Could you start by cutting down the number of emails you send? Make them a phone call/Zoom instead? That would then cut down the number of replies, and replies to replies that you are getting.

Can you gauge the urgency/importance of an email by the sender or subject line? Can you ignore or delete any?

Could you make folders to categorise emails, e.g., “Do today”, “Do by the end of the week”, etc. to cut down the number of emails in your Inbox to only the ones you need to deal with NOW?

Filter! Anything you are cc'd into goes into a low priority folder and you send an auto reply to let ppl know that you don't read cc emails so they'd better not bother sending them, or call you instead if they actually need to!

YABVU

If people regularly email you - like admin staff - could set up a time with them twice a week to chat through everything they need? Explain that it’s quicker than emailing.

remove yourself from threads you’re on ‘for information’ - politely say. “Thanks for including me - I don’t think I’m needed so please remove from the replies”

ask people you work closely with Particularly people you like manage to save up all requests in one email.

get archive / delete
happy!

I have the same problem, I get about 100 - 150 per day. I set aside times to read them so don't loom at my inbox all the time. I also read this book: www.calnewport.com/books/a-world-without-email/

It has lots of ideas on how to manage email. Good luck!

I have the same problem. Recently promoted but still expected to retain a large proportion of my old work.

Everytime I try to focus on a piece of work, my emails are ping, ping pinging. I literally cannot get anything done.

Information is power here.

Who is emailing you? Are there individuals who send you multiple emails a day/week? If so, speak to them about how to manage that better.

Are you in CC? If so, do you actually need to action, or just file.

What do they want? Is there someone else they could go to instead? If so, delegate.

Who are the people emailing you to do things you can't do? Who is the correct person to do the things? You don't need to explain why, just redirect.

It sounds like you're in too senior a job to be answering loads of questions. Are there people who work for you who should be answering them instead?

I meant to say, at some point just block out 2 hours in your diary and just go through all the emails you've had that week and work out where there's so damn many of them - is there a particular culprit, are you being copied into irrelevant chains about shit that doesn't need your input?

1. Unless they're priority (e.g. from your boss) don't reply to emails until the end of the day. By then half of the problems/queries will have been resolved.
2. If whatever the sender wants is not part of your job, don't do it and don't reply!
3. Shut off the alerts so you are not distracted by constant pings.
4. If you're that high up the ladder you must have a PA or assistant that can screen the mails, and/or that you can delegate some of the minor tasks to?
5. Reply to them by phone if it's faster to explain something rather than writing out instructions.
6. Pass the buck whenever possible!

A colleague told me he did this and at first I was dumbfounded then it started to make sense when I became embedded in the team. The auto reply is probably key if there is a culture of cc’ing in everyone.

Oh, and use very terse language. My boss was the master at that, complete with spelling mistakes.

higher up admins telling me to do stuff I can't do so need to explain,

I would ignore these ones for starters, or just @ someone and forward. Why do you need to explain? They need to learn to direct their query to the right person.

I had a similar issue. Things which work for me.

adhering to my company’s 5 working day email turnaround policy. So not answering a lot of stuff until day 5. If you instantly answer stuff which people could find out elsewhere but can’t be arsed they will keep using you. If you wait 5 days then next time they might think it’s quicker to find it out themselves.

not giving them an answer to something they could have looked up elsewhere but saying “if you look at x you will find the answer”. Again will cut down on people using you like a Google search engine.

if you’re getting repeated similar questions what resources/guides can you develop for people to use instead of emailing you?

For just dealing with them - it can help to say, go through them first thing and then again maybe after lunch. Anything that takes a short time to reply you just do - eg approvals. Signposting.

Anything that constitutes a new task that's arrived, you put onto your todo list and hopefully think when you'll do it or the order in which you'll do it. eg, research collaboration requests, clients responses.

Then close email for rest of the morning so you can get on with the list.

Beyond just dealing with them - it looks like some of what you list is a symptom of something else. Why are people asking you to do things that you don't do and have to explain that? Is there a way of discussing with these people not to email you about these things?

The questions you get asked, is there anyone else who can answer them? Or can there be some FAQ or info documents made that help?

For approvals if these are very distracting comig 1 by 1 you could ask for a different system, eg file all the approvals here and then tell me when there is a bunch and I'll go and do them all.

I've seen people add to their email signature that they only check emails at certain times of day (9-10 and 3-4) and this may help.

I also leave all emails at least 3 hrs before reading as some people I work with want a quick answer and so find it out then send another email saying all sorted. This also helps with being cc'd as hopefully by the time you look at it, others have replied and sorted.

