Christa Wagner

Title: Avoid Email Bankruptcy

When: Oct 13, 2009 06:30 PM

Investment:$22

Yesterday, I gave a workshop called Simplify Your Life and Kick Start Productivity for the staff of Langara College.  It was fantastic and I was honored to be selected as a speaker for their continuing education courses for their staff. 

At the workshop, I shared Five Organizing Tactics to implement to start living a more organized life.  One of them was “Manage Your Email” and the topic turned into a really healthy conversation about email overuse. 

Nearly every attendee was complaining about how much email they had; they said it wasted their time and bogged them down from getting the more important tasks accomplished.  This is all true, which is why we must learn to manage our email to more effectively.

A question that came up was what to do with all the “Thank You” emails you receive.  You know the situation, it happens many times each day, when you send something to someone and they respond just to say “Thank You.”   Or even worse, when you send a group email (which should be avoided at all costs) and everyone responds to say “Thank You.”  These are very common after an event of some kind, like a holiday party.  Everyone agreed the emails were polite, but completely unnecessary and just adds to their already full inbox. 

I shared with them two tools you can use to reduce the amount of “Thank You” emails you receive.  Of course, this may take some training and you will want to let your recipients know how these tools work so you all can use them properly. 

• NRN = No Response Necessary:  Place these words or this acronym at the bottom of your email, near your name or closing.  It implies, the person only has to read the email, but does not have to respond. 
• NTN = No Thanks Necessary:  Place these words or this acronym at the bottom of your email, near your name or closing.  It lets the recipient know you do not expect a return or thank you email. 

Email has the potential to be a great tool, but with its overuse and abuse, its more of an annoyance than anything else.  We need to train each other how to use email effectively so we can start to use this tool in a more productive manner.

If you know me, or have read other email related posts, then you know I am not a huge fan of email.  Now, before you freak out of course I understand the benefits of email and do enjoy communicating using email on certain occasions.  My problem with email is that you would never call me 10 different times, but you wouldn’t think twice about emailing me 10 times.  As I reviewed my email, much of the email I receive had no benefits to my life or business whatsoever.  Its information, its anFYI, or even more fun, a series of Reply All’s from various group I belong to.  (My personal favorite waste of time.) 

So I have been conducting a little experiment.  In an effort to reduce the amount of emails in my inbox, I have been trying to reduce the amount of emails I send.   I read somewhere for every one email you send, you receive three back.  And if you receive 100 emails each day and each takes 3 minutes to deal with, that’s five hours of your day.  No wonder you can’t get anything done!   So I send much less and am very aware of who I am sending to.  I only respond if I must and delete aggressively.  My goal by the end of the day in Zero Inbox, but usually I have around 10.   

What I can tell you is it has be fantastic not to have that panic feeling of all the emails I have to read and deal with in my inbox.   Just like everything else, you have to pick and choose; I choose to only respond to the most necessary, important emails.  Give it a try and increase your productivity greatly by reducing the amount of incoming emails you receive.

What a great appointment I had today.  I was working with a client who was experiencing email overload.  Who isn’t really?  She is an executive, has a lot on her plate and had too many emails in her inbox.  Although email is certainly known to decrease productivity, if used effectively it can help you stay organized.  My client was using her inbox as her to do list, which unfortunately doesn’t work when you have pages and pages of emails.   We worked for four hours today and she is now going to focus on implementing some new habits to eliminate email overload.  Here were some steps:

1. We started deleting.  When she called me there were over 4,800 emails in her inbox and by the time I arrived today, since our consultation, she had reduced her inbox to 2,200.  Great work!  She eliminated anything she did not need, would not refer to and moved any reference materials into folders. 
2. We created a folder system:  You have to ask yourself if you are truly going to reference this information again and if so file it just as you would a vital paper document.  Create a folder system that is intuitive and easy to you.  My favorite folder titles are Administrative, Client, Communications, Writing and Resources. 
3. We moved meeting and event emails onto her calendar so she can delete the email and see her entire day on her calendar.
4. We utilized her tasks list and moved TO DO email to tasks.  
5. We talked about composing more effective emails and sending less to receive less. 

Email can be a great tool if used effectively.  Take some to use each tool appropriately and see if you can reduce your time with email and get some real work done.

