Is Email Overload Turning You Into a Hamster?

Yup, here I am yet again ranting about email productivity, or lack thererof!

I’m reading this great book about email entitled The Hamster Revolution. Though I’ve studied this subject a lot, I like the creative approach to explaining what email overload can do to us – it can turn us all into tiny hamsters running on a hamster wheel 7 days a week trying to keep up.

The book really brings home two keys to managing email before it manages you.

1. Reduce Email Volume
2. Improve Email Quality

The authors explain three key questions to ask yourself as you work on reducing email volume.  The idea being that if  you send less email you will receive less email. 

• Is Your Email Needed? Does my busy recipient truly need this email to do his or her job? “Send we-mail instead of me-mail“, the authors suggest.  Don’t you love it!
• Is Email the Appropriate Communication Tool? Email is company property and is stored forever and can be reviewed or forwarded at anytime anywhere.
• Is Your Message Targeted? Is your message being sent to the right people in the right way? Decrease your use of Reply All, CC and Distribution Lists.

Improving email quality has two components.  Write really good subject lines and sculpt the body of the message.

• Good subject lines are absolutely crucial to clear, easy and quick communication via email.  The book suggests putting 1 of 5 action words in every subject line: Action, Info, Request, Confirmed, and Delivery. And then writing a good descriptive title describing the project or using specific dates, times & places when referring to the topic at hand.
• The authors suggest sculpting the body of your email using a method called A-B-C.  A if for Action Summary, then B for Background and finally C for Close.  The Action Summary is a sentence that describes a specific action, purpose or key point.  The Background is the body of your message.  Try using bullet points, numbering and keep it short and to the point.  The Close is the place to include a nice comment, describe next steps, and include your automatic signature.

These are all concepts that I teach in each and every Take Control of Email workshop I do and in my Email Organizing Basics on-line web session.  However, clarifying them in this way seems to make the concepts easier to remember. Thanks Hamster Guys!

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Save Me From My Smartphone!

Yup, that’s right, I did it, I finally moved into this decade – I’ve got myself a brand new Blackberry Style 9670 Smartphone – eeks!

Now, you would think that perhaps that was an easy decision and that my relationship with my new device is a love in.  So not the case, people.   Mostly because it’s been a very long three week journey to get the right smartphone and to get it all nicely synced with MS Outlook. 

I think I’ll start at the beginning.  I’ve been carefully researching smartphones for several months and added the associated cost to my budget all ready to roll for 2011.  Now, the trouble is ‘they’ keep bringing out new devices faster than you can figure out what the little buggers can do, or not do. 

So, I had my eye on the LG Windows 7 Smartphone – loved that big screen and the slide out keyboard with the nice size keys on it.  So, of course, I went to the phone store and purchased myself this little devil after asking several ‘techie’ types if the Windows 7 would sync properly with my Outlook Contacts, Calendar and Tasks – “of course”, I was told by various people. 

Long story short, after many hours of phone support attempts and two very nasty men at LG who treated me like a complete idiot, I turned to the online community hiding under my Google search bar – just wish I’d thought of that before I bought the phone.  Therein I found a YouTube video which showed me how to download the software and install it in order to have my new LG phone and Outlook talk nicely to each other – cool, I thought to myself. 

However, what I discovered upon successfully getting everything up and running is that they don’t really talk nicely to each other at all.    You need to download a Windows Hotmail Live Connector in order to have your Contacts and Calendar talk to your phone.  Tasks were completely forgotten altogether by our friends at Windows – apparently they think we have nothing to do all day long except go to meetings and email people- geez, get a life!  Anyway, once I figured out that I now had to maintain two sets of everything, I nearly lost it. Yup, that’s right every time you add an appointment to your Outlook calendar, you have to add it to your Hotmail calendar and ditto for Contacts.  All I have to say is, “I don’t think so …bleep, bleep, bleep …!”

