Email Productivity Tips

How to get your Email Inbox to Zero. . .

___Do you quickly process email and get your Inbox to zero - daily, if not weekly?
___Can you quickly find needed information in your email folders?
___Do you reply to your email within 24 hours?
___Is your email a time-waster or a time-saver?
___Have you ever been shown how to better manage your email?

If you're like most people, you answered "NO" to all of these questions!

Here's a simple way to store and manage your email:

A) Organizing Email

Create and use just 4 top-level folders:

	* ACTION	Contains emails that require your follow-up or response. Action is required on each of the emails you keep in this folder.
	* AGENDA	For information you must speak with someone about. You could have an "Agenda" folder for each person who reports to you, or with whom you meet on a regular basis. (Example: AGENDA - John; AGENDA - Susan)
	* REFERENCE	For info you might need later. Setup sub-folders within this REFERENCE folder to hold your emails by project.
	* WAITING	For info/action that you're waiting for someone else to complete. If you supervise staff, you could have a WAITING folder for each person. (Example: WAITING - John; WAITING - Susan)

B) Processing Email F.A.S.T.

When you open an email make a decision about what to do with it.
Do NOT close the email until you make a decision, using the FAST model:

	File	File it if no action or follow-up is required, but this is reference information you may need later.
	Act	Act now if you can complete the task in 5 minutes or less, do it now. Actions include:       - reply to the email       - delegate a task on the email (via reply email)       - ask a question, clarify a point on the email
	Save	Save it on your calendar, or to one of your agenda, task or project lists. If there are actions that you need to take on the email, but the action(s) will take more than 5 minutes of your time, move the email to the appropriate folder location (Action, Agenda, Reference, Waiting), and schedule the action item immediately on your Calendar/Task List.
	Trash	Trash it - if no action or follow-up is required, delete the email

Handling email quickly and effectively requires 1) a good system; 2) experience, practice, and consistency in your decisions/actions with each email.

During onsite hands-on coaching, your coach will work with you to get your email Inbox to "zero" and walk you through this process of managing email. At the end of the coaching session, you'll have emptied your INBOX and practiced using this simple actionable system for effectively managing a large volume of email.

Make your work easier, faster, simpler.
Workflow & Personal Productivity Coaching


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