Out of the Office - notebook story to stop email overload

You receive an Out of Office Message, what is your natural reaction next time you want to email that person?  Aside from a touch of jealously as they are on leave and have escaped the daily dose of email overload, you just send them another email. 

Is that the best email behaviour for those serious about stopping email overload and reducing the resulting wanton waste of time (estimated now to be half a day week).

One in five business users now receive in excess of seventy email a day.  Yet our own and that of others research shows that less than a third of all incoming email is ever read.  Take a week off and there will be at least 350 emails waiting for you. 

There is a very high chance that your email will either be missed or redundant by the time its read.  However the recipient may not know that and so more unecessary emails flood back into your inbox.

Be innovative.  Don't firing of more emails.  Instead write down the things you want to email the person about and either send them one email on their return or and better still talk to them.

Now watch the email traffic go down along with the email overload.  You  might even find you too reach the empty inbox status more quickly.

This is part of an ongoing series of notebook stories to reduce email overload - see also my recent column in TechRepublic.

What else can you do using pen and paper instead of email to save time and reach the empty inbox status? 

Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy has spent the last fifteen years coaching and training people from a wide range of organisations and businesses to use email more effectively to improve personal and business performance and manage the risk associated with cyber crime.  Monica is a Visiting Senior Fellow at Cass Business School City University and Bournemouth University Business School.  She is passionate about helping people to save time by using email effectively and has written several books on the subject, the latest being Brilliant Email.  She runs regular workshops,webinars and masterclasses on email best practice. 

Keep yourself to yourself - reducing the risk of cyber crime

The title of this blog might seem at odds in this age of social media and sharing.   However there is sharing and sharing and especially when travelling.  Cyber crime now costs organisations more than physical crime.  That is data lost through inappropriate use of electronic devices, email and the internet.

Travelling is stressful enough and to lose your ipad just adds to the hassle.  Heathrow has been nicknamed 'Theifrow'.  When you look around it's easy to see how we make it easy for the cyber criminal.

Travelling to a client last week revealed several weak spots which would make it very easy for me to walk off with both highly confidential competitive information and sensitive personal data.

Whether you travel on business or for pleasure here are seven top tips to protect yourself from  cyber crime in its various forms.

Cyber crime

1. Laptops and notebook PCs especially ipads - keep them close to you - don't leave them lying around.  
2. Going through X-ray scanners make sure you collect all your belongings.
3. When giving a presentation make sure you remove the USB memory stick and the presentation from the PC.
4. Photocopying - pick it up - don't get distracted and leave it on the machine.
5. Reading papers in transit - try to protect the title pages.
6. Accessing the internet on an unknown PC - take care and remove any evidence of which sites you visited etc.
7. Switch off all those location markers on your smart phones etc.

For more about how to manage the risks related to email security see last month's interview notes.

This is a summary of Monica Seeley's regular slot on the Geoff Carter show on Hotradio.
 

Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy has spent the last fifteen years coaching and training people from a wide range of organisations and businesses to use email more effectively to improve personal and business performance and manage the risk associated with cyber crime.  Monica is a Visiting Senior Fellow at Cass Business School City University and Bournemouth University Business School.  She is passionate about helping people to save time by using email effectively and has written several books on the subject, the latest being Brilliant Email.  She runs regular  workshops and masterclasses on email best practice.

Green Office Week - stop email overload

Its Green Office Week this week and stopping email overload is one way to make a very significant contribution to reducing your carbon foot print.

Green Email Usage

If your office and desk space was awash with papers you wouldn't just go and ask for a new desk/larger office.  You would be forced to clear up. Yet with email most people tend to ignore the warnings about mailbox sizes. Old emails are simply moved to another destination (for Outlook users often a pst file) and the inbox allowed to overflow again.

Unlike paper we can not see our emails, but make no mistake the more emails the more energy needed to process them.   Even if you opt for email archiving to reduce the storage requirements, servers and energy is still needed to process them.

The main suppliers of email like Google, Microsoft and BT all promote large inboxes as an advantage.  In my book this is amoral as it increases our carbon foot print and encourgaes email overload.   It's akin to the banks lending to people who could not aford to repay the loan.  Instead of promoting bloated inboxes, responsible email providers should be promoting and rewarding those who downsize and maintain small sustainable inboxes.

Many business are now downsizing their office space to reduce overheads and be more sustainable.  We should be doing the same with email to reduce our carbon foot prints.  For example, reduce the volume of traffic through our inbox by reducing the number of emails chains, better email etiquette, sharing rather than sending the complete file.

During the week I will tweet more tips on how going green can also help you stop email overload.

For more ways to save time and reduce email overload by why not join on one of our Brilliant Email masterclasses or webinars?

Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy has spent the last fifteen years coaching and training people from a wide range of organisations and businesses to use email more effectively to improve personal and business performance and manage the risk associated with cyber crime.  Monica is a Visiting Senior Fellow at Cass Business School City University and Bournemouth University Business School.  She is passionate about helping people to save time by using email effectively and has written several books on the subject, the latest being Brilliant Email.  She runs regular  workshops and masterclasses on email best practice.