C-Level on Email Overload? New Strategies to Target the C-Level Executive
How to Manage Email & Information Overload
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Transcript of How to Manage Email & Information Overload
How to ManageE-mail Overload (and triple your productivity)
Steuart Snooks
CEO
www.emailtiger.com.au
Pace of Information Overload
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Effects of E-mail Overload
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
What can we
do about it?do about it?
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Steuart Snooks
www.emailtiger.com.auEm
ail S
trate
gis
t
3 Keys to Manage
E-mail Overload
© Solutions for Success 2012See our website for more ideas on mastering
email at www.emailtiger.com.au
1. Decrease frequency
The Three Steps . . .
• Schedule times to check
e-mail (rather than e-mail (rather than
react as they arrive)
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Eliminate E-mail ‘as an interruption’
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Multi-tasking
As a result of constant interruptions, do you find that you start to multi-task?
Do you often have 2 or 3
Solutions for Success 2013 www.emailtiger.com.au
Do you often have 2 or 3files open on your desk?
Does your computer oftenhave 4 or 5 windows (ormore) open at once?
Multi-tasking
Author Maggie Jackson warns that . . .
"Relying on multitasking as a way of life, we chop up
Solutions for Success 2013 www.emailtiger.com.au
as a way of life, we chop up our opportunities and abilities to make big-picture sense of the world and pursue our long-term goals“
"Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age."
Single task email rather than ‘multi-task’
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Best times to check e-mail?
1: _____________________
2: _____________________ 2: _____________________
3: _____________________
4: _____________________
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
1. Decrease frequency
The Three Steps . . .
• Schedule times to check
e-mail (rather than e-mail (rather than
recatas they arrive)
• Turn off all e-mail alerts
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Turn off ALL e-mail alerts
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
1. Decrease frequency
The Three Steps . . .
• Schedule times to check
e-mail (rather than be e-mail (rather than be
interrupted)
• Turn off e-mail alerts
• Manage expectations
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Quality
The Customer Service Interaction
TimeValue
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Manage Expectations
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
3 Keys to Manage
E-mail Overload
Schedule times to check email
Steuart Snooks
www.emailtiger.com.auEm
ail S
trate
gis
t
3: Increase speed
1: Decrease frequency
Schedule times to check email (rather than react as they arrive)
Turn off all email alerts
Manage expectations
Choose to be ‘selectively ignorant’
© Solutions for Success 2012See our website for more ideas on mastering
email at www.emailtiger.com.au
The Three Steps . . .
1. Decrease frequency
2. Reduce volume
• Choose to be
‘selectively ignorant’‘selectively ignorant’
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients.
Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”
Herbert Simon, Recipient of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economicsand the A.M. Turing Award, the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science”
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
“There are many things of which a wise man might choose to be ignorant.”choose to be ignorant.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
The Three Steps . . .
1. Decrease frequency
2. Reduce volume
• Choose to be
‘selectively ignorant’‘selectively ignorant’
• Use rules to automate
processes
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Use rules to automate processes
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
• All staff
• Newsletters/ezines
• Personal
Use rules to automate processes
• Personal
• _______
• _______
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
The Three Steps . . .
1. Decrease frequency
2. Reduce volume
• Choose to be
‘selectively ignorant’‘selectively ignorant’
• Use rules to automate
processes
• Clarify expectations &
parameters with others
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
No question
No reply
• Send a one-off
Establish
thresholds
• Allows for
Use if/then
instructions
• Prevents follow up
Clarify expectations and parameters
• Send a one-off
notification
• Add as PS to
signature
• Reduces
unnecessary email
• Allows for
independent
decision-making
• Reduces back ‘n
forth emails
• Prevents follow up
questions
• Speeds up decision-
making
• Reduce back n’
forth emails
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Schedule times to check email Handle each email only
Steuart Snooks
www.emailtiger.com.auEm
ail S
trate
gis
t
2: Reduce volume
1: Decrease frequency
3 Keys to Manage
E-mail Overload
Schedule times to check email (rather than react as they arrive)
Turn off all email alerts
Manage expectations
Use rules to automate processes
Clarify expectations and
parameters with others
Choose to be ‘selectively ignorant’
Handle each email only once
© Solutions for Success 2012See our website for more ideas on mastering
email at www.emailtiger.com.au
The Three Steps . . .
1. Decrease frequency
2. Reduce volume
3. Increase speed
• Handle each email
ONLY ONCE – use the ONLY ONCE – use the
proven 4D method
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1. DITCH / DELETE
2. DEAL
3. DELEGATE
Use the 4D methodology
4. DECIDE
• WHERE - File (Move to a Folder / File along with)
• WHEN - Convert to a Task or Calendar item
• WAIT - Add to a Watch List (pending reply)
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
The Three Steps . . .
1. Decrease frequency
2. Reduce volume
3. Increase speed
• Handle each email
ONLY ONCE – use the
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
ONLY ONCE – use the
proven 4D method
• File e-mail quickly
1: Separate ‘finished’ work from ‘unfinished’ work
File Email Quickly
Outlook 2007 Outlook 2010
‘unfinished’ work
2: Create 4 or 5 ‘primary’ folders
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
The Three Steps . . .
1. Decrease frequency
2. Reduce volume
3. Increase speed
• Handle each email
ONLY ONCE – use the
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
ONLY ONCE – use the
proven 4D method
• File e-mail quickly
• Write more effective
e-mail messages
7 Ways to Write More Effective E-mail
1: Think first – is e-mail the best way for this message/person
2: Communicating in the Age of Speed
3: What is Your Desired Outcome?
4: How to Write Better Subject Lines
5: Automate Your Follow up
6: Why the Inverted Pyramid Structure works best
7: Why You Write an E-mail Backwards
Tim
e n
ee
d t
o c
om
mu
nic
ate
De
gre
e/d
ep
th o
f u
nd
ers
tan
din
g
Media richness framework (based on a theory by Daft & Lengel)
Tim
e n
ee
d t
o c
om
mu
nic
ate
De
gre
e/d
ep
th o
f u
nd
ers
tan
din
g
Greater context or richness
Asynchronous
Synchronous
Digital
Auditory
Visual
Solutions for Success 2013 www.emailtiger.com.au
Action required:
Response requested:
Identify your desired outcome
Response requested:
Read only:
FYI:
Action required:
Response requested:
Deadline
When
Identify your desired outcome
Response requested:
Read only:
FYI:
When
Due by
Before
To
To
Action required:
Response requested:
Deadline
When
Identify your desired outcome
To
cc
cc
Response requested:
Read only:
FYI:
When
Due by
Before
1. Decrease frequency
The 3 Steps to Manage E-mail Overload (and triple your productivity)
1. Decrease frequency
2. Reduce volume
3. Increase speed
Solutions for Success 2012 www.emailtiger.com.au
Schedule times to check email Handle each email only
Steuart Snooks
www.emailtiger.com.auEm
ail S
trate
gis
t
3: Increase speed
2: Reduce volume
1: Decrease frequency
3 Keys to Manage
E-mail Overload
Schedule times to check email (rather than react as they arrive)
Turn off all email alerts
Manage expectations
Use rules to automate processes
Clarify expectations and
parameters with others
Choose to be ‘selectively ignorant’
Handle each email only once – use 4D method
File e-mail quickly
Write more effective e-mail messages
© Solutions for Success 2012See our website for more ideas on mastering
email at www.emailtiger.com.au
Stay in touch and up-to-date
www.emai l t iger.com.au
Steuart G. SnooksEmail Strategist & Expert
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How to ManageE-mail Overload (and triple your productivity)
Steuart Snooks
CEO
www.emailtiger.com.au