Email is not broken

My social feeds are constantly flooded with people sharing links on how to combat email. Seriously, combat it?

Email is the way clients contact you, it is asynchronous and it is super efficient if you use it properly.

A big problem is very few people know how to use email properly. They don't read through all the points in an email, don't respond to all questions and use bad language in their responses.

If you or your team lack reading and writing skills then you won't get much value out of email but then you won't get much value out of any written form of communication so you might as well get off the internet.

If you don't want clients to contact you via email, don't give them your email address. It's pretty simple, but I'm sure your business will slowly grind to a halt.

Some people may be justified complaining about internal email, but seriously, there is no excuse for mail overload internally except for lack of order in a business.

Whether you decide to use Slack, Google Hangouts, iMessage or Skype, internal communications can for the most part be switched to real time instant messaging.

Add in a centralised task and note management system like Wunderlist, Trello, Basecamp or Evernote and you'll be well on your way to reducing the amount of internal correspondence.

Email gives us the ability to reply in our own time, review a message thoroughly, draft a response, ensure all the points have been addressed and then reply. It's cross platform and it works.

It's time to change your perspective and embrace your mailbox.