Email Tip: Spotlight the 'Signal' and Reduce the 'Noise'

Not every email is of equal importance.

For example:

An FYI email where you are CC'd is not as important as an urgent email from your best client with a fire you need to extinguish.

CC'd Email = noise.

Important Client Email = signal.

The problem with email is that messages stack on top of one another sorted by Date.

Like this:

NOISE
NOISE
NOISE
SIGNAL
NOISE
NOISE
SIGNAL
NOISE

Think about that.

Is 'sorted by date' the best way to approach a list of email messages to process?

Hell no.

A better way to sort your email would be by 'importance' with the most important emails at the top and the least important emails at the bottom.

Like this:

SIGNAL
SIGNAL
NOISE
NOISE
NOISE
NOISE
NOISE
NOISE

But unless you build your own email software with an algorithm which does this, you'll have to figure out how to sort through the noise in a different way.

You can still use email but try this to reduce the noise:

• unsubscribe from email you don't care about or read anymore
• turn off email notifications from other software which you delete anyway
• use a better tool for internal communication like #slack to keep internal conversations out of email
• move all task/project related conversations to a work management tool like Asana or Notion
• train people on when and how to CC you so it's used sparingly
• train clients to use ticketing systems or search FAQ's to get their concerns / questions answered instead of direct emailing you as this isn't scaleable
• bring clients into Notion or Asana or even Google Docs as a better way to work together than back and forth emails
• think about what questions your clients will have and build ways for them to get that without emailing you - ie. status updates, renewals, problems, etc.
• use rules or filters to move low priority messages you do want out of the Inbox