Manage Your E-Mail

After a couple of days away from the computer, I return and find I have four hundred e-mails waiting for response. Fortunately, this is an infrequent occurrence and I have a system for managing my e-mail that will allow me to deal with this backlog in about an hour, two at the most. This was not always the case. When I was first introduced to e-mail in the work environment, I would often get several hundred e-mails a day. About half of them would go unread until I missed an important event or blundered into a meeting unaware of a breaking development. I had to find a way to cut through the pile of messages while I was still employed.

Folks still struggle with managing e-mail. Seventy per-cent of employees in Fortune Five Hundred Companies admit to having more e-mail than they can effectively handle. Another study states that the average computer user spends about an hour a day searching for stored documents and e-mail messages.

Here are a few tips that work for me:
Check e-mail once or twice a day. Setting up an alert and answering it every time a message pops up is inefficient use of time. Waiting more than twenty-four hours to review your inbox may result in a backlog and in your missing time-sensitive information.

When reviewing e-mail, start with the most recent messages first. This will eliminate answering serial e-mails about the same subject.

Spend no more than two minutes with each message. Make a decision about response to the message at the time you read it. Productivity expert Sally MaGhee suggests the Four D Method. When you read the e-mail make a decision to delete it, do it, delegate it or defer it. When delegating something, turn it into an action item for follow up. When deferring something, turn it into an action item or an appointment so you won’t forget about it. Microsoft Outlook provides tools for doing this quickly and provides good instructions at www.microsoft.com.

Create an effective reference system for items you need to save. (of course you save only the information that is relevant is not stored anywhere else and will be used in the next six months). Create files and search rules that are meaningful for you and the way you work. Purge the file when you no longer need the information.

These simple steps made a big difference for me and now I can afford to spend a day away from the computer when necessary.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net

MANAGING TIME AND TECHNOLOGY

Do you e-mail, instant message and text? Are you the type who embraces new technology and finds infinite ways to use it in your work and home life?

Or do you yearn for the days when Blackberry was a fruit and Twitter was the sound made by birds? Do you wonder where all the time went that you were supposed to save through the use of technology?

Technology is only a tool. It can make time management an easier process or it can clog your system for getting things done. You are the key to how well technology supports your management of daily activities.

The truth is nobody really manages time. Time just keeps on ticking away. What we manage are our activities along the time continuum. So we engage in activities that either meet our goals in the time frame we envision, or we engage in activities that use time in ways that do not produce the results we aim for. We are really managing ourselves and what we choose to do. There are a lot of ways to do that and technology can support our efforts.

It is great to be able to find what we need by Internet search rather than driving all over town or even letting our fingers do the walking through the yellow pages. It is great to find our destination through automated directions rather than wandering around strange streets in search of our next stop.

It is not so great to be continuously interrupted by messages on our cell phones or to wade through a mass of e-mail several times a day.

In order to be organized, you have to know the tools you are using, have a plan for their use and remain focused on achieving your goals. If the tools are not working for you, it may be that you do not know how to use the technology, it is not the right technology for the job, or it is just not right for your style of organization. Once you know what the problem is, you can take steps to correct it.

Here are a few hints for handling the most common technology management problems:

• Don’t be a slave to e-mail. Schedule time to review your e-mail twice a day. Turn of the “ping” that tempts you to have a look when new messages arrive. Understand the auto-controls available on your toolbar and use them to manage the mail. When tackling a long list of e-mails after an absence, start with most recent ones first. That will save you time responding to earlier messages about the same subject.

• Put yourself in control of your cell phone. You do not have to respond to every call when it comes in. Caller ID and voice mail allow you to judiciously screen callers so you can respond to those you choose. Assign a recognizable unique ring-tone to individuals who need an immediate response. That might be your child, your spouse, your boss or an emergency call service. In some phones, unique alerts can be applied to text sources as well.

• Keep your PDA current. You cannot be where you need to be on time if the appointment is not listed. You cannot easily call when you are going to be late if the phone number hasn’t been entered. Schedule a designated time for a periodic review of PDA content and/ or uplink to your computer. Schedules may require more frequent review than resource lists. Enter the time for update in your PDA as a regular appointment and take that time to update the information. It is comparable to a carpenter making sure his saw blades are sharpened. Tools don’t work unless you maintain them.

If technology takes more time to use than you save using it, decide if you are willing to gain proficiency. If that is not something you are willing to do, find a low-tech system that works for you. This can be a problem if you are working with a group of techies or living in a high-tech household. When that happens, it is wise to invest time in a little communication and cooperation to reach solutions that work for the group.

Time and technology continue to advance. It takes an organized approach to use them both wisely.

Beverly & Kristen
www.KeyTransitions.net