Email productivity 101

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Email Productivity Ernie Svenson & Dane Ciolino

Transcript of Email productivity 101

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Email ProductivityErnie Svenson & Dane Ciolino

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Who are these guys?

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Ernie SvensonBigLaw - 20 yrs

Solo Practice - 5 yrs

ErnieTheAttorney.net

PDFforLawyers.com

PaperlessChase.com

Digital Signatures are easy to make

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Alvin Christovich, Distinguished Professor of Law, Loyola Univ.

LaLegalEthics.org

Dane Ciolino

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Agenda

Processing email

Not Outlook specific (for the most part)

What’s possible?

Best practices

How to efficiently manage information

minimize “information overload”

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Email OverloadThe average corporate executive gets between 50 and 100 emails every day...

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Not built for mass communication

“Email bankruptcy”

Unified messaging increases load

Email challenges

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Processing emails

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Delete

Defer

Suspend for later

Delegate

Act

Review

GTD system: inbox process

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Delete liberally (it’s fun; try it!)

Flag important stuff

No responses now

Only exception: critical email

Acknowledge receipt: say you’ll respond later

First Run

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Batch processing

Process once or twice a dayOnly check few times a day

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67%of emails are never printed out (which means 33% of people do print out their emails)

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Friendsdon’t let friends print out emails

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Incoming emails

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Filtering is key(& the cure to “information overload”)

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A few are okay; too many are bad

Outook folders have definite limits

The “inbox” is a folder; not built to handle the volume that many people impose on it.

Will crash Outlook, or corrupt files

Folders (manual filtering)

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filter inbound & outbound

based on sender, recipient, or subject line

“Unread emails” is a smart folder

“Flagged folder” is smart folder

Smart folders (auto filtering/rules)

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Outgoing emails

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Readability is Job #1

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What action do you want reader to take?

Who really needs to be notified

Do you need to change the subject line?

Topic shifts happen; adjust subject line

Is this really a calendar appt?

Before composing ask:

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Response type

Email (obvious, but not always optimal)

Phone call

best for hashing out indefinite stuff

if you’re driving

if last minute change (can’t assume people read email as it comes in)

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Don’t respond right away (usually)

Quick responses = fast paced ping pong matches

Acknowledge receipt & promise reply soon

Upon receipt of email

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Composing emails

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Writing that works

Kenneth RomanJoel Raphaelson

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Brevity, simplicity

No more than 6 sentences (ideally)

Use short, common words

Use short sentences

Get to the point quickly!

Body of email

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Inline quoting is optimal

Avoid “Reply All”

Before hitting “Reply All” make sure you weren’t bcc’d

Be careful with autocomplete

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out

Replying effectively

leftv

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Avoid using “Reply All”

Specify who email is really for (if sent to more than just those who need to take action)

Use of blind copy (bcc) for large email sets (& send to yourself)

Addressing

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Subject line(the most powerful tool for clarity)

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Study Wall St. Journal headlines: learn to craft enticing subject lines

Consider putting message in subject line for short messages

Send separate emails for separate topics

If need long email, then use headings

Make clear & compelling

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Attention-getting examples

Re: your AT&T International Roaming Charges

Re: what seems to have once been your car

To my former sexual partners, as required by law

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Write "thanks," or "cheers" or "best wishes" & then your name

Make use of signatures (you can have more than one)

Always give your phone number

Don’t need your email address there

No graphic signatures

Ending emails

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& the David Sparks solutionMissing attachments

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Attach the file first

Next, fill in the body text

Create a succinct subject line

Last, address the email (thus avoiding sending without attaching file)

Work backwards

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Services that specialize

You Send It

SugarSync, or Dropbox

Adobe SendNow (Outlook Plug-in available)

Sending large files

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(avoid them; they’re out of style)Out of office msgs

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Spam(a really hard problem to solve)

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“Social engineering”

Never click on links from banks or password-protected sites

Navigate to site yourself

Scammers getting more sophisticated

Password managers help (e.g. 1Password, or LastPass)

Phishing scams

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Summary

Develop a good process; make it a habit

Strong subject lines (change if needed)

Separate emails for each topic

Learn & use shortcuts

Be careful with bcc, and auto-complete

Don’t use inbox as a warehouse

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