Despite all the technology and AI, the e-mail problem is not yet solved. So let's solve it today. The core concept is very simple, Minimize e-mail and maximize collaboration. These are the topics we are going to cover. If you like a particular topic, of course, you can jump to it. From TOC. You are either sending a mail or you are replying to a mail. There is no third thing. In either case, before you send or reply, you have to think why am I doing this? What is the objective? Is there a better way? If yes, explore it. If that fails then send the mail. Now let us talk about sending mails. So what are the common reasons why we send mail? One of it is I need some inputs. You send a mail, some people reply. Now think, is there a better way? Yes, of course you use loop components. And in fact, why keep that mail trail randomly in inbox? Why not create a group chat and do it? And once you use loop, it doesn't matter whether it is e-mail or chat or meetings or channels. So try it out now. Remember anything you do differently, you have seen the video, others have not. So it's important that you share this with them. Everyone is on the same page. Then you try it out. That way the collaboration is wholesome. The next is I want inputs, but there is a file involved. Don't send attachments. Please send a link to the file and teach the other party how to use the link. File has to be on OneDrive, SharePoint or Teams. All these things. I am not giving you details about how to share a link. Step one. Step 2. For that there is a video. I have given links in the description. This video is more about understanding the options and minimizing the use of e-mail. Next is data. You want data from people. You attach an excel file. Don't do that. There is a much better way of doing that. If it is small little data, you can create a loop table and send it. Or more sophisticated, more complex data, more structured data. You want some security as well, then useless. If you must use excel for data entry, send it as a link. So there you have it, data problem also solved. The next one is reports. Because you get data, you analyze it, create reports again, send a mail, send a link. In fact if you have Power BI Pro then you can publish it on cloud and send it as a link. So there is no e-mail also involved. And while we are talking about links, a common problem is I did receive a link but one month later I forgot where it is. So I am going to search any e-mail. No, don't do that. You remember was it a Word or Excel or PowerPoint? Then go to that app file open, there is a shared option that will give you all the list. Pick it up from there. Another common problem is you get a link in outlook e-mail. You click on it, you expect it to open in Word, excel, PowerPoint but it opens in browser. Very irritating. So go to file options and change this setting. Now it will open in the correct tab directly. Another reason why we send mail is work. I am asking someone to do something. Basically I am delegating work, so don't send e-mail. The best way to delegate work nowadays is to go to planner. New planner which is currently in teams, but soon it will be available. Otherwise also go to teams, add planner, add a plan, add the people and then put the task, assign it to the person. That way you have a much more accountable way of delegating work and monitoring it. So tasks have nothing to do with inbox. Don't send mail for task. The other traffic for e-mail is I want some approval or I'm sending an update to my boss or team. Again, amazing apps are available right within teams. Go to teams, three dots, add approval app and then you can request approval or on the other side you can approve them as well. Same way, updates. You want your team to give you updates periodically. Create an update. Yes, you can customize the format, then publish it to your team. And you set the frequency once weekly, daily, monthly, whatever. And then you do not have to remind them. Teams will remind them. They will submit it. You will know, you will see all the approvals, all the updates in one place without ever touching your inbox, the next. Very irritating category is mails related to meetings. Yes, you will receive the meeting invite in inbox, you will accept or reject it, then it goes away. That's not the problem. The problem is what happens after. There is going to be agenda discussion, there are going to be collateral files, there will be action items, follow up items, minutes of meeting. All of that is going to come as e-mail. So that's a disaster. But that problem we have already solved. All of it happens inside Teams. So have a look at this video. And now onwards, no mails will go to anybody about a meeting except for the meeting invite. This is a revolution actually. So bottom line, when you are sending mails, these are the categories and these are the recommended approaches. Now whatever else is left, yes by all means send a mail. All of this is possible in external context as well, and everything which I have said is possible using the browser or the new Outlook as well. One new thing about sending mail. Now we can schedule a mail. In fact, if you are sending a mail to someone which is outside their office hours, you'll see a message on top saying do you want to send it in their office hours? Notice it and use it. That way you can send the mail. Your mind is clear, but others are not unnecessarily troubled on a non working day. Best of both worlds. So now let us talk about replying to emails. Now this was a long section. You will think replying to emails is also going to be equally long. No, it is very short because we have just seen different reasons why you send a mail to others and those are the exact same reasons why others send mail to you. So the alternatives are exactly same. The only difference is the person who sent it does not know that there is a better alternative. That is why they send a mail. But now you know the better alternatives. You have to break that vicious cycle. Stop it. And then even if someone sent an attachment, you sent a link back and then educate the person. Education is easy. Just share this video now. When you are receiving mails, you handle one mail at a time. After you finish handling the mail, it should not remain in inbox. There can be so many different things you can do. Some people like to color code fine, do color coding. But don't keep it in inbox. Put it in some folder. You want to delete it because it's useless, fine, delete it. If it's really useless, mark it as junk. If it is not useless, it's OK. It's like a credit card statement. I am not jumping on it, but if there is a dispute I want it. Then right click on it and say always move to other folder. In fact Outlook already knows that and such less important mails are already lying in other folder. Otherwise what else can you do? Forward it to someone? Or very important someone sent it a task as a mail but you convert it to a task. There are many ways. Have a look at this video. If there are multiple actions to be done, for example move it to a folder, create a task and forward it, then you do not do three actions. There is something called quick actions where you define a set of actions, select A mail and do that quick action. And the last thing is many people ask me about rules. Yes of course you can create rules if there is a predictable pattern. But at least one rule you should have you create a rule saying any mail where I am the only person in the two list means sent only to me, flag it with a special category called important. So now those mails you should handle 1st and rest of them whenever you get time. So this way your sending is better, your mail handling is better, and more importantly, each one who works with you closely knows exactly the correct way of collaboration and that is how you manage better communication. I am sure you found this useful, please share it with as many people as you can. Let's help everyone grow faster. So that's it for now, see you next time. Thank you.
