If you could post a comment on the following topics:
- What is your biggest email Pet Peeve?
- What drives you absolutely insane about your inbox?
- What inbox solutions work best for you?
- When do you send an email versus calling someone on the phone?
I would greatly appreciate it! As a special "thank you" I will go ahead and send the corresponding eBook for the conference to you...as soon as I have it complete, of course! :o) Be sure and post your name so I can properly credit your solutions and other tid bits as well.
Because Anaheim, CA here we come!
Happy Organizing!
Suzanne Babb
10 comments:
I absolutely HATE it when people don't put a subject line with a relavent topic. Or use an old email with a subject line that has no meaning. It makes it so hard to find specific emails.
Love your blog and I'm glad you are blogging again!
- Trudy, Birmingham, AL
I could go on for days about this one... I read a great article on email tips in (of all places) the Costco Connections newsletter recently.
http://www.costcoconnection.com if you search "how to tame the email beast" you will find the article.
What I really liked was the proper response times. Really, you should respond to email (especially business) within 24 hours. Even if you don't have the answers, but just to acknowledge you got the email and will be getting an answer. Great article Suzanne, best of luck to you!
Like Megan, I could go on and on about e-mail pet peeves and tips... For anyone using Outlook, I definitely suggest creating rules to color-code e-mail messages based on sender, subject, or body text. Flagging messages that require follow-up is also handy.
I like yahoos new feature where it divides the screen and you see your inbox on top, and you click each email to read the message, I like the 'flag' feature, but, HATE spam!
You won't believe what just happened! I typed a long comment and blogger lost it!!!!!!!!
What is your biggest email Pet Peeve?
People who forward junk email to me. I have still not had something “bad” happen to me because of not forwarding to 10 people
What drives you absolutely insane about your inbox?
Thankfully, nothing! I use the very same things I teach so that I can get through my email in 15 minutes or less a day.
What inbox solutions work best for you?
The main thing I do is that I decide and take action immediately.
When do you send an email versus calling someone on the phone?
I phone when the information is time-sensitive or if there’s a chance the recipient won’t read it in time.
Hope this helped!
(((big hugs)))
My biggest pet peeve about emails? Please add me to Trudy's list: when there's an email trail and someone uses it to ask a completely irrelevant question and doesn't change the subject line? My head explodes!!!
What drives me insane about my inbox? Too many emails!!!
What inbox solutions work best for me? I, too, color code emails from my boss and my family, but I've discovered that sending emails directly to special folders doesn't work for me. Chronological order in my inbox is the most efficient method for me. The only exception is that I have publishing newsletters (which do not have to be read or responded to in a timely manner) are sent to a folder called "Pub Info." Then I can read them at my leisure.
Email vs. phone? When I need to CMA (cover my a-s) I use email. BUT, when something sensitive needs to be dealt with, I use the phone first and follow up with a confirming email - you can't massagae someone with your soothing dulcet tones via email, and too often, they can read something into it that's not there if it's a sensitive matter.
As you know, LOVE your blog!
Krys
Oooh, my favorite best practice? "Expiring" my email. I use outlook and it doesn't have good handling for "automatically delete this message after x date if I don't cancel this request" so I do it by moving any mail that I want to temporarily hold onto (invitations to an event I don't think I will attend but might change my mind on, your item is shipping notifications, memos about the upcoming office-wide meeting) into a special folder. Later I sort the folder by date and whack (without rereading) everything older than the experiation period (I tend to use about a month). Its kind of like pre-sorting your laundry or putting a "shred after" box in your garage....
Sometimes I also flag messages with a color code if I need to make them easier to find later in my inbox.
And especially for business: And reply right away even if you don't have the answer and your reply is "I'll have to get back to you"--don't leave people wondering whether or not you actually saw/read their email...let them know whether you'll be getting back to them or whether they need to ask someone else.
call: generally when time sensitive, or it would take less time to ask on the phone than to explain in an email (eg: if there's a lot of follow on questions that depend highly on what the response to the first question was).
Email pet peeve: bad subject lines such as replying to an unrelated email because you're too lazy to look up their name in the address book (at least EDIT the subject...)
-Jessica, San Diego, CA
What is your biggest email Pet Peeve? Not fully describing the email in the subject line. "Meeting Minutes" doesn't work as well as "Finance Mtg 4/08 Minutes".
What drives you absolutely insane about your inbox? Spam, the "chain emails". Yes I delete them, but . . .
What inbox solutions work best for you? Answer immediately (if possible). If they can't be answered, i turn them into a task and put it on my calendar.
When do you send an email versus calling someone on the phone?
I almost always send email vs phone to maintain a paper trail of information.
I hate it when someone sends out a really random job or forward to their WHOLE address book and doesn't blind copy the recipients. So now, my address is added to the thousands that came before me in the chain email. Making me a perfect candidate for more spam! :)
If you're still looking for some ideas, check out my series of blog posts about organizing your email.
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