Manage Your Day

6 April 2005 6 Comments

I’m on a roll tonight with entries. Making up for lost time, I guess.

I can’t tell you how much John’s Email Handling Process makes sense and somedays… I just have to implement it.

Remember, your Inbox is your Inbox. It’s not your To Do list. You don’t use your paper inbox as a filing system, do you? (Okay, maybe you do. So how’s that working for you, anyway?)

Block out time to “process” email. And when you do, “process” it. Don’t spend more than a minute or two on an email–and don’t start down the road of firing off two or three emails for everyone you get, or diving into a project after you get to email 13 (“oh, ya! I owe him a project plan!” or “I should blog about that…”). Put it on your To Do list, and keep processing your inbox. If you can’t do that, there may be other kinds of help available.

Don’t use your email as a filing system. And for heaven’s sake, don’t rescue a co-worker who is looking for something you happen to have tucked away in an email folder. Let them rescue YOU! If someone else owns a document/plan/conversation, let them store it for you. Chances are if you need it, someone else has it.

Use SharePoint/fileshares for what they’re for. Notice that both words have a common root: “share.” You can’t share what’s stored on your hard drive (well, easily anyway). Don’t use email as a content management system.

Get Lookout or MSN Desktop Search if you’re hopelessly hooked on using Exchange and your email folders as a filing system, Don’t waste another minute “looking for that file” you know you got back in August.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT YOUR TASK LIST! (It’s the one I have the hardest time with.) Once you’ve cleaned out your inbox, nicely categorized and prioritized your Task list, don’t forget to use it. If you do, you’ll soon have a long “To Do” list, and a full Inbox, not exactly an improvement on the situation.

Ignore Incoming Email until you have time to process it. Can you imagine if snail mail was real-time? Would you wait by your house’s mailbox, and open each piece of junk mail as it came in? Thank goodness it only comes in once a day! And even though you pick it up daily, I bet you process that “inbox” only a few times a week. Change your default view on Outlook to open to your Calendar and Task List, rather than your Inbox. Turn off the popup toast and reminder sound when email comes in. Don’t respond immediately to each incoming email.

Pick up the phone once in a while. You’d be surprised at how much you can get done in a phone call rather than on email.

Pick up your copy of the WordPress Bible, a wildly popular resource for beginners and experts alike.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags: job, productivity

6 Responses to “Manage Your Day”

Matt 7 April 2005 at 8:23 am #

Interesting, but I don’t buy all of it. Some of it makes sense, the only one that really didn’t, was the one about not using your email as a filing system. Surely his point his completely contradictory from an individual’s point of view. He says “don’t let co-workers ask you for documents” but then says “if you need something, ask a co-worker for it”. Er…? ;)
Matt 7 April 2005 at 9:23 am #

Interesting, but I don’t buy all of it. Some of it makes sense, the only one that really didn’t, was the one about not using your email as a filing system. Surely his point his completely contradictory from an individual’s point of view. He says “don’t let co-workers ask you for documents” but then says “if you need something, ask a co-worker for it”. Er…? ;)
Aaron Brazell 7 April 2005 at 1:34 pm #

If you let your email be your file system, when you lose your email for some reason it is gone. At least by using the filesystem for what it is intended for, then if a corruption occurs thatere’s still a good chance of getting data back. In Outlook, you may be screwed if a PST is lost or corrupted.
Aaron Brazell 7 April 2005 at 2:34 pm #

If you let your email be your file system, when you lose your email for some reason it is gone. At least by using the filesystem for what it is intended for, then if a corruption occurs thatere’s still a good chance of getting data back. In Outlook, you may be screwed if a PST is lost or corrupted.
jody 12 April 2005 at 2:35 am #

I’m still with Matt on this one. My email at work is filed under folders saved on my personal drive. It saves me a lot of time to be able to pull up an email to recall conversations and commitments from others in their emails. The majority of the time, I don’t use it but it is nice to have when I need it. Having said that, all documents that need to be used frequently are saved to my share drive which allows everyone who would need it access. So I guess I do a bit of both, but I love filing email.
jody 12 April 2005 at 3:35 am #

I’m still with Matt on this one. My email at work is filed under folders saved on my personal drive. It saves me a lot of time to be able to pull up an email to recall conversations and commitments from others in their emails. The majority of the time, I don’t use it but it is nice to have when I need it. Having said that, all documents that need to be used frequently are saved to my share drive which allows everyone who would need it access. So I guess I do a bit of both, but I love filing email.