By Claudia Smith Clear Your Clutter Consulting

www.clearyourclutterconsulting.com

E-mail OVERLOAD

E-mail OVERLOAD

“How can I be a leader, when I can’t even get through my inbox?

E-mail OVERLOAD • Basic organizing tips & time management • Being a team leader • How to clean up your inbox

& manage your email • Email etiquette

E-mail OVERLOAD

“I thought email was going to be a time saver!” ~An exhausted office manager~

• Simply admit defeat and delete all email up to the first of the current year. OR

• Take the pressure off a bit by placing all email to date in a folder, so you’ll have a clean slate, then ignore them. &/OR

• Email everyone in your address book that you are sorry, but you will not reply to any email sent prior to (pick a date), but will do better in the future. OR

• Place all email up to (pick a date), put them in a folder and schedule large blocks of time to go through them with today’s tips & tools in hand.

E-mail Bankruptcy

General organizing/time management tips

• Reduce the time commitments and the material possessions to those you need or love.

• Leave time for transitions. • Schedule “catch up” blocks of time. • Finish what you start, follow through 100%-not

80%. • Schedule your action or “to do” list. • If you can’t retrieve something, why do you have

it?

A stitch in time saves nine. ~Benjamin Franklin~

• Time scarcity: The less time you have, the more time you waste.

• Things ignored will snowball, and end up taking more time. Procrastinate procrastinating!

• Pro-active time management is the key to all office organization.

• Take control back of your schedule.

Be a team leader What are the spoken or unspoken expectations and etiquette for email within your work place, team or unit? • Are subject lines articulate and to the point? • Are folks using CC & BCC too often? • Does every unit member get a “reply all” even if they

shouldn’t? • Is it always clear with group recipients who will reply? • Is there an expectation that you will reply promptly? • Is there an expectation that you check email

constantly? • Encourage people to talk face to face more.

What’s in your mailbox?

Email

Snail Mail

Voicemail

Imagine if the number of email was as low as your voice mail.

How can I decide? What needs to happen with this email? 1. Go Away (delete or pass it on) 2. Action (active projects, scheduling etc.) Is it

”May do or Must do” 3. File (Reference, archival, or in-active projects) 4. Pending (You’ve done all you can on this for

now…but you are waiting for something or someone)

5. Read or review HELP!

Reducing & Deleting Email

• Immediately trash the junk mail which is usually obvious by the subject line. Empty your trash regularly.

• If you have a spam program for email, use it. • If unwelcome email comes from a sender regularly,

unsubscribe or ask them to stop. • Limit who you give your work email address to. • At home/for personal use, set up a different email

address for your friends and one for businesses. • Even on vacation, check email and delete the junk. • Unroll.me

THE 5 D’S

1. Delete 2. Delegate 3. Do it now 4. Defer till later 5. Drop it into a folder

And…Action! (Do or Defer)

• Is it a MUST DO (aka ACTION or TO DO) or a MAY DO? Clarify for yourself. Lists are optional for deferred items.

• Can the required action be done in 5 minutes or less? This may either move it to the next step or “giterdone”! If so, do it in the moment. Force yourself to clarify the next babystep.

• If it needs more than 5 minutes; place it in your MUST DO file and schedule a time on your calendar to do it. OR schedule a time to tackle your MUST DO folder(s). Once the fires are put out, deal with things in the order in which they land in your inbox, no “cherry picking” allowed. If an action item will require on-going work and several steps, it gets shifted over to a well labeled project folder. Schedule project work.

• Continue to challenge yourself on may do vs. must do. Let go of some of the may do’s, it’ll be o.k.

Oh, isn’t there a 6th D… Delete, Delegate, Do it now, Defer,

Drop, and Don’t dare to delete

You know the ones, they are fear based, you know you don’t need them, but you just cannot bring yourself to delete them. Drop them in a labeled folder for safe keeping.

“There are RULES ya’ know”

E-mail Etiquette

• Watch your tone or pick up the phone. • Remember, anyone can forward your email. • Don’t forward cute or unprofessional email from

work. • Be brief and to the point, but let your natural

style shine. • It is o.k. to send a prepared statement but

sparingly. • Give folks permission not to reply. • Use a clear professional signature; even if you’re

famous don’t assume they know who you are.

Leaders follow a schedule

Limit checking email to specific times of day, on limited devices, for a limited amount of time and don’t be distracted by other online media. (Unless it’s part of your job, facebook is not a workplace activity.)

How many hours will you schedule?

Q. Pre written reply? Isn’t that rude?

“Your email was received. Thank you. I cannot personally reply to each email, but I do appreciate what you sent and wanted to let you know that I received it. Have a great day, Claudia Smith “

A. Not as rude as no reply at all.

Summary: Managing & responding to Email

Respond to as many messages as possible immediately. Keep your reply short and to the point. Set up files within your email program. This may include both categorical and priority folders. When a reply will take more than a few minutes, schedule a time on your calendar to tend to it. If the task is scheduled out a bit, send the short note informing them of such. Avoid forwarding “cute” or junk email-it wastes your time and that of your co-workers. Only use “reply all” when it saves everyone time. When forwarding to delegate, ask that the receiver acknowledge receipt. If an email has long term legal, employment, tax or other vital information, print it and keep a paper copy in your files. But print sparingly. 9 times out of 10, if you printed an email, you can then delete it. How low can you go? Your inbox should be kept as low as possible.

Shoot for 100 or less!!

Miscellaneous tips • Get up every hour and move your body. • Hang a “do not disturb” sign on your door or cubicle. • Conduct your personal affairs on your own time. • Leave your work at work. • Honor what IS working for you and change what isn’t. • Remember that behavior changes take time, so

institute one new thing at a time. • Multi tasking is severely over rated. Keep it simple and

focus on one thing at a time. • At the end of each day leave your desk clear and your

inbox as low as possible.

Closing-3 tips for leaders • Be decisive in the moment-Why is this email

being kept and how will it serve you? • Stop keeping things out of FEAR , or just

because it’s easier than making a clear decision.

• Remember-clutter is postponed action. • Remember the 5 D’s and deal deliberately.

E-mail

OVERLOAD

Questions???

By Claudia Smith Clear Your Clutter Consulting

www.clearyourclutterconsulting.com