After a final call to the nice people at Bell Aliant, off I went with the phone back to the store to be exchanged for the Blackberry.   And, low and behold, it only took me a week to get the Blackberry Desktop Software onto my computer and finally get it synced – gee whiz, just my luck.  One techie friend told me that 99% of the time the software downloads perfectly, you plug in your BB and you’re off to the races.  Why did I have to fall into the 1% who downloaded it 5 or 6 times, called various techie people, got really frustrated, took it out on my husband (sorry, honey!) and then talked to my husband’s amazing friend Andy today who had me up and running in 30 mins. flat.  Andy, you rock! 

Just goes to show you that I should stick to organizing and let other people set up my technology.  Rest assured I will have all kinds of things to say about managing time effectively when you own a Smartphone.

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Post Conference Overwhelm – Whew!

Here I sit in my office rather late on Sunday evening after a full day of financial paperwork for my business and my husband’s.  Catch up as a result of all the time I have spent at various Conference sessions in the last week or so.

I attended the Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) Conference in Montreal from November 5th to 7th and the Centre for Women in Business (CWB) Conference here in Halifax on November 12th.  I am definitely ‘all conferenced out’, but I have to say it was so worth it.

It’s my once a year chance to rejuvenate myself, learn from others, reconnect with organizing friends from across the country and establish stronger connections with women right here in my own backyard.  Several messages came across loud and clear, funnily enough, at both Conferences, go figure!

Use technology to your best advantage to make your business as efficient as possible but don’t get carried away with the latest online tool just because it’s new and looks cool. 

• Doodle – for scheduling with multiple people and your assistant
• Postling – to manage all your social media
• ReQall –  for voice to text while you’re on the road
• Dropbox – for online file syncing and sharing on multiple computers
• Google’s PasswordSafe – for keeping your passwords

The second message that came through loud and clear is the need for business owners, especially us organizers, to relinquish control of our business by hiring some help, outsourcing or bringing in partners and associates who complement our own skills.  My first step will be to hire a part-time personal assistant early in 2011 and then to start thinking about another staff member to work with me on client projects.  It is simply not possible to build a profitable long-term business without getting some help, not matter how hard it will be!

The final message is around the profitability subject and that is to get your finances under total control.  Build a business and personal budget and stick to it, work with a banker who understands small business, get a good tax accountant and incorporate your business as soon as it makes financial sense (for me that was three years ago). 

Yup, you guessed it, my first step before anything else is to book an appointment with a lawyer and get moving on the incorporation!  Ugh, the thought of the work involved in transitioning makes me cringe but I must soldier on.  Wish me luck!

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Webinar Technology – Oh My, What to Do?

One of my projects for this year is to do some research on possible technology for delivering webinars as well as working with clients from a distance.

Now we all know that Skype works well for one-on-one communication. We just need to each have a Skype account and we’re rolling.  Pretty simple all round.  However, what I’m looking for are several capabilities:

1. One-on-one communication
2. Producing short video clips for my website
3. Video conferencing with several business associates from across the country 
4. Offer webinars to a worldwide audience

So far I have discovered several options that are worth investigating.  Tokbox (www.tokbox.com), Camtasia Studio (www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp), COMF5 (www.comf5.com), GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar (www.gotomeeting.com). 

I’m quite sure there are dozens more, but a girl’s gotta draw the line in the sand somewhere.  The next step is figuring out how much all of this is going to cost me.  Of course, like most small business owners, costs are always a concern so I’m looking for the most affordable option.  If it’s not affordable, it makes no sense from a profit perspective, does it?  At this point I really have no idea how often I’m going to be using each of the items I’ve identified so buying a package at this point is a bit tricky.  I’m tempted to start small and go from there.

Anyway, kiddies, if I don’t procrastinate too much, I’ll get back to you on what I decide to do over the next few months.  If anyone out there has any advice they’d like to offer, please join the conversation.

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