Taming the eMail Monster
Many clients describe email as being “out of control”, “insane”, “a monster”. There’s a frustration that often this “productivity tool” is just not being used in a very productive manner, individually and as an organization. Taming the Email Monster is a 3 hour workshop to provide individuals & teams with the insight and strategies necessary to manage their email more effectively. It goes beyond the technology to take a behaviour-based approach to email management – looking at how we react, how we think, how we send & how we organize email.
Step 1: Respond, don’t react to incoming email:
- Examining the validity of certain assumptions and beliefs that keep us chained to e-mail. Will the world really end if I don’t check my email for 45 minutes? Is the person who reacts the fastest the one who delivers the best customer service and contributes the most to the bottom line?
- Understanding the distraction factor. (hint: 10 IQ points)
- Managing expectations with internal and external customers.
- Strategies to separate the real fires from false alarms so that we don’t miss something if we don’t check our email for an hour.
Step 2: Organizing eMail:
- Setting up and maintaining an effective eMail folder system so that we keep our Inbox clean and can find what we need, when we need it.
- Using flags and filters to organize email.
- Strategies to track and follow-up on action email.
Step 3: Managing the Outbox, in order to Manage the Inbox (Leadership by example):
- Applying more thought to what we send and who we send it to.
- Using “Netiquette” that will save others time as they read/reply to our email.
- Understanding when e-mail is a good way to communicate and when it’s actually counterproductive.
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