We’ve all done it – allowed ourselves to be distracted by email rather than getting busy with the task at hand. Email, while often productive and important, can steal time in the most creative ways. Try these techniques, and encourage your colleagues to do the same. Note: This article can be used as the topic of an office meeting – list it on the agenda as “Time Saving/Office Productivity.”

1. Never send or forward “chain letter” email. You’ll still have friends and good things will still happen to you. As soon as you can tell that the email is “one of those,” hit delete.

2. Do not send “bounce-back” emails. These are also known as “ping-pong emails”. They occur when someone sends you something and you thank the person for it. Then you get thanked for thanking, and the ping pong continues. You can help put a stop to this by using NNTR (No Need to Respond) or NRN (No Response Necessary) when you send along something that might start the bounce-back.

3. Use the subject line as the complete email. When it’s possible to do this, then end the subject line with EOM which stands for “End of Message.” For example, send an email like this: “9/7 Meeting Time Changed to 8:30 a.m.” No one has to open this email. They read, take note on their calendar(s), and delete.

4. Learn to use email folders. Usually it’s just a right click on your email inbox to create a folder (or ask your “help” program). As soon as you’ve processed an email and determined that you MUST save it, slide it into the appropriate email folder. For example, if you receive a confirmation of an airline reservation, once you’ve opened it and noted the times and flights are correct, put it in the “Travel Confirmation” folder that you’ve created. Depending on the type of business you do, you might have many email folders, but more than a screen-full is too many.

5. Process everything in your email in-box EVERY day. Take action, move items to folders for later actions, delegate the tasks, or delete. Remember that you can usually retrieve things from your “Deleted” items for at least a few weeks depending on your organization’s policies, so don’t be afraid to delete.

6. Limit the number times each day you handle email. Unless you are expecting a CRITICAL email, do not look in your in-box at other times (and turn off the sound chime).

7. Learn to use the “rules” that are available in your email program. If your boss sends you email, have it diverted to the “Employer” folder, and then look at this folder first when you begin processing your email. If there some people who should *not* be sending you emails, then either delete them or divert their emails to your “Junk” folder. You might look at it someday…or you might not.

8. Avoid personal email at work. You know you’re not supposed to do it. You know that these emails sometimes go to the wrong people. You know this is bad.

9. Proofread, spell check, and make sure you’re sending your email to the right person. Untold chaos and time thievery results from sending an unclear email to the wrong person. (Even worse – sending a very clear email to the wrong person.)

Lurking all around you at home, at work, and everywhere in between, there are tasks, situations, technology, humans (and other mammals) who can potentially steal your time. Be on the lookout for the time thieves that are ready to rob you if you let your guard down.

1. Email -Ouch! There is a reason this one is first. You know it has happened to you. You start to check your email (with the idea that it will take a few minutes) and the next thing you know, an hour or more has passed. Time thief!

2. Telephone -This happens whether you are the one making the phone call or answering the phone. It’s as if you go into a time warp when you are on the phone. When you finally hang up and glance at the clock, 30 minutes (or more) have elapsed. You think, ‘What happened here?’

3. Drop-in visitors -Generally, these time thieves are not wearing masks (although maybe if they did, you would be more alarmed when you saw them). There you are in your office or home, working away on a key project that needs your attention. Oh no! It’s a drop-in visitor. If the person sits down (uninvited or invited), you know you are in trouble. Next, 10, 15, 45 minutes or more can go by and you have now completely lost track of the momentum you had built up on your project.

4. Procrastination -You have seen it and experienced it if you’re a normal human being. You shuffle papers around on your desk rather than actually doing the tasks associated with any of them, you defrost the freezer when you need to finish your dissertation (and it is the third defrosting of the week), or you clean your garage when you actually need to get your taxes done. Procrastination robs you of time (and self respect).

5. Self-distraction -Admit it. You look up every time anyone walks past your door. You have the sound turned up on your email notification. You open a drawer to get out a pencil and decide that you should re-organize the drawer so that it is neat and tidy. You jump up to get a cup of coffee just when it’s time to dive into a key task or project (and then visit with a few people along the way).

6. Filing systems (that aren’t) -You have heard it before. Piling is not filing. So if you have a filing arrangement that doesn’t work, it’s stealing your time. If you have to hunt through a stack to find something or if you have to spend time rooting around in your file cabinet for something that might or might not be filed….or if you have to get others involved in the quest to discover a misfiled item, then you’ve let your time and productivity be stolen.

