| Working Simply Newsletter |
November 2009 |
| Sign-up for the "Simplicity Lab" Simplicity Lab on Thursday, November 12 from 8:30-11:30am. Bring your laptop or Blackberry to a hands-on lab that will show you how to streamline your email, calendar, work day and your life. Improve productivity and have more time for the things you love. Please click here for the detailed course description and registration. Information Overload Is information overload sucking the life out of your people and your bottom line? According to the Harvard Business Journal, information overload costs the U.S. economy $900 billion per year. Recession or no recession, businesses cannot afford the high costs of information overload. The information deluge is not going to stop – it is only going to increase. How can you effectively respond? Focus first on streamlining individual email habits and then establish organizational electronic communication guidelines. Knowledge workers average 20 hours a week managing email (Harvard Business Review). Half of the average work week is spent “managing” email not serving clients, executing on revenue generating projects, or advancing strategic initiatives.Individual and organizational productivity suffers. To reclaim valuable time each week stop “managing” and start "processing" email. • Read the email and decide on your next action step.What do you need to do to move the project, meeting, etc. forward? Remember, clutter = postponed decisions. • Use the “rules” feature in your email program. For example, write a rule to automatically send your trade newsletters to the “Trade Newsletters” folder. • Turn off your email notification alarm. It takes 64 seconds to retrieve your train of thought after interruption by email.That means if you check your in-box every 5 minutes, you waste 8.5 hours per week (Journal of NeuroImage). • Ask yourself if email is the best method to communicate your information. For each email sent an average of two response emails are generated. Nathan Zeldes, President of Information Overload Research Group, said that, “although people suffer, they don’t fight back, because communication is supposed to be good for you.” Communication is good. But, when it chokes off productive work and demoralizes teams it becomes costly. Help fight back by establishing organizational norms for electronic communication. • Institute a weekly email free morning. At US Cellular, Fridays are email free. Employees are not forbidden from using email, they are just encouraged to use other forms of communication. • Require subject lines on all emails. RE:RE: FWD are not subject lines. State the email subject and recipient action step(s) in the subject line. • Establish guidelines for using the REPLY ALL button. Does everyone in the company need to know you are bringing brownies to the monthly birthday celebration? • Rethink what information is pushed out to the organization. Post company information on the company intranet site and let individuals pull the information they need and want to receive. Information does not have to take over your inbox, your company or your life. You can control your inbox and the information you consume each day. Try a new information management strategy and find the time to do the things that move your business forward. Working Simply provides a comprehensive suite of programs that re-frame how businesses and individuals work and interact. Our solutions use a combination of customizable tools, processes and trainings to deliver measurable results. Created to address an under-served need, Working Simply has partnered successfully with numerous clients to improve efficiency and organization. For more information visit www.WorkingSimply.com or contact Carson Tate at carson@workingsimply.com. |
This Month's Newsletter
Upcoming Trainings
 Carson Tate, PTAC®
Working Simply Founder & Owner |
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