Do you suffer from Monday morning dread? Is it worse when you’ve been on leave? I bet that literally every practice manager says ‘yes’ to those two questions.
Every Sunday night, my IBS kicks off knowing that I’ve got to face work again the next day. And it’s ten times worse when I’ve been away on leave. It almost makes the leave null and void, and sometimes I think, “What was the point of going away?” Due to my personal fear of that Monday morning dread, last year was the first time since becoming a PM that I actually took two weeks’ annual leave. How can that be acceptable? We all need our holidays.
There will always be too much to do and not enough hours in the day, but exhaustion is never a great place to be when you’re trying to keep everyone else going. Our holidays, even if we just stay at home, should be a chance to totally switch off, to do the things we want to do, to rest, recuperate, recharge our batteries – and that’s fine, until you get to the night before you’re due to return.
It’s a sad truth that most of the PMs I know check their emails on the last Sunday of their leave – that is, if they’ve managed to resist checking them through the week! None of this is healthy, but it’s what we do to manage that first day back.
When I recently returned from a week off, I checked my emails and had 342 – totally bonkers but not unusual.
I’ve started to add when I send emails to people,“Please don’t hit ‘reply to all’ as it clogs up my inbox”. This is to try and stop receiving everyone’s thoughts on every tiny matter. Of course, some people get offended. I don’t intend to upset them; I just don’t need to know what everyone thinks about a meeting that’s being planned for October!
I’ve also started writing a more detailed absence notification that says I’ll receive an unmanageable number of emails while I’m away so I’ll respond as soon as I can, but it may be days or weeks after my return. Then, if you want me to respond sooner, it’s your responsibility to email me again on X date (i.e., the date I come back from leave). This has helped a little, but it doesn’t stop the emails flooding in. Interestingly, on the two occasions I’ve done this, not one email has been duplicated.
Whilst I’m a great believer that if you leave something long enough, it will become irrelevant and you can just delete it, there are emails that we really do need to deal with. I don’t know anyone with an empty inbox – and everyone has a gazillion folders within their email inbox to save stuff for reference. One manager I know has a ‘Things to Do’ folder, so she just moves emails from her inbox into this folder and the inbox stays relatively empty, but the ‘Things to Do’ folder is a mess!
So, how do we manage the unmanageable? Well, email etiquette is a good thing to embed into your organisation. By that, I mean having an agreement not to send emails that just say ‘Thanks for that’ in response to someone doing something. Of course, it’s nice to say thank you – it’s the polite and courteous thing to do – but remember that this email will add to the inbox and may just get deleted, so is it really necessary?
If you’re leaving an ‘out of office’ notification – is is clear? What dates are you not available? To whom should an urgent email be addressed? This can cut down a number of emails that can be dealt with by other people, or sent elsewhere while you are away.
One thing I’d love people to do when then email for information, is to put a deadline date in the subject heading. Then, if I’m back from leave today but the deadline is, say, the end of April, make that point obvious in the heading so I know I don’t have to deal with it on that first Monday morning back.
Emails are a great way of contacting people; however, that gut-wrenching feeling of having hundreds of emails waiting for you that might all need something doing (even if it’s only printing out an invoice) can make a lot of us feel anxious and dread coming back to work.
Those 342 emails took me four hours to deal with – on Sunday night, of course, because Monday is totally unmanageable. This can’t continue! I wish I had all the answers. How do you manage your emails? Do you have any innovative ideas? Comment below and perhaps we can come up with a collective management plan?
Nicola Davies
March 17, 2023 at 7:52 am
one of my ex-Senior Partners had the philosophy that he simply would not deal with emails whilst on leave. His out of office was something like:
I am on leave from A – B dates. During that time, all emails will be automatically deleted. If your email is important and needs action, please email me again on the date B +1.
Seemed to work !!
March 17, 2023 at 8:25 am
As one of those managers who do the Sunday afternoon email cull, your post totally resonates with me. However, recently returning from a week away, for the very first time in 20 years of practice management, I managed not only to not look at my emails whilst I was away, but also I did not look at my emails until the Monday morning at work!
I almost felt a bit guilty by doing that, but it was liberating. You are right we do need our breaks and to make the most of the opportunities to switch off from such a demanding job. I don’t have the magic answer but I do find that it helps reduce the load quickly if I do this:
1. Sort emails by who they are from first, and then get rid of all the junk, eg locum agency emails, irrelevant sales and training course emails. (any number of other sources that may, to each individual be categorised as junk).
2. Then sort by subject, so I am reviewing all the comments in a thread at the same time. (saves on printing and time too).
I’m sure many already do this, but I find this helps me reduce them quicker. Looking forward to seeing other ideas that people have to deal with their email load! Good thread Nicola!
March 17, 2023 at 8:36 am
I couldn’t agree more Nicola – and I ask all of my team to try and ensure that they have at least one 2 week break during the year. I’ve been very lucky to have an extended break recently of almost 4 weeks. I did not get 4 times the number of emails on my return (I think many people knew I was away and so didn’t copy me in if not needed). This might be because lots of people knew that I would be away and I also made a point of saying that I would not be checking emails until I returned.
One tip would be to include a message in your signature line for a couple of weeks before you are due to go on leave to note that you will be away and the dates.