7. Slow or inefficient reading -The average American adult reads between 200 – 250 words per minute. This is very s l o w reading. At this pace, it is a struggle to complete a few pages, let alone entire books. Unless you learn to increase your reading rate (as well as improve your comprehension and retention) you are being robbed not only of time, but of the knowledge, entertainment, and value that you can gain through effective and efficient reading.

8. Junk mail -Junk mail, of course, arrives digitally and physically. Either way, it can rob you of your time. You know the difference between mail that is personal and valuable–and that which is junk. Sort quickly (and preferably, sort your physical mail right next to a recycling bin before you ever take the mail to your office). You can regain valuable minutes everyday this way.

Time is your most precious resource, so it’s imperative to guard against the time thieves listed above (as well as others you might notice). Become aware of what might be stealing your time.

We have covered a lot in regards to tackling your email.  Lets talk about some more that you can do to get that email under control.

1. Line up the main Inbox by “Subject.” This is another way to get rid of massive numbers of emails because as soon as you see the Subject line, you know whether it’s targeted to you at all, whether it’s “past business,” or any other filter you have for deciding, “Oh, for heaven’s sake. I don’t need that.”   
2. Purge to your heart’s content! In most cases, don’t open the email, you can just tell by the subject line when there are a lot that match.  
3. If you have been using folders, which I recommend (at a reasonable level), this is a good time to take a look at some of those folders.
   (Note: If you don’t know how to use folders, ask someone in your office how to establish folders, but for now, don’t worry about this one other than to make sure you prevent the situation I talk about below).  
4.  Delete some folders.  If you have folders embedded so far down that you have to click 6 or 7 times to even open them, then it’s safe to assume that they’re buried and you haven’t been accessing them. How about deleting some of those? Be bold! Look at how much you’ve already done. 
5. For some of the other folders that you may access more often, at least line up the emails that are in them by date and see if you can delete some of the older ones.

Remember, it’s not about disk space. Most of us have computers or servers that give us all the disk space we could ever use.  This is about mental space. If you open your email everyday and just look at this chaotic miasma, it uses up mental energy that you need for your other work and projects.

Be sure to check out the 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices package.

In recent posts, we discussed:

* Setting aside “Cleaning up/clearing out” time for this project.

* The importance of  making a “Deleted Items” folder and delete anything older than 6 months and (I hope) even more than that.

* Going through your “Sent Items“ and permanently deleting anything older than 6 months (and possibly more!)

* Deleting emails older than 6 months in your Inbox.

So, now what you ask?

1. Schedule additional time (even 15 or 30 minutes a day) until you clear out all this backlog. Look at your planner right now and put the time in as if it’s an appointment (and it is!)     

2. Go back to your Inbox. This time instead of arranging your emails by the date, you are to arrange them by the “Sender”. This allows you to quickly scroll through your email Inbox and see large groupings of emails from the same company, person, or list serve. Often there are scores or even hundreds of items grouped together that you can quickly see and know they can be highlighted and deleted.For example, if you have 6 months’ worth of emails from a professional list server that you belong to, they are archived on the association’s website and you could access it whenever you wanted to.  But for now, they are just clogging up the works.  Start deleting big chunks of emails that are sent from the same group or the same person.    

Be sure to check out the 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices package.

1. Delete it! Delete it if it is:

trash

has nothing to do with you

a waste of time

a duplicate of information you already have

could get elsewhere

2. Delegate it. Forward it if someone else needs the information, task, or responsibility (and you don’t).

3. Handle it (right now). If you can handle this email in two minutes or less, then answer it, do it, make the phone call, put the information in your planner….whatever the action that is required.

4. File it for action. File it for later action if you cannot do the task now because you don’t have the time or don’t have the information. You can file it in several ways:

Print out the email and put it in your “tickler/1-31 file”.

Put the email into an email “folder” you create that indicates that the items in it need action.

Label an email folder “ASAR” which means, As Soon As Reasonable.

• Do not put anything in that email folder unless it requires your action
• Change the subject line of the emails you put in there so that it states what the action is.

5. File it for reference. If the email is something that you will need later on for one reason or another, and the information is not going to be available anywhere else, then file it.

For example, if you get an email that confirms receipt of a form you turned in, and you want to have that as “proof” just in case, then either print out the email and file it in a physical form, or file it in digital format (within your email program or somewhere else on your computer). I have an email folder called “Orders Expected” and that’s where email confirmations of my orders I’ve placed would go.

