Tip of the Month

Conquering E-mail
By Tony Barrile

While e-mail has the potential to be a huge productivity booster, too often it is more of a productivity pirate. Many people haven't acquired the skills to manage it effectively. You can enhance your personal productivity if you:

1. Turn off the chimes for e-mail. The chimes are an interruption as much as the ringing phone or a "drop-in". (Each interruption costs you 5 to 20 minutes in mental recovery time.) E-mail should not be instant messaging unless your job requires it.
2. Set up e-mail file folders in MS Outlook by person, project, topic, etc. Try to have e-mail file folder titles similar to the titles in your paper files.
   
3. Treat e-mail like paper mail. Check it only two to four times a day unless your job (e.g. customer service) requires you to do it more often. Use the 4 D's technique --- Do It Now, Delegate It, Discard/Delete/File It, Decide When to Take Action ---- to process the messages.
   
4. Delete with a passion.
   
5. Keep your e-mail "IN" box clear (4 D's). This eliminates both the risk of a forgotten message becoming a crisis and the need to scroll through the "IN" box regularly to see what's there.
   
6. Respond with short answers, which will reduce the length and frequency of the messages you receive