Another bane of our lives is work WhatsApp chats. Two options here:
1) remove yourself from any groups and rejoin on return
2) Mute the chat AND archive – the messages then disappear to a folder behind the main one so you don’t keep seeing them!
Either way, I strongly believe that it’s important that we all take our leave and allow us time to relax.
March 17, 2023 at 8:59 am
Great blog, on point as always.
My solution to the email conundrum is to try and have a ‘touch once’ policy.
If it’s something that needs action now – do it
If it’s something I need to keep for reference, – move to a relevant folder
If it’s an invoice – print off
If it’s a future action – add a reminder or diary note and move on
If it’s junk – stick in the bin
Some emails, inevitably, don’t fit into any of these categories and remain in my inbox but, I can generally keep my inbox down to about 30 emails that still need attention.
March 17, 2023 at 9:04 am
After 25 years as a Practice Manager in inner city Nottingham these are my thoughts
1 Do not under any circumstances have your NHS email on your phone, delete it now!
2 I have in the past come back from AL and deleted all my unread emails, NOTHING and I repeat NOTHING has ever happened, if need be they will contact you again. I currently have 2204 unread emails in my inbox and am pretty cool with that.
3 I always told my staff NOT to send me tasks/notifications via SystmOne because I wasnt going to read them, they were to come and see me in person instead.
Keep your sanity and keep it stress free……
March 17, 2023 at 10:30 am
I totally agree with Mark. I’ve been a PM for 17 years and used to get stressed, but now I just take it at pace.
When your off from work, your off! Do not check emails, leave contact details of someone else on your ‘out of office’ message, for something that is urgent.
Mute whats app groups.
If something has a timeline and you’ve missed it, you will get a reminder.
Breath, smile and try to enjoy your job. You work to live, not live to work.
March 17, 2023 at 9:39 am
I saw this the other day and think it might be the way forward…
I am away on leave from xx to xx. Any email sent to me during this time will be automatically deleted. All urgent emails should be sent to my colleague xxx (email) to be dealt with during my absence. otherwise resend any email you wish me to review on or after my return date xxx
March 17, 2023 at 11:14 am
Hello
Thanks for sharing these!
Here are some changes I have adopted in recent years:
1. When sending an e-mail to all staff, I started to add right at the top of the e-mail in a different colour and font “Do not reply to all” and noticed it to work most times.
2. Archive any e-mails that are older than 3 or 6 months, they don’t need to be in the inbox folder. The NHS.net e-mail offers 100GB of archiving space for a reason.
3. When back from holiday I sort the e-mails in folders by the type of actions. (if invoices need printing then I print them on the spot, but if I don’t have access to the printer at that point then they go in a separate folder).
4. If I have to print a lot from e-mails, invoices, timesheets etc, then I print them all and only at the end I sort them by category and deal with each category separately.
March 17, 2023 at 11:47 am
Captures the issue nicely.
What I do is:
1. Never EVER look at emails when not in the office. This used to be easy as NHS Mail was rocky on Apple products.
2. I have a rule that automatically copies all mail to an archive folder so whatever happens to the inbox, I’ve always got a back-up.
3. I only keep 2 months worth in my inbox and delete the oldest month at the start of a new month. No worries about losing anything because of point 2 above.
4. Block persistent senders of persistent junk mail.
5. Colour code important addressees so the priority stuff stands out i.e. Senior Partner is red, ICB green etc etc. This is really useful when facing a full page.
6. Effective OOO message. I occasionally include the line that emails will be deleted until i return, if important then re send to arrive by date. The fact that the sender can see we are away before even sending the message ought to be a clue. Nothing is actually lost by this as you have backed up as per Point 2.
7. Agree completely with the ‘touch it do it’ philosophy, which I am bad at. I programme time in my calendar to do emails, shut the door and switch on the Do Not Disturb function on the phone.
and remember the mantra “out with stress, in with gin…”
March 17, 2023 at 11:51 am
I have to say I don’t have the dread of the Monday morning, and definitely don’t access emails when I am not in , not even on the Sunday night after a 2 week holiday., and haven’t done for about 10 years now. As I’ve got older I’ve realised if there is anything that is life threateningly urgent someone will ring me or WhatsApp me before I get to read the emails. By the way, I’ve never in 20 years of PM had anything life threateningly urgent either so I’ve learnt over the years not to worry, if I got run over by a bus before I got into work they would still manage without me. We put ourselves under more pressure than we need to. I work hard when I’m here and make sure all the urgent important things are done and have learnt to accept I will always have a work to do folder.
March 21, 2023 at 12:26 pm
Another trick is to put your out of office reply to continue on your first day back so you give yourself a day to clear up and prioritise rather than doing it on Sunday evening.
March 22, 2023 at 6:00 pm
Thank you for all of these comments – some fabulous suggestions here to make our lives easier all round.
And Sandie, I totally agree – I wish I could do what you do – the stress is self-induced and you’re absolutely right, the world (and the practice) will continue to turn with or without me!!!
Thanks again everyone :-))
April 17, 2023 at 12:11 pm
Agree with the addition of 1 day on email for return date, it helps, no meetings for the first 2 days either.
So please to know I’m not alone here.