Why we do not like email and how to live with it
The future of e-mail raises debate not for the first year, but it seems that this future exists. Although email is increasingly inferior in functionality to numerous cloud services for communication and collaboration, the rumors about the imminent death of mail are greatly exaggerated. According to research , it is still the most important means of business communication. Mail is ahead of social networks and instant messengers due to habit and ease of use. And since we still have some time to live with her, it is worth thinking about a more efficient organization of work with email.
Counterproductive correspondence secret
They are constantly trying to make mail more functional, making work with letters easier and more meaningful. For example, Inbox from Google or AOL's new Alto Mail application adds Swipe gestures to quickly archive unnecessary messages, filters for sorting and automatic extraction of important details, for example, the date and time of departure, into separate cards. That is, an approach to mail appears as a tool for managing tasks.
These innovations, of course, help to better structure the work with incoming messages and get rid of such typical problems as files lost in correspondence or lost business. Recently, we have adopted such an approach, and we, having remade the work with notifications from the task management system in our mobile applications. When the opportunity to process a stream of notifications as a to-do list appeared in Wrike for Android and iPhone, the number of users working with notifications jumped from 30% to 70%.
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This, however, only helps with personal productivity, and the more fundamental problems of email lie in the plane of collaboration. A recent survey conducted by us showed that the top reasons that reduce the productivity of work at the command level include waiting for a response from other people and difficulties in accessing the information necessary for work.
Mail correspondence is an extremely opaque communication channel. Progress on tasks is discussed in separate chains of letters, which include different groups of people. The team does not have quick access to current information on the entire project and to the latest versions of all the necessary files. This means that employees have to spend time and re-request this information from each other each time.
In theory, these problems are being solved by collaboration systems, the purpose of which is to provide a common work context that is accessible to all. There you can put together all the descriptions, discussions and files on tasks, provide quick access to information, immediately understand at what stage everything is in the end.
But, as already mentioned, few are willing to give up the mail. And since it is impossible to win, you can lead, that is, to correctly integrate email into a more advanced set of project management tools. In principle, we not only thought about how this might look, but also implemented some ideas of such a bundle in Wrike .
Effective coexistence
First, the proper integration of mail with the service should not affect the existing habits of users. No one blocks or prohibits. Employees can correspond in the old manner. What is important is to provide a fast and comfortable way to export this information to a single cloud storage, where all resources and task discussions are concentrated. And we decided that the easiest way is to simply send an important letter to the working cloud at wrike@wrike.com, where a new task will be immediately created on its basis.
Secondly, integration should be two-way. Email fans should also be aware of all changes to Wrike in the tasks that interest them. Therefore, all project update notifications are automatically sent to employees by mail. At the same time, we do not force a person to move from the mail to Wrike to leave a comment in the discussion there. This can be done simply by return letter. You can even attach files to this answer.
Thirdly, you need to take care of the working environment. In the case of mail, this is the application in which the user reads it. We have made several plugins for popular clients: Outlook, Mac Mail, Gmail, which do about the same thing - allow you to more productively use the message view window. In fact, the plugin allows you to turn a letter from Wrike into a full-fledged working screen, where you can correct the description and status of the task, add files and comments, assign an artist, etc.
It is worth noting that we do not call to put Wrike. In one way or another, our competitors are also working on making the email more meaningful. The main thing is that our experience shows that email can be put on the service of productivity. The main thing is to be able to cook it - then use it in the right proportion and in combination with the right products.
Counterproductive correspondence secret
They are constantly trying to make mail more functional, making work with letters easier and more meaningful. For example, Inbox from Google or AOL's new Alto Mail application adds Swipe gestures to quickly archive unnecessary messages, filters for sorting and automatic extraction of important details, for example, the date and time of departure, into separate cards. That is, an approach to mail appears as a tool for managing tasks.
These innovations, of course, help to better structure the work with incoming messages and get rid of such typical problems as files lost in correspondence or lost business. Recently, we have adopted such an approach, and we, having remade the work with notifications from the task management system in our mobile applications. When the opportunity to process a stream of notifications as a to-do list appeared in Wrike for Android and iPhone, the number of users working with notifications jumped from 30% to 70%.
')
This, however, only helps with personal productivity, and the more fundamental problems of email lie in the plane of collaboration. A recent survey conducted by us showed that the top reasons that reduce the productivity of work at the command level include waiting for a response from other people and difficulties in accessing the information necessary for work.
Mail correspondence is an extremely opaque communication channel. Progress on tasks is discussed in separate chains of letters, which include different groups of people. The team does not have quick access to current information on the entire project and to the latest versions of all the necessary files. This means that employees have to spend time and re-request this information from each other each time.
In theory, these problems are being solved by collaboration systems, the purpose of which is to provide a common work context that is accessible to all. There you can put together all the descriptions, discussions and files on tasks, provide quick access to information, immediately understand at what stage everything is in the end.
But, as already mentioned, few are willing to give up the mail. And since it is impossible to win, you can lead, that is, to correctly integrate email into a more advanced set of project management tools. In principle, we not only thought about how this might look, but also implemented some ideas of such a bundle in Wrike .
Effective coexistence
First, the proper integration of mail with the service should not affect the existing habits of users. No one blocks or prohibits. Employees can correspond in the old manner. What is important is to provide a fast and comfortable way to export this information to a single cloud storage, where all resources and task discussions are concentrated. And we decided that the easiest way is to simply send an important letter to the working cloud at wrike@wrike.com, where a new task will be immediately created on its basis.
Secondly, integration should be two-way. Email fans should also be aware of all changes to Wrike in the tasks that interest them. Therefore, all project update notifications are automatically sent to employees by mail. At the same time, we do not force a person to move from the mail to Wrike to leave a comment in the discussion there. This can be done simply by return letter. You can even attach files to this answer.
Thirdly, you need to take care of the working environment. In the case of mail, this is the application in which the user reads it. We have made several plugins for popular clients: Outlook, Mac Mail, Gmail, which do about the same thing - allow you to more productively use the message view window. In fact, the plugin allows you to turn a letter from Wrike into a full-fledged working screen, where you can correct the description and status of the task, add files and comments, assign an artist, etc.
It is worth noting that we do not call to put Wrike. In one way or another, our competitors are also working on making the email more meaningful. The main thing is that our experience shows that email can be put on the service of productivity. The main thing is to be able to cook it - then use it in the right proportion and in combination with the right products.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/371809/
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