Taming the Email Tiger workshop slideshow v1.5

Taming the
Email Tiger
A Strategic, Best Practice Approach
to Better Managing Email Overload
Training workshop
Halve the time,
double your results and
triple your productivity
when using e-mail
Steuart Snooks
E-mail Strategist &
Productivity Expert
www.emailtiger.com.au

Today’s agenda
1: Overview of the impact
of e-mail ‘overload’
2: Best practices and solutions
3: ‘Hands-on’ application
Solutions for Success 2013 www.emailtiger.com.au

The Challenge of
E-mail Overload
In summary, the problems with e-mail overload are:
1: IT capacity
2: risk of lost information and/or
intellectual property
3: individual employee productivity

Pace of Information Overload

Pace of E-mail Overload
It took 70 years for the telephone to become a
mainstream consumer telecommunications technology
It took only 15 years for the fax to do same
It took just 18 months
for email!

resulting in 13 hours of emailing per week

=

Radcati Group White Paper - Addressing the Information
Overload in Corporate E-mail: The Economics of User Attention

Wastes too much time !

Mastery
Smart
Effective
Survival
Overloaded / Overwhelmed
Email
Mastery

Think Fridays
No e-mail Fridays / SLAs / Quiet Hour
Removed ‘Reply ALL’ button
Solving Info Overload as a
competitive advantage
Stopped Blackberry servers sending
email 6:15pm-7:00am
plan to ban internal email by February
2014 (announcement has already
reduced volumes by 20%)
What companies are doing to combat
email & information overload

So . . . .
what’s the
solution?

The Solution

Mastery
Smart
Effective
Survival
Overloaded / Overwhelmed
The Solution

Best Practice Email Management
3: KEEP THE INBOX EMPTY (handle each message only ONCE)
4: STORE messages & attachments appropriately
5: Communicate with CLARITY !
2: SCHEDULE times to monitor & process email
(rather than react as they arrive)
1: Use CALENDAR view as your default (rather than the Inbox)

1: Use CALENDAR view
as your default setting,
rather than the Inbox

Whose agenda/priorities is this?

7 Reasons Why You Should NOT Check
Email First Thing in the Morning?
1: The inbox is NOT your to-do list
2: Starting with email makes you REactive rather than PROactive
3: Ignorance is bliss!
4: Avoids short-term gratification to achieve longer term results
5: Checking e-mail is an excuse for a lack of priorities
6: Your morning energy and alertness should be directed to
higher priorities
7: Controls unmanaged and unspoken expectations

Shift Your Working Paradigm
A key to being more productive and effective in the workplace,
especially when using email is to shift your ‘default’ working style.
• Inbox-based
• Interruption-
driven
• REactive
• Calendar-based
• Plan-driven
• PROactive

2: SCHEDULE times
to monitor and
process e-mail,
rather than respond
or react as they arrive

Impact of email interruptions
Average amount of time
between interruptions?
Average amount of time
working on a task or project
before switching to another?
Percentage of occasions a
project/task is not resumed for
that day?
3 mins
11 mins
40 %

Impact of email interruptions

Impact of interruptions on IQ = 10 points
Impact of smoking marijuana = 4 points
Average IQ level
is 100
Impact of interruptions on our IQ

Multi-tasking
As a result of constant
interruptions, do you find
that you start to multi-task?
Do you often have 2 or 3
files open on your desk?
Does your computer often
have 4 or 5 windows (or
more) open at once?

Multi-tasking
Author Maggie Jackson warns that . . .
"Relying on multitasking
as a way of life, we chop up
our opportunities and abilities to
make big-picture sense of the world
and pursue our long-term goals“
"Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age."

Multi-tasking

The 7 Critical Impacts of Email &
Information Overload?
1: Interruptions
2: Loss of focus
3: Multi-tasking
4: Poor decision-making
5: Lack of ‘think’ time
6: Organisational dysfunction
7: Mental health & well-being
8: Quality of life

The Urgency Dilemma
The problem is that
Urgent
Not-so-urgent
Non-urgent
messages all come through the same channel!
So, we need to clarify what is truly ‘urgent’
URGENT
Not so
URGENT
Not
URGENT

7 Reasons Why You Should NOT
Use E-mail for Urgent Messages
1. Lack of background detail, richness and context
2. E-mail can be easily misunderstood
3. It can actually take LONGER to fully communicate your message
4. The synchronicity of e-mail as a sender
5. The synchronicity of e-mail as a receiver
6. It’s the wrong ‘mode’ for urgent communication
7. Limits your control of e-mail

When do you check email?
As they arrive?
Randomly?
At set times of the day?
Set up your system to help you
(ie: re-set default settings)

Best times to check email?
Research shows that for most people, in most office-based roles,
checking e-mail at 4 planned times a day (to a max of 45 mins each
time) allows you to turn all e-mail around in a 24 hour period.
Early in the day, as ‘second thing’ (after
checking your calendar!1
2
3
4
About 30-45 minutes before your lunch
break (NOT mid-morning)
Any time that suits you during the afternoon
About 30-45 minutes before you finish
for the day

Strategies to control email
‘as-an-interruption’
Adjust
send/
receive
interval
Work
offline
Turn
off all
alerts

Send Receive
Immediately 2.2%
22.5%
6.7%
32.9%
Within 2 to 4 hours 20.3% 26.2%
Same day 37.7%
64.4%
36.6%
58.1%
Next day (ie: within 24 hrs) 26.7% 21.5%
Within 2 days 8.9%
13.1%
6.7%
9.0%
Within 3 days 4.3% 2.2%
How promptly do you expect to
respond to email that you . . .

