Open Forum

ALTA member Todd Hougaard provided this article discussing the need to improve communications in the title industry. He posed these question to start a discussion about how much time we spend on email every day.

1. How many emails do you receive each day e.g., 100? 300? 500?
2. How much of your work time is spent on email e.g., 10%? 40% 75%?

1. Emails are at an all time high.  As a way of communication, its become a full time job.
2. At least 75% of the time is spent on emails.  As an owner and Licensed Title Agent, the emails can carry on before and after works hours as well. 

ALTA member Todd Hougaard provided this article discussing the need to improve communications in the title industry. He posed these question to start a discussion about how much time we spend on email every day.

1. How many emails do you receive each day e.g., 100? 300? 500?
2. How much of your work time is spent on email e.g., 10%? 40% 75%?

1. Emails are at an all time high.  As a way of communication, its become a full time job.
2. At least 75% of the time is spent on emails.  As an owner and Licensed Title Agent, the emails can carry on before and after works hours as well. 

ALTA member Todd Hougaard provided this article discussing the need to improve communications in the title industry. He posed these question to start a discussion about how much time we spend on email every day.

1. How many emails do you receive each day e.g., 100? 300? 500?
2. How much of your work time is spent on email e.g., 10%? 40% 75%?

ALTA member Todd Hougaard provided this article discussing the need to improve communications in the title industry. He posed these question to start a discussion about how much time we spend on email every day.

1. How many emails do you receive each day e.g., 100? 300? 500?
2. How much of your work time is spent on email e.g., 10%? 40% 75%?

I probably get over 100 emails daily and spend about 75% of my time processing those emails

ALTA member Todd Hougaard provided this article discussing the need to improve communications in the title industry. He posed these question to start a discussion about how much time we spend on email every day.

1. How many emails do you receive each day e.g., 100? 300? 500?
2. How much of your work time is spent on email e.g., 10%? 40% 75%?

I receive a 200-300 hundred email per day in 3 email accounts. I spend less than 1 1/2 hours per day in my inbox.  I spend more time working on things that I have scheduled myself to do on my calendar and my email / task apps are the place where those things reside.  I think those things are very different since the latter is focused work and the former is often spinning in circles.

My 2 work inboxes are zero at the end of the day.  My personal account is mostly junk / sales emails.  I am currently working on unsubscribing and making peace with the fact that there are some blogs I thought I would read but clearly will never.  I use folders to get things out of my inboxes. 

For my work emails, I have scheduled time at the end of the day (1 hour) to clear everything out that is resolved or junk, folder what I do not want to delete but do not need to take any action on, and task anything that needs to be done - with a category so I am look at all of them together when I am planning time to handle them.

I create rules that send some emails directly into folders if they are things I may want to monitor or may need to answer a question but for which I am not primarily responsible.  That requires trust in the people who are responsible.  If that is not true, I have the wrong person or the right person in the wrong position.

Emails that are sent directly to me are flagged (by auto rule) and in my inbox.  When I have a few moments, I will reply and resolve those.  The flagging means I can ignore anything not flagged for now.  For the common / repeat questions, I have email signatures with text in them so I am not recreating the wheel answering the same questions over and over.  I also have access to all of my legal and contract documents available in the cloud.  I teach real estate CE classes and help cover closings when i am not doing that.  I am trying to figure out how to 100% ditch the laptop but there are still some things that require computer processing.

I batch emails.  ALTA is probably the group that I receive the most general emails from.  I read them all at the same time once per week (Today!).  I categorize them, flag them and folder them.  Many of the articles listed are repeats.  Looking at similar emails together saves time and brain power.  For billpay items, I set a default day and adjust if that day does not work.  I take care of all payables items at once.  I do the same with "Waiting For" emails.  If following up is not appropriate at that time, I bounce it forward to the next week.  If I absolutely need a response earlier than the next week, I will set it for a different day.  I blind copy myself on emails I need a resolution to.  I categorize, flag and folder that email, not the email I am replying to, so that I can see the last correspondence and do not have to remember or search for my email response.  All of these categorized times are on my calendar at the top of the day (Payables on Mondays, ALTA on Fridays, etc).  When I plan the day, I move them into the right time or reschedule if that day is not going to work.

It is honestly worth the time to come up with a plan that will work for your personality and style.  It takes less time than dealing with the things we missed and hunting for things in the amorphous blob that is our inbox. :-)

Happy Friday (aka ALTA email day) everyone

I probably get over 100 emails daily and spend about 75% of my time processing those emails

ALTA member Todd Hougaard provided this article discussing the need to improve communications in the title industry. He posed these question to start a discussion about how much time we spend on email every day.

1. How many emails do you receive each day e.g., 100? 300? 500?
2. How much of your work time is spent on email e.g., 10%? 40% 75%?

ALTA member Todd Hougaard provided this article discussing the need to improve communications in the title industry. He posed these question to start a discussion about how much time we spend on email every day.

1. How many emails do you receive each day e.g., 100? 300? 500?
2. How much of your work time is spent on email e.g., 10%? 40% 75%?