Stop Email Overload - Amy Gallo - Best Practices. Complaints about email abound.
Perhaps you’ve heard some of these or uttered them in pain yourself: I receive hundreds of emails a day. I can spend my whole day responding to incoming messages. I can’t find anything in my inbox. In response, some companies are taking drastic steps to help workers manage the number of messages they receive. The CEO of Atos, a French IT services company, has vowed to ban internal email by 2013.
What the Experts Say Productivity experts counsel against such extreme measures. Recognize it’s not really about email According to Allen, email overload is only a symptom of a larger issue: a lack of clear and effective protocols. Allen had one client who had an average backlog of 3,000 – 4,000 emails. Control your flow Another way to reduce the time you spend on email is to turn off the spigot of incoming messages. Pozen says you can also reduce how many you receive by sending fewer and limiting whom you send to.
Delete. Principles to Remember: Do: Scheduling Email with Boomerang. Sometimes, we’d really like to be able to write an email message at one time and send it at another.
There are all sorts of reasons why this might be so. As Jason wrote recently in his post about worst email practices, responding too soon might seem rude. At other times, as Nels’ colleague indicated, sometimes too quick a response (or a response at an odd hour of the day or night!) Found some great tools for Educators! gSyncit, Xobni, Loonapix (Updated 6/6. Take full advantage of the email program you are using: Part 12 in a Series (Updated 6/12. Email One of the best ways to really handle your email efficiently is to let your email program do as much of the work for you as possible.
The only way to do this is to take the time to get to know your email program and all of the options you can take advantage of to make it work more productively for you! So, if you use GMail, then get to know your GMail program! If you want to do something special like instantly add a contact from an email you receive, do a search and see what it takes to make that happen in GMail. Learn h ow to flag those emails, add items quickly to tasks and calendars, and use filters to file your email quickly. Using Outlook Express?
The key is not to just go through tutorials blindly but, when a need is discovered, find the solution and use it! If you just go through tutorials without feeling the need, you will probably feel like it’s a waste of time. Now, there are a lot of email programs out there. Write A Great Subject Line – Part 2 in a Series – Managing Email for Teachers and Administrators (Updated 6/11. To begin to manage your email, the first thing needed is to MODEL what you want those who email you to do!
Yes, that’s right! You are going to put into practice the very things you wish that people emailing you used because it would make your email easier to manage! Let’s begin with a very specific step. For the next 30 days, write a great subject line. Of course, to do this, you have to know what makes a great subject line. Here’s an example to help clarify: Bad Subject Lesson Plan Information Good Subject Lesson Plans Due Dec. 15th To Dept. You see, people scan through their emails and read the subject lines first. Turn Off Automatic Notifications and Set Aside “Email” Time – Part 3 in a Series (Updated 6/11. How did your first day go of writing great subject lines?
I had one person response with “Well done” to my explanation of email changes and (EOM) protocol. One person asked what (EOM) meant and I was happy to explain! They liked the idea! On a personal note, I found that sending messages with great subject lines and the (EOM) protocol saved me TONS of time. In one day, I noticed that MOST of my outgoing emails could be handled in the subject line! Go through your email one at a time and in order – Part 9 in a Series – Email Management for Teachers & Administrators (Updated 6/11/12.
Image via WikipediaThis one is going to be tough, dear Readers.
It’s hard to look at the email in your inbox and jump back and forth between them but this step in the 30-day process of managing your email effectively is work through the email in your inbox one-by-one and in order. Remember, working through your email effectively means applying the 4 D’s discussed in the last blog post in this series. Now, this one doesn’t take a lot of discussion except to say that I know it is so tempting to look at all of your emails and skip around between them but don’t do it! Using this approach, you’ll process your email quickly and effectively. Articles Worth Reading: We’ve been organizing our email, how about organizing your documents? (Updated 6/11/12. Flag Your Email When You Need To Follow Up – Part 7 in a Series (Updated 6/6/12. Our series continues with a new step in our 30 days to managing your email: Flag Your Email When You Need To Follow Up Many email systems have a great feature that allows you to flag an email and it automatically is put into a to-do list which can be sorted by date needed.
A simple click in Outlook, for instance, on the small flag on the toolbar of an email is all it takes to have the email and reminder put instantly into your to-do list! Then, use your to-do list to ensure you take care of those items. REALLY Apply those 4 D’s, Day 2 – Part 9 in a a Series – Email Management for Teachers & Administrators (Updated 6/9/12. Image via Wikipedia Hello everyone!
