Before You Hit Send, Read This

Think before you email.

That’s the takeaway from research out of the University of Glasgow and U.K.-based Modeuro Consulting, which examined what happens when leaders ease up on their email.

A close look at how seven executives at a London-based power company were spending their days pointed to email as a major time suck, taking up about 1.5 hours a day, according to Andrew Killick, a consultant brought in to help the company run more efficiently. The executives were sending out an average of 56 emails a day.

What’s more, the reliance on email proved contagious, with employees taking their cues from the top and also sending out an excessive number of messages.

“Before you know it, you’ll spark a ripple, a flurry of emails across the organization,” Killick, who founded Modeuro, said of executive email habits.

While email can sometimes be a quick and convenient way to gauge interest or disseminate information, it’s often not the best tool for the job, he said. About 20% of the time, we’re using email correctly – leveraging it to communicate across time zones or answer a well-defined question. But 80% of email traffic is “waste,” he said – stuff that’s useless or really requires a phone call or face-to-face discussion.

“We think we’re keeping people in the loop and we think we’re doing the right thing,” he said. But we’re actually wasting “enormous” amounts of time.

At International Power, the executives were asked to think twice before forwarding email or including multiple recipients.

The initiative, detailed in a forthcoming issue of the Harvard Business Review, led to a 54% drop in the number of emails sent by the executive team. The company’s 73 other London-based employees began following suit, even though they hadn’t received specific instructions. Their drop in output was 64%. Ultimately, the company gained 10,400 hours annually, freeing them up to work on bigger, more important projects.

Killick said most companies could realize 5% to 30% productivity increases if they cut back on email.

That’s because email is disruptive, said Killick. It pops up just as we’re getting into the deep, cognitive work of our jobs and can decrease worker effectiveness. Employees will have more time for the stuff that matters, the stuff that adds value to a business, if there’s less email buzzing in the background, Killick said. At International Power, executives were freed up to focus on improving customer service and trimming costs.

Killick recommends not trying to fight technology with more technology – don’t test out programs that sort your inbox, he said. Just resist the temptation to press send and embrace the helpful cues — like tone of voice and facial expressions — that you get from “richer,” “real time” interactions.

Read more about the study on HBR.com.