mail has raised false expectations and increased the probability of hard feelings and misunderstandings. If those were the only problems this book spotlights, it would be worthwhile to take it seriously. But author Christina A. Cavanagh additionally offers some frightening examples about the invisible cost of e-mail, measured in terms of employee time and legal risk. The book has a tendency to repetitiveness and prolixity, and many of the recommendations for managing e-mail are familiar. However, We particularly recommends her strong examples, which may convince managers to implement the best practices they may already understand but often ignore.