Top Four Work Emails That Waste Time

How much time do you waste reading work emails? I know I sure spend a lot of time perusing what gets sent around here at the Bruce Mikells Multi-Media Center.

Some of those emails are very important to the function of our business, while there are a handful each day that I could stand to not have clutter up my inbox.

A new survey asked people about their work emails and the conclusion was that 17% of the time you spend reading work emails is wasted. Mostly because there are emails you didn't need to see.

Here are the top four emails that waste people's time at work:

1. Spam. 39% of people said they waste more time on spam than any other email. (Glad we have a good spam filter.) Although this is a little puzzling since it takes very little time these days to realize that an email is spam and just hit delete. But I guess all that time adds up.
2. Emails you were copied on, but didn't need to be. 27% of respondents said it's the biggest time-waster when it comes to their work emails.
3. Emailing when it would just be faster to talk, like on the phone or in a meeting. Wow, how lazy and non-personal are we as a society? 19% say that's the biggest waste of time.
4. Long, rambling emails, 14%. This is kind of related to #3. If you have a lot to say, pick up the phone. Or if you must email, try to be concise and don't go off on too many tangents.