Employees report that roughly 40 percent of their time during work hours is spent reading and writing e-mails, according to a survey from Cohesive Knowledge Solutions. This huge chunk of time can cost your company a huge chunk of change — approximately $300 billion a year in lost time and productivity.

How can you cut down frivolous e-mails and spend more time doing your “real job?” Mike Song, Vicki Halsey and Tim Burres, the authors of The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You, have seven tips to keep in mind when tackling the e-mail epidemic:

1. Avoid the “boomerang effect.” If you send out five e-mails, you can almost count on getting back at least 3 replies, usually unnecessary and useless. Cut down the number of replies by eliminating at least one of the five recipients, if you can.
2. Think, then send. Before you send an e-mail, think to yourself: is the information in this e-mail really helpful or useful to my colleague? When you take a minute to think about how important the content is, you might discover that the recipient doesn’t need to read the e-mail as much as you initially thought.
3. Stop “thank-you” overkill. Don’t reply to an e-mail just to say “thank-you,” especially if the action was just an everyday favor. Make it a general rule around the office to use thank-you e-mails only for times when you go above and beyond for each other. You could also use an acronym like NRN (no reply needed) or NTN (no thanks needed) at the end of your messages.
4. Keep a professional image. Cut out the emoticons. Use exclamation points, all capitals letters, acronyms and abbreviations sparingly. Mind your grammar and spelling as well. Keeping a professional style in your e-mails can help to prevent the spread of nonsense messages and useless replies, both of which take up a great deal of your time.
5. Just say it. Sometimes e-mail just isn’t the best channel for a certain topic or subject. Before you send an e-mail, think about how many times you will end up going back and forth to get understanding on both ends. If you don’t think it’s going to be easy to put your thoughts down on a computer screen, it probably won’t be.
6. Use a cool-down period. Have you ever sent a message in anger and then wished you hadn’t, almost immediately after hitting that “send” button? We’ve all done it. Avoid making a mistake when your anger clouds your judgment by giving yourself a 24-hour waiting period before actually sending that e-mail. This could save you from a long chain of anger-driven e-mails, all of which that will waste your time.
7. Set up an e-mail schedule. Instead of reading and responding to e-mails as soon as you get them, set aside blocks of time throughout the day during which you will take care of e-mail. Turn off your message alerts, and reset your inbox to accept new messages every half hour instead of every two minutes. This will allow you to get back to the job you’re actually paid for and look at e-mails only when it’s time. Worried you’re missing something important? Don’t worry: If it’s that urgent, the person will give you a call.

Filed under: Management Minute