TimeValue
Quality
QuickCheap
Good
The Customer Service Interaction

My New Personal E-mail Policy
In an effort to increase my personal productivity and efficiency I am implementing a new
approach to managing my email. I have recently come to understand that I spend too
much time shuffling through a stack of emails in my inbox and not enough time focusing
on my real work, that is, the stuff I'm actually paid to do! Email has become an
unnecessary distraction that is creating longer lead times on my ever-growing 'to-do' list.
Consequently, I have decided that serious change is required. Therefore, I will now only be
checking and responding to my email at approx. noon and 4pm on weekdays. I shall try to
get back to you via email in a timely manner and will most certainly be handling my email
in a way that is seen as professional and responsive. Therefore, if you need a response
from me outside of these times, please do call me on my mobile number. It'd be good to
hear your voice anyway - much more personal than electronic mail!
I trust my new approach to email helps you get the most out of me. For my part, I believe
it will allow me to spend more time on productive work output and creating value for my
organisation. Thanks greatly; I'm looking forward to putting email back where it belongs;
supporting my work, not driving it!
Managing Expectations

Managing Expectations

Best Practice E-mail Management
3: KEEP THE INBOX EMPTY
Handle each message only ONCE

• WHERE - File (Move to a Folder / File along with)
• WHEN - Convert to a Task or Calendar item
• WAIT - Add to a Wait/Watch List/Pending Reply folder
The 4D methodology
DITCH / DELETE
DEAL
DELEGATE
DECIDE
1:
2:
3:
4:

Using the Preview Pane

Using Automation
Establish rules to automate
decisions and processes
“CC” rule
Use auto-signature to ‘train’ others

Using Outlook Tools

Using colour categories in the Calednar

4: STORE messages & attachments appropriately

4: STORE e-mail messages
and attachments
appropriately

4 keys to storing e-mail effectively
1. Reduce mailbox size
2. Send document links instead of
attachments
3. Establish folder structure
4. Auto-archiving

According to research by Permessa, based
on 15 years of experience with leading
global enterprises,
80% of email volume
comes from just 4% of
messages
which, in turn, typically comes from just
1% of the user community.
1: Reduce mailbox size

1: Reduce mailbox size

2. Use document links instead of
attachments
What are some of the
disadvantages of
sending attachments?
What are some of the
advantages of using
document links?

Separate ‘finished’
work from
‘unfinished’ work
Create 4 or 5
‘primary’ folders
Outlook 2003/2007
}
3. Establish an email folder structure

Separate ‘finished’
work from
‘unfinished’ work
Create 4 or 5
‘primary’ folders
Outlook 2010
3. Establish an email folder structure

Mailbox – Steuart Snooks
4. Use Auto-archiving

How often
do you want to
auto-archive?
1
2
3
How old
should emails
be to be
archived?
Where
should emails
be stored?
4. Use Auto-archiving

5: Communicate
with CLARITY !

7 Ways to Write More Effective E-mail
1: Think first – is e-mail the best way for this message/person
2: Communicating in the Age of Speed
3: What is Your Desired Outcome?
4: How to Write Better Subject Lines
5: Automate Your Follow up
6: Why the Inverted Pyramid Structure works best
7: Why You Should Write an E-mail Backwards

Media richness framework
(based on a theory by Daft & Lengel)
Timeneedtocommunicate
Degree/depthofunderstanding
Greater context or richness
Asynchronous
Synchronous
Digital
Auditory
Visual

Action required:
Response requested:
Read only:
FYI:
3: What is your desired outcome

4: What makes a good subject line?
To
cc
1: Desired outcome
clearly stated (so the
reader knows what’s
expected of them
2: Timeframe
specified
3: Clear, concise
description of the
subject
Recipient placed in the CC box – for their information only, no action or response expected
Recipient placed in the TO box – an action is expected

To
To
cc
cc
Use BCC only to control replies and safeguard privacy
Action required:
Response requested:
Read only:
FYI:
Deadline
When
Due by
Before
4: What makes a good subject line?
Desired Outcome Timeframe Target

Main Point
Summary of your main point, request,
recommendation or solutions
Supporting
details
Background, reasons
explanations, details
Any next steps
Concise close
Sign off
6: Why INVERTED PYRAMID structure work best

The F-shape
A heatmap from eye-tracking
study of websites.
Areas viewed most are red,
then yellow, then blue.
Grey areas were not viewed
at all.
main point here

Main Point
Supporting
details
Background, reasons
Any next steps
Concise close
Sign off
Best suits all the
various personality &
communication styles
Driver, Director,
Controller, Choleric
Expressive, Intuiative,
Sanguine
Amiable, Realtor,
Feeler, Phelgmatic
Analyst, Thinker,
Melancholic

Main Point
Supporting
details
Background, reasons
Any next steps
Concise close
Sign off
The 5:30 Rule
Give a 5 second overview
of your message and then expand
on it with a 30 second version
Remember:
Summary before details
Requests before reasons
Solutions before explanations
Recommendations before background info

The A-B-C method
Inverted Pyramid Structure
Main Point
Supporting
details
Close

3: Address message last
2: Write subject line
1: Edit message
7: Why You Should Write an E-mail Backwards

Stay in touch and up-to-date
www.emailtiger.com.au
Steuart G. Snooks
Email Strategist & Expert
Conference presentations
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Taming the Email Tiger workshop slideshow v1.5

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Taming the Email Tiger workshop slideshow v1.5