Now, here’s the big question, did you try out the 4 D’s? Part 9 of our series focuses on those 4 D’s. You may have been too busy or too tired or a million other things and I bet those are all very true but to make this work, you have to at least give this plan a shot. So, take a moment and try applying the 4 D’s to your email: Do It, Defer It, Delegate It, Delete it. Screenr, Parallels, and Incredimail.
A variety of sites to share with you today.
Let’s start with Screenr at whichis a great tool for easily creating screen recordings. They had samples there and that let me some very short but excellent tutorials on using PowerPoint for presentations. So, my next site is I found 8 short, Screenr tutorials on using PowerPoint to create animated presentations. Watch them and I really believe you’ll be amazed.
PowerPoint is really impressing me more each day as a versatile tool! I worked on speeding up my Parallels at so I could take advantage of the best of both my Mac and my PC. And, finally, had so much fun with Incredimail at So cool, beautiful stationary and wonderful graphics! Go through your email one at a time and in order – Part 9 in a Series – Email Management for Teachers & Administrators (Updated 6/11/12) DayViewer – Free Online Organizer & Calendar. Resources for All Content Areas, All Grades, and for Teachers, too!! (Revised 5/25/12) Managing Email For Teachers & Administrators – Part 1 in a Series (Revised 6/11/12) For many, many years, I have shared the very positive results that my students received from my use of my classroom website as a 24/7 classroom.
My website was a “Go To” place that the students could count on for support for our classroom. At this site, the students could find not only assignments but specific sites and resources to help them understand those resources, a message board to ask questions, content related educational games and sites selected specifically for the interactive approach that taught, provided guided practice, and independent practice, and just to see their best work or their classmates best work published internationally for the world to see! I taught from that webpage, started my class with that page, followed the lesson components on the page, and ended with the page. The kids knew it was there and they knew it would be current.
And, they used it! I still believe in classroom websites but now there are other choices. So, here are five great recommendations. Stop the CC, BCC Craziness! – Part 11 in a Series (Revised 6/6/12) Redliner – Solve the Frustrations of Document Collaboration and Approval. Turn Off Automatic Notifications and Set Aside “Email” Time – Part 3 in a Series (Updated 6/11/12) 13 Gmail Plugins You Should Try Right Now – TNW Apps. Write A Great Subject Line – Part 2 in a Series – Managing Email for Teachers and Administrators (Updated 6/11/12) How many folders do you need? Just 4 for now! – Part 5 in a Series (Updated 6/11/12) Found some great tools for Educators! gSyncit, Xobni, Loonapix (Updated 6/6/12) Managing Email for Educators (Revised 6/11/12) Empty your Inbox: Process and organize your email more efficiently (Updated 6/14/12) I love finding new apps, sites, and software to improve my productivity. In fact, I like this stuff so much, I’ve actually gotten to where I have so many resources, it’s counter-productive.
So, I realized it’s time to stop and make decisions about the ones I’m going to use regularly. This is no easy task, mind you! I’m prone to saying “What If…” when I start to delete something because I think I might want it again someday. Some might say I should just leave them and use the ones I want. You know, the more I think about this, the more I realize how true this is. So, now comes the painful part. I have made some decisions already. I’m still conflicted about some productivity apps and I’m going to make myself make that decision because I’m bouncing between them and scattering information.
So, I’m going to start with one that I committed to (again) yesterday: Remember The Milk. Don’t laugh, but I have tried the following and decided against them. So, what are you using? Take full advantage of the email program you are using: Part 12 in a Series (Updated 6/12/12) Fuzzmail – An email with emotions. New! Pick your favorite inbox style – Official Gmail Blog. >Organizing your Digital Life – Day 3. >Great News About E-Doc Organizer Program. Audioboo. Apply the 4 D’s To Your Emails – Part 8 in a Series – Managing Email for Teachers & Administrators (Updated 6/9/12) >Organizing your Digital Life – Day 2. MyWeb4Ed Teachers.
Technology. Together. Xobni | You can now use Evernote in Outlook! July23 Via Scoop.it – MyWeb4Ed Xobni is an Outlook plugin that helps you search and organize your inbox. Related articles by myweb4ed posted under Email Management, Microsoft Outlook, Productivity, Windows | No Comments » Office 2010, Twitterfeed, and Email Management! These are a few of my favorite things…(Revised 6/6/12)
>MyWeb4Ed is back! And I’ve news to share about what I have discovered! Drawzit. Sanebox: NOT RECOMMENDED! MAKE BELIEFS COMIX! Online Educational Comic Generator for Kids of All Ages. DayViewer – Free Online Organizer & Calendar. 13 Gmail Plugins You Should Try Right Now – TNW Apps. >Empty your Inbox: Process and organize your email more efficiently.