Last night I hosted a Biznik networking event where I shared with business owners some simple strategies to get organized at the office. Now listen folks, this is not rocket science, but the results can increase productivity greatly.  Problem is companies don’t dedicate time or energy to organizing and so it tickles down from the top that its not important.  Well, keep in mind the average employee loses one hour each day searching for misplaced information.  Add the number up based on your employees, number of hours worked multiplied by work days per year.  You have a lot of lost time and money. 

Get Organized at the Office

1. Process the mail every single day.
2. Create action files for paper requiring your attention.
3. Invest in quality furniture that supports your needs.
4. Use a calendar.  Doesn’t matter what kind; DayRunner, FranklinCovey, Palm, Blackberry or a good old kitty cat wall calendar, etc.  Get one and use it consistently.
5. Dedicate one day annually to office wide organizing.

Increase Productivity

1. Take 15 minutes at the end of each day to plan tomorrow.
2. Clear your desk at the end of each day so you can start fresh.
3. Reduce email.
4. Create a stop doing list.
5. Fully understand focus is more important than efficiency.  It doesn’t matter how much you get done if they are the wrong things.  Focus on the highest priorities from start to finish.

We only have 24 hour each day; make the most of it focus on what matters most to you.  Commit to adjusting some habits to get more out of life. 

Make it a great day!

I was away last week on vacation and as you know it’s always tough to return from the beach and relaxation.  I knew there would be many emails in my inbox, but what I was not prepared for the amount of emails from the dreaded  “reply all” button. 

I love Outlook; it helps me so much with my life and business.  I use it to manage my tasks, calendar, contacts, etc.  But I have to say I really dislike the “reply all” feature.  Maybe it’s not the feature as much as it is the abuse of this feature. 

When I opened my email following my vacation, nearly one third of my emails stemmed from the “reply all” button.  Most of them said something to the effect of “thanks!” “me too!” or “great party.”  Who cares.  Did I really have to spend time reading or better yet deleting this annoying emails.  So I am not just going to complain about this; I prefer to provide some solutions:

1. When sending email to a group, blind copy all recipients so “reply all” is not an option stifling the frenzy from the get-go.
2. Think twice before choosing the “reply all” option.  Consider who really needs to hear your response. Single out the addresses of whom you need reply.
3. Consider picking up the phone.  Remember voice communication?  It can be significantly faster than 10 emails going back and forth, that not everyone needs to see.

What I would really love is an alarm to go off, prior to anyone sending a “reply all” email, but perhaps that’s not realistic.  If we could all be a little more contentious we could drastically decrease the amount of emails in our in-box.

We are always looking at ways to give people the tools they need to get and stay organized.  We have found workshops a great way for you to learn and then implement on your own.  Our workshops are designed to focus on the key areas of challenge we see with our clients every day: email, time management, activity overload and paper clutter.  We are introducing four new workshops for your next conference, business meeting, community center or retreat. 

Conquering Paper and Piles
Without a doubt, the most common organizing challenge we deal with is paper and piles. In this seminar, Conquering Piles and Paper, attendees will learn how to sort and evaluate their paper, create action and reference files, learn about a file system we use exclusively with our residential clients and take it one step further to remove all the paper clutter from their desktops. How can you expect yourself to work with clutter and paper covering your desk? We’ll cover some basics most were never taught.

Avoid Email Bankruptcy
Email is the greatest single interruption of the modern world and its taking over our workday. In this seminar, Avoid Email Bankruptcy, attendees will learn the three major causes of e-mail overload, and how to solve them. We’ll teach you how to reduce the number of e-mail you receive, how to compose more effective e-mail, and how to find and file the e-mail you need.

Regain Control of your Time
We are constantly hearing “there isn’t enough time in the day.” We choose to look at time a different way and that is there is enough time for the most important projects and tasks. In this seminar, Get Control of Your Time, attendees will learn how to most successfully decide which tasks to tackle and how to prioritize their day. They will learn how to avoid procrastination on large projects and to plan their day the evening prior so that they can wake up stress-free and ready to take on their day.

Simplify Your Life in 5 Savvy Steps
I am sure it seems just about everyone wants a piece of you. Activity overload is a syndrome and we continue to take on more than we could ever possibly get done. In this seminar, Simplify Your Life in 5 Savvy Steps, attendees will learn the five powerful secrets you can use to simplify your life and take control of your life.

To schedule your workshop, email info@savvysolutionsorganizing.com or go to www.savvysolutionsorganizing.com for more information.