Sit at your computer and start on the most recent emails you have and make progress through them in this way. You will get more and more efficient on your processing until you get to a point of burning through 60 – 80 emails in an hour….or maybe even faster if fewer of them require action.

Be sure to check out the 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices package for additional tips and techniques to keep email chaos at bay.

1. Set aside a specific amount of time each day to deal with processing and with gradually eliminating the “backlog.” If you have a timer on your computer, your watch, or your PDA (Palm or some other type), set the timer for 30 minutes and devote those thirty minutes to dealing with your email and eliminating the backlog. If your timer goes off and you are making good progress and feel like continuing, then do so.    

2. I am not sure what your backlog is, but here are two possibilities:
   Unread emails which show up “bold” to indicate they are all unread.
   Emails that are all “read” but you haven’t processed them.    

3. The way of thinking when dealing with your email backlog is the same way to consider dealing with a paper backlog – Start with the most recent first and work backwards. Just like you probably have boxes of papers, or file folders full of papers that you could start sorting and processing, you are better off using your time to deal well with the newer paper that is coming into your office. Same with your email. Start with the most recent and work backwards.    

4. So, during your processing time, click on your email and sort them so that they are in date order, and deal with the most recent one first. And deal with it. 

For more specifics about what “Deal with it” means, stay tuned to the next blog post.  Hint.  There are only 5 choices. 

Be sure to check out the 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices package for additional tips and techniques to keep email chaos at bay.

1. Set a limited number times each day to review email, and unless you are expecting a CRITICAL email, do not look in your inbox at other times (and turn off the sound chime).
2. Learn to use the “rules” that are available in your email program. If your boss sends you email, have it diverted to the “Employer” folder, and then look at this folder first when you begin processing your email.
3. Are there some people who should *not* be sending you emails?  Divert their emails to your “Junk” folder. You might look at it someday . . . or you might not.
4. Do everything you can to avoid personal email at work. You know you’re not supposed to do it. You know that these emails sometimes go to the wrong people. You know this is bad.
5. Proofread your emails, spell check them, and email make sure you’re sending them to the right person. Untold chaos can result from sending an unclear email to the wrong person. (Even worse – sending a very clear email to the wrong person.)

The idea is to become aware of email stealing your time and energy. 

Be sure to check out the 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices package for additional tips and techniques to keep email chaos at bay.

1. Never send or forward “chain letter” email. You’ll still have friends and good things will still happen to you. As soon as you can tell that it’s “one of those,” hit delete.
2. Don’t send “bounce-back” emails (thanking someone for thanking you).
3. Learn to use the subject line as the complete email. End the subject line with which stands for “End of Message.” For example, send an email like this: “Office Meeting Time Changed to 8:30 a.m. .” No one has to open this email, they just read, take note, and delete.
4. Learn to use email folders. Usually it’s just a right click on your email inbox to create a folder (or ask your “help” program). As soon as you’ve processed an email and determined that you MUST save it, slide it into the appropriate email folder. For example, if you receive a confirmation of an airline reservation, once you’ve opened it and noted the times and flights are correct, put it in the “Travel Confirmation” folder that you’ve created. Depending on the type of business you do, you might have many email folders, but more than a screen-full is too many.
5. Set a goal to process everything in your email inbox EVERY day. Move items to folders or delete. Remember that you can usually retrieve things from your “Deleted” items for at least a few weeks depending on your organization’s policies, so don’t be afraid to delete.The idea is to become aware of email stealing your time and energy. 

   Be sure to check out the 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices package for additional tips and techniques to keep email chaos at bay.

    

    

    

Book Recommendations – Email

Hurst, Mark.  Bit Literacy:  Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload.

I have been buying this book in large quantities and have now used it in several workshops and have given it to many of my consulting clients.  Not only do I love the way this guy writes (he’s very smart, articulate, and clever), but I find his message, tips, and tools extremely helpful.  It doesn’t matter whether you agree with everything he says or not…you will think about your email differently and you might even empty your email in-box.  Woo-hoo!                                                                             

For additional email tips & techniques, check out the learning package 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices

Are you kidding me? How could I not buy this book? And, I loved it even though I disagreed with portions of it. I gained a number of very useable ideas and appreciate the author’s irreverent style. He is pushing hard to try to make his point because if he tip-toed around it, most of us wouldn’t get it. By pushing so hard (beyond what I am comfortable with, anyway), I got part of his points, which may have been his point after all. Worth reading.             

         

 For additional email tips & techniques, check out the learning package 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices.