Challenge Title: How to Manage the Electronic Information Overload at Work

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It has no boundaries

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Ability to produce and distribute information is at an unprecedented level, but the ability for the brain to process is unchanged.In a volunteer organization, 20% of the volunteers perform 80% of the work

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Email very often resembles busy work.

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Clutter is delayed decision-making, Email breeds clutter by its very nature.

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Set rules for predetermining whose information is important

Keep your inbox consistently clear

Don’t get the &wuot;can not send" message again

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Triage – delete all you can without even opening – get rid of visual noise within inbox

Triage by sender or subject line

Create Rules (see resource guide) to automatically move unwanted emails out of the inbox to a junk or deleted folder (i.e. messages with the work quarantine in them)

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Unsubscribe to unwanted newsletters.

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NEVER unsubscribe to spam. It creates more spam.

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Practice FAT: Make a decision about each and every Email

Color code to highlight particular senders (your manager, your manager’s manager, your team)

Decide when and where to check your email. People who utilize predetermined times to check email are more productive than those that check email constantly

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Don’t multitask: when doing email, do email when not DON’T

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Deactivate the ’ding’ which alerts you to incoming emails

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Drag the email to your Contact Management icon to quickly capture some

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Move actionable emails via electronic task list

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Delegate via Task List

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ASK YOURSELF: Why am I keeping this Emails

Change the subject line to be more meaningful files together by default, this is especially useful for common drives

   • Use nouns, followed by adjectives or date
   • Use people names
   • File by date
   • File by project names

Avoid storing files on external sources (CDs, memory sticks) in order to utilize and comply with corporate retention policies

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Name files consistently: Noun followed by an adjective

   • Budget, 2006 not 2006 Budget
   • Report, Annual not Annual Report

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Be consistent, consistent, consistent. Whatever files structure you create – Create the EXACT same on in My Doc as well as Outlook personal folders.

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Store email in personal folders, store documents (Word, PP, Excel) in my doc. This helps to manage version control which Outlook storage does not.

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Most businesses can be managed in 5-7 information buckets. Below is a sample that may be appropriate for your records

   • Administration
         • Benefits
         • Corporate policies and procedures
         • Meeting
         • Memberships
         • Policies
         • Travel Pending

   • Clients

   • Financial
         • Benefits
         • Expenses
         • Budgets

   • Marketing
         • Contests
         • Compliance
         • Labeling

   • Products
         • By name
         • By competition

   • Personnel
         • Candidates
         • Colleagues
         • Manager
         • Speakers
         • Vendors

   • Professional

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Create the above file structure in you Outlook personal folders.

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Begin each file name with the letter A so that it rises to the top of you file tree.

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Look at each file in your personal folders

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Decide which of the above “buckets” it would fit in

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Move that file to that new bucket

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Repeat until all of you files are refilled

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Then rename each file without the A