Adapting to inbox challenges

Want to stand out as a law firm associate? Have a dialed-in client email strategy. Ease the burden of your in-house contact's email inbox. As with any strategy, understanding the reality of your in-house clients' world is key: they're juggling multiple legal matters. They're serving dozens or even hundreds of internal "clients" across their organization. Each business unit, manager, and project team needs their attention. Their inbox is a constant stream of urgent requests, necessary approvals, and internal discussions. Every email you send either adds to or eases this cognitive burden. How you email can make a real difference in how clients view both you and your firm. Your email habits show you understand their world and are actively working to make their job easier (bad habits will have the opposite effect). In addition to understanding their world, it's important to understand their communication preferences. In other words, there's no one-size-fits-all-approach here. But...there are some solid go-to techniques that, at least in my experience, most in-house counsel appreciate. Here are a few ideas: 1. Lead with clear "next steps" at the top of a substantive email—don't bury action items in lengthy prose. 2. Write in a way that makes it easy for your in-house contact to forward to business colleagues: use plain English summaries, clear headers, and explicitly call out what's needed from each stakeholder. 3. Remember that your email might be forwarded multiple times as part of internal discussions, so make it scannable and self-contained—a business executive should be able to understand the key points without needing the full email chain for context. 4. Make your subject lines work harder—label them clearly as [ACTION NEEDED] or [UPDATE ONLY] and include a few key details for context. 5. Keep separate matters in separate emails—this makes it easier for your in-house contact to forward only relevant pieces to different business teams. 6. When sending documents for review, highlight the 2-3 key areas needing attention rather than leaving them to hunt through the full document. 7. Instead of sending multiple updates, consolidate them into regular digestible summaries. Create a predictable rhythm your clients can rely on—they'll appreciate knowing when to expect updates and can plan their workflow accordingly. 8. For complex matters with multiple workstreams, maintain a simple status report that can be quickly skimmed or forwarded to show progress at a glance. These things might seem small, but they demonstrate real professionalism and understanding of your clients' needs. You're not just handling legal work—you're actively making your clients' jobs easier. And that goes a long way toward helping you stand out as an associate for the right reasons.

As healthcare organizations continue to digitize their operations, one unintended consequence has become increasingly clear - the physician inbox overload epidemic. According to data from Forward Health Group, Inc., which directly analyzed client EMR data, the number of inbox messages physicians see can spike 20-30% in the first month after a practice hires a new Medical Assistant (MA). This is largely driven by the "just to double check" messages from MAs who are learning on the job, as well as the increased volume of voicemails from attending MDs. When you look at the full denominator of inbox activity across hospitals and health systems, the picture becomes even more concerning. As Michael Barbouche from Forward Health has found, this has led to a culture of communication overload that has become a normative "inbox bomb" for clinicians. This is a critical issue, as the first wave of digitization (EMRs) is killing physician productivity and causing dangerous levels of burnout. Neither health systems nor physicians can sustain the status quo. To address this challenge, we need to take a three-pronged approach: 1. Quantitative problem definition: Rigorously analyze the scale and impact of inbox overload to truly understand the scope of the issue. 2. Practical problem-solving with the right digital tools: Deploy passive or autonomous agent technologies, with medically appropriate rules and monitoring, to intelligently triage and manage inbox communications without relying solely on additional human capital. 3. Change management to engage key stakeholders: Work closely with physicians, operational leaders, and IT teams to reengineer workflows and usher in a second wave of digital transformation that solves first-wave digitization problems. As pioneers like Sara Vaezy and team at Providence have demonstrated, AI-enabled software can safely redirect patient messages to the right resources without burdening physicians. We must expand upon these types of innovations to the entire physician inbox to make the dent necessary to rightsize the clinician time dedicated to work that only they should own. This is a culture problem, not another "blame the EMR" screed. By taking a holistic, data-driven, and collaborative approach, we can overcome the unintended consequences of digitization 1.0 and provide physicians the support they desperately need. I'd love to hear thoughts from industry experts like Michael, Sara, Brendan Keeler, Abhinav Shashank, Spencer Dorn and others on how we can solve this critical challenge facing our healthcare system.

10 rules for CEOs drowning in emails. Start with No. 1 today. The biggest challenge for CEOs isn't scaling their business. It's getting trapped by emails. They start the day answering messages and by noon they feel productive... but they haven't actually got anything done. Here's how to break the cycle: 1. Set office hours for email. ↳ Pick two times to check your inbox and stick to them. 2. Delegate where possible. ↳ Let your team handle what you don't need to respond to. 3. Use templates for common replies. ↳ Save time by creating standard responses. 4. Unsubscribe and filter ruthlessly ↳ Delete what's unnecessary so only what's important reaches you. 5. Move strategic work outside of email. ↳ Everything about your business growth stays out of your inbox. 6. Audit your inbox. ↳ Identify what can be delegated or eliminated. 7. Batch your replies. ↳ Stick to set times instead of checking constantly. 8. Train your team. ↳ Set clear expectations on response times. 9. Automate where possible. ↳ Use filters and a trusted EA. 10. Protect your focus time. ↳ Block out hours for real work. Your inbox should serve you, not the other way around. Tell me which habit you're ditching first. ________________ 📌 This one’s worth keeping. Save it. Share it. Put it to use. 🔔 Follow Christine Carrillo for more no-fluff advice. 📩 My best insights don't live on LinkedIn. Get them here: https://bit.ly/4kfOEFj

Drowning in emails? You’re not alone. When I was at Microsoft, I struggled with inbox overwhelm—until I started using a simple 3-folder system in Outlook that helped me finally take control and hit Inbox Zero. 📁 Action Items – Emails you need to respond to or act on 📁 Waiting On – Messages where you're waiting for a reply 📁 Read Later – Newsletters or FYIs that aren't urgent 🔄 Every new email gets triaged into one of these, so your inbox stays clear and your priorities stay sharp. Combine this with smart automation rules, and you’ll never waste time searching for buried emails again. I've included the full video link below where I walk through the system step by step, including how to: ✅ Set up the folders ✅ Organize by priority ✅ Use rules to auto-sort newsletters ✅ Clean your inbox without losing important info Whether you’re using Outlook on the web or the desktop app, this works like a charm. What’s your go-to email organization hack? I’d love to hear it👇 #InboxZero #ProductivityTips #Outlook #Microsoft365 #EmailManagement #WorkSmarter #KevinCookieCompany