Managing Information
Overload
February 20, 2008
http://lsntap.org/tips101
Legal Services NTAP
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Is this your inbox?
Email = Communication.
Period.
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Legal Services NTAP
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Overview of Session
 Take Control of Your Inbox
 Adopt Strong Email Practices
 Demote Email from Emperor to
Messenger (Change its function in your
life)
 Organize Your Online Experience
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Take Control of Your Inbox
 50% of email can be deleted or filed
 30% can be delegated or completed in
less than 2 minutes
 20% can be calendared to complete
later
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Take Control of Your Inbox
 Schedule uninterrupted time
 Decide your email protocol
 Process one item at a time and Reduce
to Zero. (4 Ds)
– Delete
– Do
– Delegate
– Defer for action
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Overview of Session
Step 1: Take Control of Your Inbox
 Create a filing system
 Create labels (Gmail) or tags (Outlook
2007)
 Create filters?
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Tools to Help You
 A Filing System (or Labels, if Gmail)
– Group emails by category of your workflow
 Rules (aka Filters)
– i.e., Color code your boss. Filter by subject,
recipient, or sender.
 Flag or Star
– Create an easy To-Do or deprioritize
emails
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Gabe’s Former Life
•
General file headers. No
emails filed within them.
• Sub-labels catch most of
my work.
• Tip: Naming matters.
• Periods show up before
letters
• a- or aa- to help organize
by your priority not naming
• Daily practice: Read and
file from inbox
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About Files
 Files help you refine a search
 Files help you organize visually a lot of
information
 Files are useful for easy retrieval
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How To Create File Folders
 Right-Click in most applications.
 For Gmail, create Labels:
locate
Settings in upper R. Click Labels Tab.
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Color Code Your Email:
Use Rules
• Visually organize
incoming messages
by sender
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Create Rules or Filters
 Outlook:
Tools | Organize (or Rules &
Alerts)
– See Outlook audio tutorial:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC011156011033&pid=CH06255
6091033&ofcresset=1
– Read how for Outlook:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2054490_create-rule-outlook.html
 Gmail:
Settings | Filters
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Legal Services NTAP
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About Filters & Rules
 Rules can change the color of an email
in your inbox for easy visual reference.
 Rules can label or file email from certain
senders – i.e., put all the email from
your housing listserv into a folder
automatically (or label it, in Gmail).
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Flag It!
•Prioritize email
• Create the “new
inbox” – your To
Do list
• Right-click to flag,
or star in Gmail
• Sort by Flags for
To Do list and by
Stars in Gmail
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Archiving Email
 Manual, automatic, or unnecessary
depending on your email client
 Function allows you to search email but
retain it
 Outlook Tutorial:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/Traini
ng.aspx?AssetID=RP102386761033&pi
d=CR100654581033
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Legal Services NTAP
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Step 2: Adopt Strong
Email Practices
 Timely response
 Take action:
– Delete, Do, Delegate, Defer
 Do’s & Don’ts
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Legal Services NTAP
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Timely Response

What is your email protocol?
– Respond within a day?
– Respond within a half day?
– Respond within 2 hours?
– Respond within an hour?
 Respond even on the “Defers”
– “Thanks for your email. I won’t be able to
get to this until XX, and will email you
then.”
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Do’s


Use a strong subject line
Use email to reward, emote or
acknowledge positive things.
 Communicate information, request
action, facilitate unsophisticated
problem-solving
 Follow up on heavy problem-solving
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Don’ts

Do not use email to track attachments
and documents as a filing system
 Do not use email to manage projects,
timelines, or histories
 Do not use email to schedule meetings
 Do not use email to do heavy problem
solving or brainstorming
 Do not use email to ask quick
questions
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Step 3: Reduce what you
rely on your email to do for
you
Using new tools!
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Overview of Session
Step 3: Reduce what you use email to do
 IM for quick check in
 Project Management tools for deadlines
and files
 Wikis for institutional knowledge
 Online schedulers & calendars
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Instant Messaging
 I’m running 5 minutes late on another call.




Call you when off.
What time is our meeting at again?
Here is the login number I forgot to send
I am about to send out an email to the
Advisory Board, do you have anything to
add… (then cut and paste text for them to
edit).
Here is the training description I was going to
post? Thoughts?
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Legal Services NTAP
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Instant Messaging
for Quick
Communication or
Check In
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Jabber: Instant Messaging
 Jabber (www.jabber.org) -- a
customizable open source IM (instant
messaging) protocol with many clients:
– Hugh uses Exodus
(http://exodus.jabberstudio.org/)
– Gabe uses PSI (http://psi-im.org/)
Legal Services NTAP
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Meetings and Phones
 Meet-o-Matic (www.meet-o-matic.com)
 MeetingWizard
(www.meetingwizard.com)
 Free Conference.Com
(www.freeconference.com)
 GotVoice (www.gotvoice.com)
– Voicemail transferred to your email
Legal Services NTAP
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Web Conferencing
 www.legalmeetings.org
 www.teamviewer.com
 www.crossloop.com
Use for coordination and heavy problem
solving or one-on-one in-depth
meetings
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Legal Services NTAP
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We all use Case
Management Systems for
cases, so…
 While we have technology systems that
help us receive and track cases, few
programs use systems that help staff
manage and coordinate on projects or
collaborative efforts. Instead, most of
us rely on ad hoc management
systems and email.
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Legal Services NTAP
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Project Management
in Action: PTLA
 Pine Tree Legal Assistance wanted
Gwen Daniels’ help in developing an
online intake form for their Volunteer
Lawyers Project.
 They used PM tools to organize their
goals, milestones, and drafts. They
assigned tasks to all persons and
tracked them online.
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Legal Services NTAP
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Project Management
in Action: NTAP
 Problem:

7 staff and contractors, 6 LSC
funded grants with specific milestones, 157
emails a day in my inbox, 1 aging brain.
Solution: Project Management (PM)
software helped us: assign tasks and
deadlines, brainstorm ideas across
timezones, reduce email clutter, and have
one central repository for all files and
thoughts about a project.
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Project Management
in Action: NTAP
 Example:
Cyber Piracy project
Becky is responsible for creating training materials.
Gabe is responsible for finalizing Cyber Piracy
research -- the raw data of which is in various
versions. Pro bono lawyers are responsible for
creating drafts of trademark material. Eva needs to
review them.
PM tools help us organize this effort. What’s
better? We receive notice via email of all
uploads, revisions, drafts, or messages.
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Example in Action:
ILAO’s Project Server
 The Problem:
We needed a way to manage
internal software development projects that
use staff and outside developers
 The Solution: Set up a project server
instance that allows us to create tasks for
each phase of development and link those
tasks together, assign and allocate
resources, manage costs
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Resources
 Training Material on Wikis & Proj Mgmt
www.lsntap.org/coll105
 Wikis:
http://www.lsntap.org/bookshelf?tid=10
 Project Management:
http://www.lsntap.org/bookshelf?tid=179
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Other Tips



Manage your bookmarks
Manage your news
Open what you need every day
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