“Shinydocs is not our hero. It's our silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.” Shinydocs has been protecting businesses since 2004 and there is one truth we’ve uncovered, email is every organization's enemy.

One of the first sources of content under review in both audit and litigation situations, email is driving significant costs to the enterprise.

Getting people to notice your email is an uphill slog. You're competing with countless other missives, Facebook updates, Twitter notifications, meeting requests, and who knows what else that's currently cramming your inbox. So how do you get your recipients to sit up and take notice of your incredibly important email message? ALL CAPS? Exclamation marks!!!!! Mark as urgent? Brevity? Nope.

We've been hard on email here at Shinydocs. Understand we're not trying to replace your inbox. Our success is about making it suck less. But now we've found out the stakes have gotten even higher. Your email is trying to kill you.

OK, we've established that email sucks. Problem is, it's not going away anytime soon, so how about making it suck less? Want to help? Start writing shorter emails. Get concise, punchy even. Dispense with small talk. Ditch the "Sorry to bother you" niceties and get to the point. Twitter, BBM, texts and IMs have gotten us used to brevity. What might seem curt to the point of rudeness is just good business.

A 2011 report found that most employees spend half their time at work on email.