🔒Returning work emails should be a time-management initiative

Back in the days when my freelance career was devoted to magazine journalism, for every one article I was fortunate enough to have assigned or accepted I received more than a dozen rejection notices.

Oh, how I long for those days!

Not because I enjoy rejection, but simply because I appreciated getting responses. These days it is exceedingly rare that an editor or publisher will send any response at all. One recent estimate puts the number of unanswered proposals between 85 and 90 percent. And it's not just journalism where this has become a new normal; almost every industry has a non-response issue, affecting countless people who submit ideas, offer outsource services, or simply ask questions.

Certainly the ease and expediency of email has made it especially difficult for publishers, editors, vice presidents and general managers these days to provide timely responses to the dozens they receive each day. But does that mean they should just give up? That they should not even try?

I believe that if more people received more responses, it would go a long way toward generating more confidence and optimism among all those looking to make a difference, grow careers, establish new contacts. Even rejections are constructive in more ways than one.

It might simply come down to time management. Years ago there were many corporate initiatives designed to help us in our work, including time-management training. I wasn't the biggest fan back then. In fact, I used to mock all the acronyms that went along with them: TQM for Total Quality Management, MBTI for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, CIT for Continuous Improvement Teams, and others.

Attending sessions was mandatory, and I didn't like that. I was always tempted to propose an article called “AAD: Acrimonious Acronym Disorder,” and try to have it published. (I didn't; I may have had a rebellious streak, but I valued my job.)

Only later did I come to appreciate the value of these and other corporate initiatives.

As both an initiative and a practice, I don't think time management is nearly as prevalent today. But maybe the world of email overload could be made somewhat less chaotic if it came back. I think it is incumbent upon all corporate leadership to improve their time-management skills, which may help them answer more emails. Certainly many emails are useless and impractical. But that's not the point. There are equally worthy issues at play — about business culture in general, goodwill, humanity, doing what's right.

It is not impossible to learn how to put aside some time each day for tasks usually avoided — like reading and responding to emails. But it does take courage to admit that the world does not revolve only around our current projects — that it's worthwhile to extend ourselves a bit.

Most emails can be answered with brief or even prepared forms (which are still better than no responses at all). When possible, we can use college interns (in return for credit) to spend some time each day reviewing emails, deciding which ones are worthy to pass along, and sending brief replies to the others. That can be a great learning experience.

But for those who do find answering emails an impossible task, why not meet with a group of colleagues one day to brainstorm possible solutions?

CIT, anyone?

Joel Samberg is a freelance corporate and employee communications writer and editor at JoeltheWriter LLC. His website is at JoeltheWriter.com.