Information distribution is essential during the executing process. Being up to date regarding emails and voice messages helps project managers remain informed regarding the current status of the project. Whether an individual is in academia or industry, their inbox is likely to be overflowing with messages. However, they are expected to use emails as one of the primary modes of communication. Thus, they must determine ways to overcome this issue. Other platforms such as Microsoft Teams enable workers to communicate as well.
What are ways PMs can manage their inbox in an efficient way?
As an employee, do you prefer communication through emails or Teams?
Personally, I prefer communication via Teams as it is more convenient to have quick, simple chats in comparison to email. For a quick question, teams tends to generate a much quicker response than email threads. In terms of email management, the most reasonable way to not be overwhelmed is to allocate time at the end of every day to read emails. If this is not done, then emails will accumulate as days go on, leading to chaos and a lot of missed messages. Although it may be time-consuming and seem pointless to have a time for simply opening emails, it is much better to do this than to miss an important email.
I think the key thing is to have rules so your emails are auto sorted. This will help you save a lot of time.
You will so much time everyday. If you need help setting it up, just look up a tutorial on how to set it.
As @shahil mentioned, setting up rules in your email to sort is a great tool for keeping your email organized. There are a few ways to do this:creating a folder for every team member so that you can reference emails sent by that team member, create folders by topic (biocompatibility, manufacturing, design verification, etc.), create folders for miscellaneous emails (company announcements, etc). In the time management book, “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, a good tip that I took from it is to start each day by looking at your calendar, not your email. Once you’ve mapped out your plan for the day and what you want your output to be, then you can tackle the input from others in your email. This will help a project manager increase productivity. In general, I recommend that book for project managers as it gives many practical tips for productivity that are very useful for someone who is managing multiple people and deliverables.
Rather than constantly examining the inbox throughout the day, specific occasions should be set aside to examine and answer emails. This assists lessen diversions and permits to center around other undertakings. Use email channels and organizers to naturally order incoming emails in light of criteria, for example, sender, subject or watchwords. This assists will sort the inbox and makes it simpler to need and discover critical emails. A method should be created to categorize emails according to urgency and significance. Mark or flag emails that need quick reaction, and plan time to answer less pressing emails afterwards. When writing emails, strive for simplicity and brevity. Plainly express the intention of the email in the topic line and utilize bullet points or numbered lists to convey information effectively.
I have always struggled to keep my email inbox clean. I always find myself reading the subject line and if it is not important to me I don't even open it. Just from being at NJIT I get tons of emails I am not interested in. This is why I think that conversation through teams is much more useful. Teams can be accessed in many different ways from computer to phone applications. There are chat functions that work like texting, but the best part in my opinion is that work can be done collaboratively in teams. So, in addition to keeping communication in a neat function, a project manager could also use the collaborative approach to monitor their employees work without actually having to reach out to them. I believe that teams is a much more efficient way of communication than email and should be used in all work areas.
At a non-profit I used to work at, the mode of communication was different when I came from the greater organization and specifically from my team's leader. The organization would typically communicate big advancements, changes, requests, etc. with us via email and it was only on certain occasions that the entire organization at all levels would come together. Whereas, my team leader really communicated with us both via email and a group messaging system. Of course, our team leader would send emails to communicate general news, weekly goals, or last minute changes. However, we were also communicating frequently through a group based messaging system (similar to slack) and it helped us communicate with each other to achieve our project milestones, even when we were busy.
One other thing that really helped our team stay coordinated was by using an electronic calendar system that allowed our team leader to see what tasks our schedules were occupied with. This allowed her to coordinate with team members and shift time/resources towards a specific goal or another to move the project forward efficiently and successfully. The transparency really helped everyone coordinate.
I would rather interact via Teams since these platforms are ideal for brief exchanges, group discussions, and project collaboration because they provide real-time communication and file sharing options.On the other hand, emails are better suited for detailed communication or documentation. I know that people can receive hundreds of emails a day and this can lead to lost emails. However, project managers can apply several strategies to more effectively manage the email inbox. These may include regularly deleting old emails and unsubscribing from unnecessary mailing lists. Additionally, to save time and maintain communication consistency, project managers can create and use email templates for frequently asked questions or answers.
Project managers can reclaim their inbox with a strategic approach. Schedule specific times to check emails and ruthlessly prioritize them. They can leverage tools like filters, labels, and canned responses to automate organization and save time.
Choosing between emails and Teams depends on the context. Emails remain essential for formal communication, documentation, or group updates. But for real-time collaboration, quick discussions, and sharing files, Teams shines. Many PMs find success with a hybrid approach, using Teams for ongoing work and emails for formal exchanges.
You can have emails auto sort. This is actually very helpful. This saves hours in my day. You should try it. Once you start doing it. I highly doubt you will ever not use it.
I think both methods of communication have their uses but I also think that teams is able to do everything email can do and also has a better communication aspect to it. Not only can you direct message and voice/video call with ease, but you can also exchange files just like you can on email. Teams allows you to communicate easily with more than one person at once by creating groups, which has a much better user interface than emails do. However, at the same time there is still a tendency for people to use emails in more formal interactions with others. I think teams is better for an already established team as everyone knows each other it kind of takes the formality out of the conversation and allows the conversation to move freely. But for cases of speaking to hire ups or other companies I think emailing would be a better option.