That to-do list is scrawled on any number of stickies, upholstering the wall next to our collective desk since we can’t remember what e-mail folder we put the previous list into. Well, relax. Our great national nightmare is over. In the words of the great philosopher, call the neighbors and wake the kids. I’ve figured out e-mail and it’s not a tip that you’ve heard before (probably). There are those organization pundits that preach keeping the e-mail inbox cleaned out at all times. In fact, I have one co-worker that cannot act as a functioning member of society if his in-box is so full that you have to scroll past a single page.
Those people are wrong.
Then, there are those who say we must ignore e-mail except for certain, appointed times of day. I have another colleague that actually has the intestinal fortitude to check his e-mail ONLY at the beginning and the end of the day.
That’s great for him but lousy for everyone
That needs to get in touch with him at 10:30 or 2. Don’t get me started on texting. Those people are also wrong. How about the folks that say you overseas chinese in worldwide data must stay on top of it throughout the day, routing certain messages to certain locations? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Here it is. Ready? First, take a few minutes at the beginning of every day to have face time with other members of your team, peers, supervisors and/or subordinates.
It has nothing to do with e-mail and
Everything to do with e-mail in that making that the homepage of the website simple, human contact every day keeps it “real” that we are actually working with people and not “To:” lines. It’s important. After that, as we retreat to our virtual landscapes, the key is the interchange between your e-mail and your to-do list (an app, not a Post-It). However, there is some prep work.
You must be sure your SPAM filters work.
You must regularly designate as JUNK frequent flye tg data rs that you don’t want to see. You should also set up a coherent, simple, but thorough file tree in your e-mail client. And, you must make “Rules” that specify certain regular e-mails flow into certain folders on your file tree. Here’s the rub, those top-level file folders should correspond to the top-level categories of your to-do list. Categories like: > A1 – KWIKFIRES: With apologies to any number of cooking shows.