Turn off all notifications, visual and audio.
If emails really get bad, I go offline, sort out the current emails without being disturbed by new ones.

1. Filter cc emails into a separate folder and ignore it.
2. When people email you asking you a Q they could work out for themselves, ignore it. They will soon learn the art of self help.
3. Put an out of office on saying "emails sent after 5pm or on weekends will be deleted", then follow through on this.
4. Call rather than email, people will reciprocate.

Here’s what I do.

Switch off the little notification that pops up every time you have a new email. It’s a distraction.

I use a rule I call The Four Ds.
Delete- read and then it’s gone.
Delegate it to someone else.
Do it- there and then.
Decide when to do it- add it to your calendar.

I do emails from 8.30 -9, 12-1, 4-5 and try not to even have Outlook open outside of those times. I get upwards of 200 emails a day and find that having dedicated time means I power through them, and an ruthless for applying the four Ds.

If I’ve had to email someone twice in the same “thread”, I pick up the phone.

I like to go through once or twice a day and allocate them to different categories (so Urgent, To Do, Awaiting further information, Admin requests etc), then I will set myself a time frame to work through a particular category.
I also turn off alerts so I'm not getting distracted by new stuff coming in whilst I'm in meetings etc.
I'm also pretty harsh about which ones get deleted straight away or just filed into a relevant folder. They'll email again if they really need a response!

DH I believe has worked out the way to autofile (I've not tried it) and swears by that method - he will allocate a certain amount of time each week to review the emails in each folder.

First of all - it's important to remember - your job is not doing emails.

Block 2 x 30 mins each day to do emails. Don't look at them otherwise.

Use message rules. Folders for everything. If client facing, set up a folder so that any email from your own organisation goes into "Company" folder, and your actual inbox is only external emails - that way you don't miss something actually important. If your organisation is anything like mine, your Company folder will be full of shite you can mostly delete.

A stat - not sure how correct - every email you send to an individual on average generates 0.9 emails as a result. Every email you send to a group on average generates 1.2 emails as a result. So the most effective way to receive fewer emails is to send fewer yourself! Pick up the phone instead.

I am in exactly the same position, menopause, children's ages and everything!! I start my new/promotion role next week. I am terrified of losing something with legal/contractual/time/cost significance that I may be desperate for later!

I've tried deleting messages to which I've been "cc'ed", and found I missed loads of info because people don't know when to use cc properly.

I set up a Teams channel for my old linr management team, and have encouraged them to use that instead of email. I plan to set one up for each of my project teams moving on.

I'm going to try and dedicate 30 mins twice a day to looking and dealing with email. This feels rather fanciful!!

I have been recommended a book called "Productivity Ninja". It hasn't arrived yet.

Agree re the terseness. The higher up the ladder you are, the less words you can use. Don’t bother with niceties unless you’re emailing external clients, just send quick one line responses.

if too many of your team are asking for your approval for routine things, make it clear they can crack on unless there’s an actual decision that needs to be made that they can’t do themselves.

I receive a similar amount of emails and have discovered the joy of a one line answer (unless it's a client!). I'm go out of my way to be friendly and warm to all my colleagues so that they don't misunderstand the 'tone' of my emails, but if someone is asking for permission, it's a simple 'Yes, that's fine' or asking for my opinion, it's a 'Yes, I agree with your thoughts. Let's do that'.

Funny thing is, people have now stopped sending me huge, long emails with all the unnecessary details...I'm getting one liner requests. Love it!

In short, you gotta train the chronic emailers and show them how to do it. 😉

I have no wise words. But I used to listen to a podcast where someone interviewed experts in their field about all sorts of specialities. A lot of them were academics of some sort, and her last question would always be what the worst thing about their job. Without exception, they said ‘email’

I think there is this expectation that people now, but women especially, should be their own PA. In years gone by a HOD would have had dedicated admin support to deal with a lot of routine stuff. But we rarely have that now. I imagine your only real recourse is to audit how much time you spend on it and take that to management, along with your working hours and ask what they want you to do. Or share a department email address with your deputy heads. I bet most of it doesn’t need you anyway, and is being duplicated.

Read David Allen's book "Getting Things Done" aka GTD. Many of the good suggestions above are recommended by him.

I colour mark my emails as to which area they cover. Flag any that I need to go back to. It seems to work as otherwise I’m replying to something that isn’t a priority. Not sure if your line of work, but colour code departments/if they need urgent replies? Might help get a bit more organised.