I live in email it seems. My personal productivity is both enhanced and inhibited by the tool. Some aspects of the tool are under my control and some are not. I have put a small set of pages together to (hopefully) broaden the control I have within the tool.
Most of what follows are rules and/or recommendations to others who want to communicate with me. I understand that not everyone will receive these instructions in the positive way I intend - but I want to improve how well I work with others and this seems like a good place to start.
(and here is some source material to consider: http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/geek-to-live--train-others-how-to...
In no particular order, here is the short list:
I am pretty computer literate but there comes a point in time when you have to admit the limits of the channel you use to communicate. Email is not appropriate for all forms of communication. Here is my short list of choices and those circumstances in which I will likely redirect you if I feel we've chosen the wrong tool:
1. E-mail
2. Instant Message
3. Text Page
4. Phone Call
5. Bulletin Board
6. Conference Call
7. Physical Conversation/Meeting
Powerpoint slide decks with inspirational music and panoramic pictures; videos of old and young embarrasing themselves in humorous ways;
What do they all have in common? They arrive unsolicited, in waves from different well intentioned friends and acquaintances and clutter my in-box. Depending on how busy I am at any point, that can be either amusing or annoying.
To deal with that issue, I have a rule set up in my mail box so that e-mails with larger attachments get shunted off to the side. The benefit to doing so is that I can review these kinds of messages at my leasure. The downside is that my review is not always timely.
Understanding I do this can be helpful for you. If you send me a large, but important and time sensitive file, please make certain you send me a separate short message asking that I review the file.
Like most everyone else, I enjoy finding interesting links. I happen to catalog my favorite links in del.icio.us . If you find a link you think I would enjoy (thank you for thinking of me, but) please send me the link via that service. If you don't have an account on that service, I recommend you get one. If you do have an account, then include me on your network and forward me the link.
I'm not a huge proponent of the 'green' movement but I do agree with the idea of not printing e-mails unless it is absolutely necessary. Really, with all of the free storage in the world, it makes no sense to print anything unless you need to carry it around with you in a place where wireless internet access is unavailable.
I am not as extreme as some people but I do have my limits. I also want to model the behaviour I would have others exhibit towards me. For that reason I am going to keep my e-mail messages short and to the point. This link http://five.sentenc.es/ explains my rationale.
For Your Information fyi:
Action Item ai:
Waiting For wf: