During a recent conversation about business processes, a thinking participant asked the question which I have used as my title.
Who does not understand this urgent call for assistance? It is a universal cry for help which is uttered by all who use e-mail in their business. Whenever it is voiced, there is always an outpouring of advice, most based on personal experience and some based on deep thought.
The options offered on this occasion fell into a number of broad categories:
• Multiple e-mail addresses/silos
• A comprehensive filing system to get e-mails into the client/customer file
• Hosted e-mail services which allow recipients to handle e-mail wherever they might be
• Improve spam management
• Automatic deletion of e-mail after a certain period, which demands anything requiring to be kept being filed elsewhere
• Do it, delegate it, deliberate over it or dump it
• Replace e-mail where practical, but what with?
1. Multiple E-mail Addresses or Silos
For a user with a slight overload situation, breaking down your e-mail traffic into a number of different repositories may make things feel better.
This can be done by creating subject folders (silos) in Outlook. You can drag e-mails from your Inbox into a subject folder which you reserve for that sort of material. At least it makes your Inbox look a lot better.
But you must do better than that. The e-mail should be dealt with, I mean completed, before being moved from the Inbox to the subject folder, otherwise you will probably forget what it was about or what was required of you and so let your correspondent down.
Alternatively, you could give your friends, contacts, business associates, clients and customers different e-mail addresses for contacting you. This would obviate the process of dragging e-mails into the subject folders in the single e-mail address process mentioned above. The failing is that you must go looking for new e-mail in a number of accounts to ensure you stay on top of the e-mail storm.
Outlook can be configured to display a number of Inboxes at a time, but there is a limit imposed by the screen real estate.
My guess is that you would then begin to create subject folders in each of your main Inboxes "to make finding e-mails easier".
Multiple silos are a real personal management challenge. I would recommend avoiding them like the plague.
In between these two extremes, I can see a role for having two e-mail addresses.
The primary address is for your most lucrative correspondents. People who send e-mail to this address require your urgent personal attention. This Inbox should be perused regularly during the day and all incoming e-mail read and dealt with before you leave your desk at the end of the day.
The secondary address would be directed to your administrative assistant, PA or secretary. This person would be responsible for actioning the contents of e-mails coming in to this address. If an incoming e-mail fitted the category for your primary address, it would be forwarded for action. Spam would be deleted, client e-mails filed in your document management system, brochures of interest forwarded to the appropriate person within the business and the rest left for your review.
This secondary address would be the recipient of magazine subscriptions, newsletters, marketing brochures, in fact anything that does not directly assist you in achieving what you are at work to achieve. At a prearranged time during the day, your PA would tell you what is in the secondary Inbox that has not been actioned and then action the content as you determine. So long as you are at work, this secondary Inbox should be empty at the end of every day.
Whichever multi silo option you consider for your e-mails, you need to assess the risk, productivity impacts and convenience of using Outlook as your primary store. Over time, the subject folders will grow in number and it will be the devil's own job to find a specific e-mail. Outlook search is so slow. It may be easier to simply ask your sender to resend. How embarrassing that the sender can find the e-mail and you cannot!
I find it very hard to recommend this approach. A corrupted Exchange PST or OST file is a serious challenge and often not recoverable. Many Exchange users are lax about backups and ignore backing up Exchange! Its worth checking.
Much information received into a business via e-mail needs to be placed in a matter or job folder. While it is in Outlook, it generally cannot be shared or made available to others in your project workgroup. Think seriously of moving this information into an environment which makes the information available to those who need it.
Once in that space, DELETE it from Outlook. This approach will make your Inbox really better, not just look better.
My next article will deal with the making of a truly comprehensive electronic file (eFile) which will contain not just e-mails, but all files relating to a job, contract or matter.
I have over 40 years experience in Office Technology, Information Technology and process re-engineering behind me. I work for business to help it make the very best use it can of its IT and OT infrastructure.
My business works with its clients to identify what they are doing now, to document where they want to be and develop a path to get from where they are to their nirvana. We assist with the development of an IT and OT plan, provide input toward the budget and supply process management and support to achieve the planned results.
Who does not understand this urgent call for assistance? It is a universal cry for help which is uttered by all who use e-mail in their business. Whenever it is voiced, there is always an outpouring of advice, most based on personal experience and some based on deep thought.
The options offered on this occasion fell into a number of broad categories:
• Multiple e-mail addresses/silos
• A comprehensive filing system to get e-mails into the client/customer file
• Hosted e-mail services which allow recipients to handle e-mail wherever they might be
• Improve spam management
• Automatic deletion of e-mail after a certain period, which demands anything requiring to be kept being filed elsewhere
• Do it, delegate it, deliberate over it or dump it
• Replace e-mail where practical, but what with?
1. Multiple E-mail Addresses or Silos
For a user with a slight overload situation, breaking down your e-mail traffic into a number of different repositories may make things feel better.
This can be done by creating subject folders (silos) in Outlook. You can drag e-mails from your Inbox into a subject folder which you reserve for that sort of material. At least it makes your Inbox look a lot better.
But you must do better than that. The e-mail should be dealt with, I mean completed, before being moved from the Inbox to the subject folder, otherwise you will probably forget what it was about or what was required of you and so let your correspondent down.
Alternatively, you could give your friends, contacts, business associates, clients and customers different e-mail addresses for contacting you. This would obviate the process of dragging e-mails into the subject folders in the single e-mail address process mentioned above. The failing is that you must go looking for new e-mail in a number of accounts to ensure you stay on top of the e-mail storm.
Outlook can be configured to display a number of Inboxes at a time, but there is a limit imposed by the screen real estate.
My guess is that you would then begin to create subject folders in each of your main Inboxes "to make finding e-mails easier".
Multiple silos are a real personal management challenge. I would recommend avoiding them like the plague.
In between these two extremes, I can see a role for having two e-mail addresses.
The primary address is for your most lucrative correspondents. People who send e-mail to this address require your urgent personal attention. This Inbox should be perused regularly during the day and all incoming e-mail read and dealt with before you leave your desk at the end of the day.
The secondary address would be directed to your administrative assistant, PA or secretary. This person would be responsible for actioning the contents of e-mails coming in to this address. If an incoming e-mail fitted the category for your primary address, it would be forwarded for action. Spam would be deleted, client e-mails filed in your document management system, brochures of interest forwarded to the appropriate person within the business and the rest left for your review.
This secondary address would be the recipient of magazine subscriptions, newsletters, marketing brochures, in fact anything that does not directly assist you in achieving what you are at work to achieve. At a prearranged time during the day, your PA would tell you what is in the secondary Inbox that has not been actioned and then action the content as you determine. So long as you are at work, this secondary Inbox should be empty at the end of every day.
Whichever multi silo option you consider for your e-mails, you need to assess the risk, productivity impacts and convenience of using Outlook as your primary store. Over time, the subject folders will grow in number and it will be the devil's own job to find a specific e-mail. Outlook search is so slow. It may be easier to simply ask your sender to resend. How embarrassing that the sender can find the e-mail and you cannot!
I find it very hard to recommend this approach. A corrupted Exchange PST or OST file is a serious challenge and often not recoverable. Many Exchange users are lax about backups and ignore backing up Exchange! Its worth checking.
Much information received into a business via e-mail needs to be placed in a matter or job folder. While it is in Outlook, it generally cannot be shared or made available to others in your project workgroup. Think seriously of moving this information into an environment which makes the information available to those who need it.
Once in that space, DELETE it from Outlook. This approach will make your Inbox really better, not just look better.
My next article will deal with the making of a truly comprehensive electronic file (eFile) which will contain not just e-mails, but all files relating to a job, contract or matter.
I have over 40 years experience in Office Technology, Information Technology and process re-engineering behind me. I work for business to help it make the very best use it can of its IT and OT infrastructure.
My business works with its clients to identify what they are doing now, to document where they want to be and develop a path to get from where they are to their nirvana. We assist with the development of an IT and OT plan, provide input toward the budget and supply process management and support to achieve the planned results.
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