Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/182565
Randy Dean's Top Ten E-mail Timesavers & Productivity Enhancers Email, time management and technology expert Randy Dean wowed this year's Summer Meeting attendees with his strategies for being more efficient and productive with email and technology use. Here are a few more of his tips and tricks for saving time and better managing your email overload. 1. Handle "Quick Little" E-mails Right Now. For nearly 20 years, I've been following a principle I originally learned from time management guru David Allen – to handle "quick little" things when they come up the very first time I look at them. This keeps you from reviewing them multiple times before taking action, as well as getting buried under these items too. I've been following this rule with my inbox, and I hit "e-mail zero" nearly every day! My personal rule – if I think acting on that e-mail will take 3-minutes or less, I just get it done right now! Then, I file or delete that e-mail and get it out of my inbox. 2. "Task" E-mails Taking Longer. In my opinion, most e-mails are basically a task or a bundle of tasks you need to get done. You need to review. You need to reply. You need to forward. You need to take an action. You need to schedule an appointment, or create a new contact. Some of these things are quick – get those done right now! But for those e-mails that will take longer than 3-minutes, I figure out what the embedded task(s) is, and then I add it to my task list. Then, when I get "open block" time, I can prioritize the most important and/or urgent tasks and act on those as appropriate. You can task your e-mails on a paper To Do list, or use a software program like Outlook. But whatever you do, once you identify the task in the e-mail, once again, either delete that e-mail or file it in an appropriate folder for later reference. 3. Don't Use Your E-mail Inbox as a "De Facto" Task List! Now, if you read tips #1 & #2 above, you realize I don't like people leaving e-mails that have been read in their inbox. Here's the simple reason why – if you are like most people, when you leave an e-mail in your inbox, it is because there is an action you still intend to take on that e-mail. But typically, that action is not clearly defined in your e-mail's subject line, so when you come back to it three or four days later, you have to go through the entire review process again to figure out what you want/ need to do. Better to define the task one time, and act on it when it reaches the top of your task list! Some people are also using their inbox as their "one and only" file folder, but then you'll start mixing "active" e-mails with "archive" e-mails, meaning you'll be re-reading messages that you are already done with – also not the best use of your time! 4. Make Folders and Use Them! I think it is fine to keep your e-mails if you need them for retention and reference. Just don't keep them in your inbox. Instead, build a personal file "infrastructure" for your e-mails, with folders that naturally make sense to you, so you can quickly and easily file your "done" e-mails, as well as quickly and easily find them when you need them. (And, if you get a new e-mail you want to keep, but you don't have a good folder for it, MAKE ONE!) Some programs, like MS Outlook, even allow you to make folders inside of folders – that gives you even more flexibility in your file structure – just be careful to not make such a complex folder structure that you then start having a hard time filing and finding – the old adage K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid!) is perfectly apropos here. 5. But, Don't Keep Attachments You Don't Need! Perhaps the single biggest complaint I receive from people is that they are "busting out the size limits of their mailbox." They perceive it to be because they have too many e-mails, but I always tell them: "What's more important than the number of e-mails you have is the size of the e-mails you have." If you get an e-mail that has attachments you no longer need or that you've already saved to a different location, delete the attachments! And go check your "Sent" folder too – if that is full of large e-mails with large attachments, once again, delete those attachments (in MS Outlook and many other popular e-mail software programs, you can open an e-mail with attachments and then delete the unneeded attachments.) If your e-mail software doesn't easily allow for you to delete attachments, consider forwarding the e-mail back to yourself, but remove the attachment before forwarding. Then, delete the original e-mail. This will solve many if not all of your file size problems. 2 4 | A la ba m a Hom e bu il d er | SUMM E R 2 0 1 3