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Top tips from Mesmo Consultancy (and Associates) on how to save time and improve business and personal performance by ‘Taking Control of your Inbox’ and using proper business email etiquette.
This month it’s quality not quantity. Just four on the bookshelf and in the briefcase.
September books in the briefcase
1) H for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. How she trained a goshawk and her relationship with Mabel (the goshawk) to overcome her grief at her father’s unexpected and sudden death. An utterly absorbing book with many lessons about life and indeed how to change behaviour.
2) Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains by Susan Greenfield. Greenfield poses many thought provoking questions about the effect on our behaviour and society. Not surprisingly, answers are not always given, rather you are left to draw your own conclusions. Still a very worthwhile and informative read.
3) Four Quartets by T.S Eliot. Being a scientist reading classics were missed out of the curriculum. Something Michael Gove might have had something to say about. This was one and hence its arrival now on the reading list. Magical and worth investing the time if you like me missed out in your youth.
4) Virginia Woolf – Art, Life and Vision by Frances Spalding. This is the catalogue of magnificent and enlightening exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It is a must for any Bloomsbury Group aficionado. It also reminds you yet again of the power of pen and notebook and breath taking command of the English language.
Tags: Frances Spalding, Helen Macdonald, Michael Gove, National Portrait Gallery, Pen and Notebook, Susan Greenfield, T.S. elliot, Virginia Woolf
Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.
Will Rogers
Despite packing up your inbox properly before going on vacation did your colleagues still managed to fill it for you? Did you do nothing and just let the email mount up?
Holiday email overload
Here are our top five tips to reduce the email mountain to inbox zero very quickly. They key is accepting that the more emails you send the more you receive.
To maintain inbox zero, you now need to train your colleagues to change their email behaviour. More next month. Can’t wait, then contact us now to discuss how Mesmo Consultancy can help you.
Tags: Email Bankruptcy, Email behaviour, email overload, holday, inbox zero, Mesmo Consultancy, Outlook 2010
For many dealing with the holiday email back-log is one of the most stressful aspects of taking a break. More stressful some say than, losing your luggage, having to look after aging parents or fractious children. It compels them to stay connected even although it might adversely impact their holiday (as Lucy Kellaway recently found).
Email overload free vacation
Last week Daimler introduced an email programme which automatically deletes employees emails when they are on leave. It sends a message to the sender asking them to re-send the email if it is important after the recipient is back.
The Daimler system is sophisticated and most companies are not in a position to implement such a system but take heart there are other options. The key thing to remember is that technology alone will never cure email overload whatever some software providers say.
The real cure for email overload lies in changing our email behaviour. It is about re-thinking how we use email and curing what has become the hidden disease of 21st century working life – email and data addiction.
In the short term or those either going on holiday or just returning to work, there are some simple things you can do.
1) Before you go – housekeeping
Before you go away do some basic email housekeeping to clean up your inbox. For example, clear out all the old emails and set some filters to remove all the new but unnecessary emails (eg newsletters). Most email software allows you to set two different Out of Office messages. So for your internal emails, set a message similar to the Daimler system one. Indeed this is what many executives already do.
For more tips on how to clean up your inbox before going on leave see earlier posts.
2) On your return – talk and talk again
On your return, talk, talk and talk again before you even touch your inbox. This gives you an overview of anything that really needs your attention. Then and only then tackle the inbox. Triage it and deal only with the really vital emails.
For more tips see our seven step plan to reduce the holiday email overload.
3) Declare email bankruptcy
As for the rest, declare email bankruptcy. Delete the lot. If anything is that important you can be sure the sender will re-contact you.
The result – freedom from email holiday overload and the need to stay connected. Of course in the longer term you need to implement an email management change programme to better educate your colleagues about how to reduce email overload generally. For help changing the email culture do call us to hear how Mesmo Consultancy’s Brilliant Email Management masterclasses have helped other organisations like yours.
Meanwhile, what is your top tip for reducing the holiday email overload backlog? Is the Daimler approach better than staying connected?
Tags: Brilliant Email Masterclass, Daimler, Email Bankruptcy, email overload, holiday email overload, Lucy Kellaway, Mesmo Consultancy
Email bankruptcy is a good way to reduce the post holiday email overload. Here are some reason why you should declare email bankruptcy and how to do it politely.
Now that we play with our smart phones and associated devices more than we sleep it seems to me that this might be one reason why many are in desperate need of recharging their batteries properly. Will you disconnect on your holiday and take a proper break? Is the fear of returning to the holiday email backl
og too worrying?
One way to over come this most debilitating illnesses of 21st century business life is to declare email bankruptcy, delete them all and wait for someone to re-contact you about anything either urgent or important. Mesmo Consultancy’s research shows that at least just under half (46%) of the emails we receive are unnecessary. During the holiday period you can be sure that of the remaining half, at least half are past their sell-by date and about a quarter will be cc’d emails with long threads which you will read and be non the wiser.
Tell colleagues that you have declared email bankruptcy and to re-send anything they think you should see. Indeed this is what many savvy executives put in their Out of Office message. The result, just a few key emails and an otherwise empty inbox.
This is a summary of a longer post which appeared on the HuffingtonPost.com
Tags: email backlog, Email Bankruptcy, empty inbox, holiday email overload, Mesmo Consultancy
As the holiday season approaches, these are a few of the books going in the tote bag.
The Conductor by Sara Quigley. Fiction based on fact about a conductor’s drive to play Shostakovich’s music in Leningrad during the German invasion of Russia during WWII. Wise words on how to motivate people even during the most dire circumstances.
Books for the tote bag
The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters. Mind Management techniques to improve your confidence through understanding that we have two competing brains – the Chimp which is emotional and irrational and the Human brain which is rational and makes evidence based decisions.
A Spy Amongst Friends by Ben Macintyre. Much has already been written about Kim Philby, but this is now seen as the definitive book.
Creativity Inc: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Innovation by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace. Based on Ed’s experiences of working with Steve Jobs it pulls out lessons on how to harness the power of the creative, obsessive perfectionist who might otherwise be a business liability.
What is going in your tote bag this summer?
PS if you are still stuck for some good reading here are ten technology related books
Tags: Books