SAVING OURSELVES
FROM E-MAIL OVERLOAD
MANAGING THE DELUGE OF LANGUAGE
(NOT TO MENTION THE FACTS AND FIGURES)
IN OUR INBOXES
Based on
Take Back Your Life!
Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized
by
Sally McGhee
AN OVERVIEW:
THE E-MAIL PROBLEM/SOLUTION
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR RESULTS,
CHANGE YOUR APPROACH:
TWO ACCESSES
1. What beliefs are limiting or expanding your email productivity?
2. What habits/actions are affecting your e-mail
effectiveness?
Ten Beliefs that Limit Productivity
1. There's Too Much Information Coming at Me Too Fast
2. I Get Too Many Interruptions
3. I Don't Have the Discipline to Be Organized
4. I Have to Keep Everything
5. It Takes Too Much Time to Get Productive
6. I Can't Find What I Need When I Need It
7. Organization Cramps My Freedom and Creativity
8. I'm No Good with Technology
9. There's Not Enough Time in the Day
10.I'm Not Organized by Nature
My e-mail is overwhelming me. I can’t keep
up with it.
Is This a Belief? Or “The Truth”?
What Are Your Email Habits and Actions?
1. “Trying” to Answer Every Email You Receive
2. Hitting “Reply All” Automatically
3. Checking Your Inbox Each Time A New Email Arrives
4. Answering Emails at a Set Time Each Day
5. Carefully Crafting a Subject Line
6. Using Folders to Store Reference Information
7. Processing Emails by Using a Set Process
8. Ignoring Emails That Require “Too Much” Time to Answer
9. Saving Every Email In Case You’ll Need It
10.Sorting Emails by Sender, Date, and/or Subject
Are our e-mails,
our e-mail beliefs,
our e-mail habits and actions
contributing to
the problem
or to
the solution?
THE REALITY IS
The volume of E-mail isn’t the issue.
How you process and organize the volume
is the issue.
The solution to drowning in email overload:
Quickly, effectively (and regularly!)
process and organize our e-mail.
What habits/actions are affecting your e-mail
effectiveness?

How many e-mails are in your inbox right now?

How many times a day do you check e-mail?

How many hours a day do you spend on e-mail?

How much of that time is spent hunting for
a particular email?
What habits/actions would make you more effective?
How many times, on average, do you find
yourself looking at the same email?
 How easy is it for you to find the information
in emails that you need to refer to?
 How do you ensure that you’re taking the
actions you need to take?

MAKE YOUR E-MAILS WORK FOR YOU AND YOUR READER(S)
THE E-MAIL PASS MODEL

P–What’s the Purpose of your communication and does it relate to
a Meaningful Objective?

A–What Action is involved and does it have a due date?

S–What Supporting documentation do you need to include?

S–Have you effectively summarized your communication in the Subject line?
And Turn on Auto Spellcheck if you haven’t already.
E-mail is a communication tool!
From Take Back Your Life!, p. 183
RESPOND TO EMAIL EFFECTIVELY
 Consider whether a reply is actually warranted.
Would it add value to the communication?
 Reply only to those individuals who need to know.
 When responding to e-mails, follow guidelines
on the proper use of the To, Cc, and Subject lines.
From Take Back Your Life!, p. 215 (& 189)
AN ACCESS TO QUICKLY, EFFECTIVELY
(AND REGULARLY!) PROCESSING AND
ORGANIZING OUR E-MAIL :
THE INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
THE INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
From Take Back Your Life! Figure 2-3, p. 32
The Collecting System
A Collecting System is made up of a series
of approved Collecting Points where you
and others place your commitments and
communications. These Collecting Points
are physical locations that you use to
capture your actions, reminders, meeting
notes, and where other people drop off
tasks or information for you.
From Take Back Your Life!, p. 31
The Collecting System
Three useful Collecting Points are:



E-mail
Voice mail
A paper inbox
Sometime during the day, you'll need to stop to process
the information in these Collecting Points, and make
decisions about what to do with each item. You'll either
throw the item in the trash can, store it in your
Reference System, or store it in your Action System.
The fewer, the better!
From Take Back Your Life!, p. 31
The Reference System
The Reference System enables you to track
information that does not require action, but that
you want to keep to access later.
From Take Back Your Life!, p. 31
The Reference System
Six useful Reference Information locations are:






Folder list – tracking e-mails
Contacts – tracking contacts
My documents – tracking documents
SharePoint – tracking shared documents
OneNote – tracking notes
Filing Cabinet – tracking paper
F.Y.I.: Your inbox is not a good place for reference information!
From Take Back Your Life!, p. 161 & 169
The Action System
The Action System will track any information that requires
you to take an action.
In the Integrated Management System, this type of action
information is tracked in:


the Microsoft Outlook Task List
the Microsoft Outlook Calendar
This is The Place for those Strategic Next Actions…
From Take Back Your Life!, p. 31
A Strategic Next Action with no dependencies
STRATEGIC:
Is well thought out, a “creation”
and not a “reaction”
ACTION:
 Starts with a verb
 Is specific and measurable
Contributes
to the fulfillment of
a meaningful objective
NEXT:
Is the most critical thing you can do
to move your meaningful objective
forward at this point in time
Is
“doable”; can physically be
completed in one, simple step
(even if it’s a part of a long, involved
process)
WITH NO DEPENDENCIES:
 Is free and clear of any other
actions
 requires no preceding actions (a
“dependency” means additional
steps must be completed before
you can take action)
Can you find the “SNAs” in this email?
Your Command Central
for Managing the Deluge
Is
the Control Panel --
THE CONTROLPANEL

The Calendar and TaskPad, on the right, gives you access to
your Action System, showing your Meaningful Objectives,
Supporting Projects, 1:1 Meetings, and Strategic Next Actions.

The Folder list, on the left, gives you access to your Reference
System, showing all of your e-mail and other folders.
This view enables you to see everything you have to do in one
place, which makes prioritizing and planning much easier.
THE THREE PHASES OF QUICKLY, EFFECTIVELY
(AND REGULARLY!) PROCESSING AND
ORGANIZING OUR E-MAIL :
USING THE INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Phase 1: Collecting
“Clearing the Mind” as you capture
all your commitments and
agreements
Where will you collect all your
commitments and agreements?
e-mail
voice mail
 paper inbox
 and….

Not, hopefully, in your head!
Try clearing your
mind and
lightening the
load!
Phase 2: Processing and Organizing
Setting up Action and Reference
Systems, and understanding how to
effectively process and organize
your Collecting Points using the
Workflow Model.
Where will you store the reference and
action information you collect?
How will you process and organize all
that information?
Introducing the
Workflow Model:
From Take Back Your Life! Figure 3-1, p. 41.
The key to “processing” rather
than “monitoring” …
You have to slow down
to speed up!
BACK TO THE WORKFLOW MODEL
Is it actionable?
Yes it’s actionable, but does it relate to a Meaningful
Objective?
Yes, it relates to a Meaningful Objective, so what is
the Next Strategic Action without a Dependency?
About that NSA: Since I’m not Deleting it, Will I…
Do it, Delegate it or Defer it?
Now it’s your turn!
Process and Organize Away!
YOU’RE NOW FULLY EQUIPPED WITH RAFT,
SURFBOARD, AND WHATEVER ELSE YOU NEED
TO SAVE YOURSELF
FROM THE E-MAIL DELUGE!
DON’T FORGET THE SMALL STUFF!
“Small things done consistently
in strategic places create major impact.”