If you travel out of the office on business you no doubt rely on email to keep in touch with what’s going on the office. But whether you are in the office or out of the office most business executives are dealing with more than one hundred emails each day – or more. In my case I get a fair amount of newsletters and information on a daily basis. I also get copied on emails from clients, team members, and outside resources. I’ll wager that this happens to everyone.

We’ve all seen the tag line at the end of some people’s email signatures ‘Please think twice before printing out this email’. The thinking being that it is a waste of paper and we could help save the environment just a little if we did not print quite as much from our email files. Although I’d like to think I am able to make my own decisions on whether or not I require an email to be printed out I fully understand the sentiment.

What about people’s time? Maybe there should be a different sort of tag line, one that might read ‘Please think twice about to whom you are cc’ing this email – is it really necessary?’ I’ve adopted a rule that I do not respond to emails in which I am cc’d. If someone wants to direct a message to me and I feel the need to respond I will do so. But the rampant use of cc’ing is seemingly out of control from the standpoint of making sure that everyone copied can see what you wrote or are doing.

The point here is not that I am uninterested in what is going on – quite the contrary – I am interested and want to help if I am able. But most of the time I don’t feel I am being asked to help or even for my opinion. It seems to me that it is more of an opportunity for the sender to demonstrate their activity. So using that theory – how is cc’ing helping me?

Email is an extremely useful communication tool and in all honesty I love it and am a regular user. I know I have abused the cc thing and am trying very hard to really think about whether or not I need to cc someone when I send an email. We could all use all use a little more time for the important things don’t you think?

How about you – how much of your email flow is inessential and what would you do with the time
you would pick up if you did not have to read all the cc emails you receive every day?