Email communication is currently the main communication channel for projects. Although we benefit from the advantages of email communication most project leaders suffer from the disadvantages as well. Email can cause frequent interruptions that prevent you from planning you project and watching your to-do list grow longer with every incoming email if you allow it. If your email overload is stressing you out and causing you to focus on the urgent issues instead of important project leadership tasks then you are in the right place at the right time. This is part one of a three part series of articles to get you to master email as a tool instead of being a slave to email who frequently is placed in email jail.

The most important benefit of mastering your email is to reclaim control over your time so that you can decide how best to invest your time, instead of having your inbox dictate your time management strategy. Ironically, email mastery is not about reading emails faster or filing them. It is about time management and the disruption that email overload causes to your schedule which reduces your ability to control the time that you put into your projects.

Email ecstasy starts with your philosophy toward email. What is your current philosophy about email? Do you hold false beliefs towards email that are not serving you? Fortunately, your philosophy towards email can be changed in an instant. Unfortunately, they may be the hardest things that you can change because beliefs are deeply held. It is up to you to decide how badly you want to master your email and reclaim your time back from inbox captivity.

Here are wining philosophical tips with email.

1. Mastering your email is not about email. It is about mastering your time and focusing on reaching your goals with the minimum number of distractions. Your objective is to gain as much control as possible over your time, so that you can invest time into addressing the most valuable areas on your project and project team.

2. Educate people on how to use your email. Don't enable bad behavior. When you find emails that are not within your acceptable range of effectiveness or efficiency, tell people how to improve. Don't let team members repeatedly waste your time with poorly thought out or poorly worded emails.

3. Get over the guilt. You are not obligated to act on every email you get or even respond to it. People send you all sorts of junk, stupid and irrelevant email. Go ahead and delete the nonsense emails that some people feel compelled to send you. If it is important, they will contact you again. You don't feel guilty when you miss an unwanted phone call from a tele-marketer at dinner time so why would you feel guilty if a team member sends you a stupid email?

4. Request feedback from trusted advisors. You may have a blind spot on the emails that you send and also may be missing opportunities for more success. Ask someone who you trust with emails to give you feedback on how you can improve. It could be your manager, a mentor or your professional coach depending on your situation.

5. Strive for zero emails in your inbox. Strive to keep it completely clean and empty. This may shock you, because I have worked with people who pride themselves on the number of emails that they keep in their inbox. You can't effectively plan the future if you are dragging along unresolved emails from last week. Deal with the emails in your inbox and close out the issues so that you can focus on the future.

6. Don't let your email drive your day. Your inbox is not your "to-do" list. Plan your day and stick to your plan as far as possible. Work your top project issues and follow them through to resolution. Let emails queue up in your inbox, and process them on your schedule.

7. Email mastery is about success, not perfection. There is no black and white passing grade for use of email. Sometime you will miss an important email. Don't worry about it - I have not yet heard of one life being lost because a project leader did not take action on the request that was mentioned on page four of an email. If you always worry that you will miss something important, then you are forcing yourself to wade through every email. Don't obsesses about send the perfect email either. Good enough is good enough for project team communication. The difference between email success and email perfection is many years of your time wasted. Focus your time on addressing project issues instead of seeking email perfection.

8. Do you have dysfunctional email patterns? Is there any pattern of emails that you dislike sending or receiving? Any type of emails that take you an extraordinary amount of time to craft before you can send them? Are your project communications frequently misunderstood? What is it about these emails that is causing a problem? Take the time to identify the motivation behind your pattern of actions. Call on your coach or trusted advisors if you need to so that you can identify and address dysfunctional email patterns.

9. How can you use your emails as a legitimate networking or marketing opportunity? Do you have a legitimate reason so send emails to all the leaders in your company - people who can use your skills in the future? You are a fabulous project leader and the more people that know you can assist them to reach their goals, the easier it is to create win/win situations. How can you point out that your influence has contributed to the current project success that you are communicating?

10. Would you feel unwanted if you don't receive any emails for three weeks? I left this one for last, because it forces you to take an unwanted look in the mirror. Is your self-esteem wrapped up in your inbox? Does your inbox validate your existence? Take a look in the mirror and honestly answer this question.

There you have it - ten tips to change your philosophy towards email so that you can master your inbox and use email as a tool in your communication toolbox. Now, go on to read the next article in this series - the next article in this series of email success strategies.