Webinar – Tame Your Inbox – Manage Your Email

While You’re Waiting

Tame Your Inbox March 31, 2016

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The voice and information source for New York nonprofits

/npccny

Why We’re Here Today

R.I.P. Ray Tomlinson. the inventor of modern email and selector of the "@" symbol - in 1971!

Ray passed away just four weeks ago, on March 5th, 2016.

May he rest in peace, forever in the land of Inbox Zero.

What We’ll Cover Today Cause and Effect Impact and Fixes Helping Yourself Helping Others Helping your Organization Wrap Up

this webinar without checking your email?

Iron y The ultimate irony of this webinar... ...you may never find out about another one.

Email is a Tool, Not a Job "Every email is a decision. Automate those decisions."

-Kory Kogan , author of "The 5 Choices "

How many emails do you think you get each day?

you think you spend on email?

From the RoundTable Research Department*

â—? The average office worker sends/receives 100-125 emails per day** â—? The average office worker spends 13 hours per week processing email**

This means that if you have a staff person salaried at $50,000/year, your organization is paying them over $17,000/year to process email. * Not a real thing **As of 2015, verified by two independent sources

The Cause

Cause...Why We’re Obsessed with Email

Neurobiology Email is useful Work is stuck in email It’s social Allows you to ‘shift’ responsibilities It feels instantaneous A (false?) sense of achievement

The Effect

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The Cause...

Neurobiology Email is useful Work is stuck in email It’s social Allows you to ‘shift’ responsibilities It feels instantaneous A (false?) sense of achievement

And Effect...

Ways that our email is misused...

Compulsive email checking Traditional technology habits Work gets trapped in email Email instead of talking Email as a procrastination tool Anxiety Sleepless nights Armageddon

How does this impact organizational productivity?

Loss of Focus Loss of time Micro Managing Task Redundancy Trapping information Vicious cycle Isolating

March Sanity Learning Group

We worked with a group of twenty nonprofit staff throughout March, providing weekly tips: 1. Week 1 Tip - Notifications 2. Week 2 Tip - Filtering 3. ​Week 3 Tip - Archiving​

4. ​Week 4 Tip - Timebox your Inbox​

Things You Can Do Things you can do to help yourself Things you can do to help your colleagues Things your organization can do to help everyone

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Things You Can Do to Help Yourself

Turn the Vicious Cycle into a Virtuous Cycle When you send less email you get less email.

So does everyone else.

There are Many Fixes to Try

Timebox your inbox ‘Pause’ Stop replying Slow the Flow Keep it short Use your words Prioritize Use tools

● Eliminate unnecessary notifications ● Unsubscribe ● Use filters, rules and labels ● Use canned responses and templates ● Day without email ● ‘Do Later’ triggers

Do: Action: Tool:

ACTION SLIDE Schedule email time

Close email client at all other times Five D’s Do Delegate Defer Delete Destiny (respond) Result: Less time on email, more time on important work

Unsubscri be Do:

Search your inbox for the word “unsubscribe” How many of the resulting messages are unread?

Action: Unsubscribe Tool: unroll.me and Sanebox Result: Reduces email ‘noise’ Pro Tip: Gmail adds an unsubscribe link at the top!

What is your preferred method for finding emails?

What is your most used method for finding emails?

Automa te When using technology let technology work for you!

Organize and Prioritize Do:

Determine Labels or Category Needs response from me Do Now Do Later Informational Action: Tag and filter messages Tool: Built in to both Gmail and Outlook Result: Email is prioritized before you even open your inbox

Use Templates

Gmail: Canned Responses Outlook: Quickparts and Templates

Do: Identify frequently used text and replies.

Action: Create responses.

Tool: In Gmail, enable Canned Responses. In Outlook, the

Result: emails.

options are built-in.

Save time, have consistently well-written

Return to Inbox

Boomerang, Mail2Cloud, SaneBox, and other tools allow you to archive email until you have time to work on it. If you didn’t get a response, then it comes back.

SendLtr and Rightinbox allow you to postpone or schedule one-time and recurring emails, allowing further automation.

Helping Others

Things You Can Do to Help Your Colleagues Talk to them!

When you do email them, be clear Use calendar and appointment slots Action subject lines Collaborate using tools, not email If you are the leader, set the tone

Categorical Subject Lines Do:

Identify actions needed in subject line Action Required Response requested Informational Action: Clear Subject Lines Result: Clarifies and improves response from recipients

Appointment slots

Do: Keep your calendar up to date.

Action: Share your calendar (free/busy) with the world Tool: youcanbook.me Result: Reduced email, easier scheduling

Pro Tip: Use the ‘Find a Time’ features in Gmail and Outlook to check coworkers availability

Lead by Example

A Real Email from a Leader “...sent me this marketing plan. It looks like it may have some value and seems to be pretty comprehensive with each step.

Take a look and let me know what you think.�

Sent to a team of five people.

The attached doc was a 24-page, 6,000 word report.

A Real Response from an Dear Boss, Employee By sending the five of us in marketing a 24-page report and asking for our thoughts, you have, in effect, assigned a high-priority task to each of us. I can’t speak for the other team members, but I could reasonably spend an hour or more reading this report and compiling feedback for you. In that context, I ask the following questions to help guide my next steps on this.

1. How much time would like us to commit to this task? 30 minutes? An hour? As much as needed?

2. On a 1-10 scale, how highly would you prioritize this task?

3. Can you be more specific about what type of feedback you would like?

4. What is our deadline for giving you this feedback?

Things Your Organization Can Do Support pull communications Use collaboration and document management tools Educate and communicate Have them attend this webinar

Push-Pull Communications

Examples of Push: Email Voicemail Announcements

Examples of Pull: Intranet Bulletin Board Collaborative Tools

Push-Pull Identify the method and frequency of communications for different types of communications and stakeholders Which communications are “push”?

Which communications are “pull”?

Clear guidelines regarding intended audience for push communications Clear guidelines regarding update frequency for pull communications

Document Management and File Sharing Cloud-Based Document Management/File Sharing Google Drive Dropbox OneDrive Box.org

Other Collaboration Tools

Messaging Slack HipChat Google Chat Video Chat Google Hangouts Skype Lync

Intranet Google Sites Sharepoint Project & Task Management KanbanFlow GQueues Asana Trello Basecamp

Toolki t!

Both

Outlook

Details and links for all the tools in the resources section at the

Joshua’s Toolkit Gmail

Destiny’s Toolkit Gmail

YouCanBookMe

Canned Responses

GQueues

Priority Inbox

SndLtr JustNotSorry Canned Responses Rapportive Send & Archive Compose Gmail Meter

Grammarly GQueues Filters Google Labs Will Power

What about email security?

RoundTable’s One-Word Email Security Awareness Training

VERIFY

In Conclusion

● Get in, get out ● Rule of Three

● There are LOTS of tools that can help ● Turn the vicious cycle into a virtuous cycle ● Be patient, email is an addiction ● All things come to those who give feedback

Did you make it through this webinar without checking your email?

About Us A Partner in your success: Strategic planning & management Deliver projects and support Educate, mentor and train your staff, including your own IT staff

Working with RoundTable: Dedicated, trusted, businesssavvy and human-friendly techies Unlimited plans, project-based and on-demand Learn more at rtt.nyc/solutions

Want More?

Webinar, April 7th More NPCC? Save Money on Credit go to www.npccny.org Card Transaction Fees Next RTT Workshop @ NPCC Stay informed of Dollars and Sense upcoming webinars of IT Budgeting by (ahem) email or Thurs, April 21st visit rtt.nyc/events

Question s?

Thank you!

Destiny Bowers Destiny@rtt.nyc Joshua Peskay joshua@rtt.nyc Kristen Jones kjones@npccny.org

If you’d like us to send you the slide deck and resources, please give us feedback on this webinar http://feedback.rtt.nyc

Resourc es

Resource - 4 TIPS Week 1 Focus Tip - Notifications Week 2 Focus Tip - Filtering ​Week 3 Focus Tip - Archiving​ ​Week 4 Focus Tip - Timebox your Inbox​

Resource: Inbox Zero Overview

Inbox Zero is a rigorous approach to email management aimed at keeping the inbox empty -- or almost empty -- at all times.

Inbox Zero was developed by productivity expert Merlin Mann. According to Mann, the zero is not a reference to the number of messages in an inbox; it is "the amount of time an employee's brain is in his inbox." Mann's point is that time and attention are finite and when an inbox is confused with a "to do" list, productivity suffers. Here’s what it actually is, as defined by Mann: “It’s about how to reclaim your email, your atten-tion, and your life. That “zero?”

It’s not how many mes-sages are in your inbox–it’s how much of your own brain is in that inbox. Especially when you don’t want it to be. That’s it.” – Merlin Mann Mann identifies five possible actions to take for each message: delete, delegate, respond, defer and do.

Resource: Add-ons and tools Email schedulers and reminder tools Boomerang for Gmail and Outlook: Boomerang allows you to schedule replies (so you don’t have 2AM time stamps on your emails if you’re a night owl) and lets you set reminders to follow up with important messages. You can also bring emails back to your inbox when you need them, like travel arrangement details.

SndLatr Schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders Youcanbookme booking software that integrates with your Google or iCloud Calendar.

Get a personalized scheduling page so your colleagues can book you online Right Inbox: Schedule emails to be sent automatically at a later time. Set Reminders and automate messages.

Mail2Cloud offers a variety of tools Cloud Fusion Attachment Tracking, Send Later, Self Destructing Message

Resource: Add-ons and Unsubscribe tools Unroll.me: This handy helper “rolls up” emails that you receive often into one digest that you can receive at specified time of day. It starts by identifying emails in your inbox that you get often, and allows you to unsubscribe right from the service, add to your roll up, or keep in your inbox. It’s also a lifesaver for personal email.

SaneBox Unsubscribe, Snooze and response tracking Time Management InboxPause With INBOX PAUSE, you can put new messages on hold, making it so they won't appear in your Inbox until you are ready for them.

Tomato timer, allows you to set a browser timer for the duration suggested in the Pomodoro method

Resource: Add-ons and tools Gmail Add-ons Open Compose Window for Gmail This is a very simple extension which opens the Gmail compose window without opening Gmail itself.

Send and Archive (Google Lab) Canned Responses (Google Lab) JustNotSorry A Gmail Plugin that warns you when you write emails using words which undermine your message Gmail Meter Email Analytics & Statistics Uncover habits and be better at email Rapportive Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox

Resource: Add-ons and Outlook Tools tools

Lookeen for a new experience of file and email search. The multiple award-winning professional desktop search solution finds all important information for you in record time. Whether searching in Microsoft速 Outlook速, PST archives, on Exchange servers, Public folders, or on the desktop Outlook On the Desktop places the Microsoft Outlook Calendaring system right on your desktop. The calendar object gets pinned to your desktop and stays there all the time in plain sight so you can always see what's upcoming.

MXHero offers a variety of tools Mail2Cloud Archive, Cloud Fusion Attachment Tracking, Send Later, Self Destructing Message

Resource: Add-ons and tools Collaboration, Task Management and Messaging Slack Messaging, file sharing and collaboration for Teams ActiveInbox Channel your daily barrage of emails into organized projects.

Focus on fewer things > Move projects forward > Make progress every day.

GQueues Tasks. Prioritized. Simple. A collaborative online task manager for Google and Google Apps users!

HipChat Group and private chat, file sharing, and integrations Google Keep Sharable manager for notes, lists, photos, and audio Evernote Communicate, collaborate, and share in real-time with anyone in the world without ever leaving Evernote

Resource: Add-ons and tools Attachment management Mail2Cloud Mail2Cloud Archive Effortlessly sync email with cloud storage Save and share Cloud based email & attachment management Other Tools Grammarly Your writing, at its best. Grammarly finds and corrects up to 10 times more mistakes than your word processor.

Resource: Add-ons and Project & Task Management tools KanbanFlow a Lean project management tool for you and your team. The Kanban board gives you an excellent overview of your current work situation. Visualizing work in a team environment simplifies communication and lead to improved effectiveness.

Asana Track projects from start to finish With tasks, projects, conversations and dashboards Trello Drop the lengthy email threads, out-of-date spreadsheets, no-longer-sosticky notes, and clunky software for managing your projects. Trello lets you see everything about your project in a single glance.

Basecamp is a private, secure space online where people working together can organize and discuss everything they need to get a project done. See it, track it, discuss it, act on it. Tasks, discussions, deadlines, and files everything’s predictably organized in Basecamp