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As an administrative professional you know the importance and popularity of email usage in the office. Yet as you know you can quickly become overloaded by a bulging inbox from email recipients who each practically demand your attention. Don't get frustrated. Get organized. Here are some expert tips for organizing email at the office.

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Avoiding E-mail Overload

by Diane Domeyer, executive director of Office Team

According to an OfficeTeam survey, 71 percent of executives use e-mail as their primary mode of communication at work. That’s up from 27 percent just five years ago. As an administrative professional, you’re likely on the receiving end of many of these messages. Without an effective system in place, just keeping up with the flood can steal valuable hours away from your other work priorities. Here are some tips for dealing with the deluge:

• Don’t rush to respond. When bombarded with e-mail, your first reflex is likely to answer the messages right away. After all, what better way to reduce the list of unanswered mail? But interrupting what you’re doing to respond to each e-mail as it comes in can prevent you from ever fully focusing on critical tasks. The best strategy is to briefly scan the content of e-mails, immediately responding only to those that are urgent. Then, before you leave at night, get back to people about less important issues.

• Keep it clean. Periodically delete or archive old information to help you locate files more quickly and to avoid reaching the maximum size limit set by your network administrator.

• Step away from the keyboard. E-mail is best suited for quick questions and answers. If a conversation is likely to be extensive or in-depth, save some typing time by calling your contact or stopping by his or her desk instead.

• Create a second account. Ask friends and family members to use a separate e-mail address to reach you with personal messages. This will help you stay focused on business correspondence during your workday.
   
• Respect others’ time. Before sending someone an e-mail, ask yourself whether it’s essential that he or she receives the information. If you don’t inundate others’ inboxes with non-critical communication, they’ll likely have the same respect for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Diane Domeyer is executive director of OfficeTeam, the nation’s leading staffing service specializing in the temporary placement of highly skilled administrative and office support professionals. OfficeTeam has more than 300 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.officeteam.com.