email volume

Still in California. Nice weather but I feel I fall further and further behind the more I am out of the office. Actually I am in the office – just not one of my Canadian offices. I have this guilt that my people need me and I am not there. Cloning?

A lot of what I deal with is email. I deal with huge volume. I am a big believer in having great systems to deal with email volume. Of course I use filters and folders extensively. Of course I use a RIM (I sit on the RIM board so I think it is required but I would anyways even if I had nothing to do with the company) which really reduces the number of emails I have not dealt with when I am not at my desk.

After that, my system includes a 2 minute rule. If I can deal with an email in less than 2 minutes I deal with it and am done. If it is greater than 2 minutes, I put it in my todo folder. If I am way behind, I reduce this from 2 minutes to 30 seconds or less. Sometimes it drops to 2-3 seconds which is mostly just emergency scanning.

One of my ethics is crispness or professionalism which for me includes very fast response to email. I read once that a person can respond to seven emails in the time it takes for one phone call. So I figure fast response encourages people to use email rather than call which is more efficient.

I read my first book totally on screen over the past couple of days. A 246 page PDF by Jay Abraham called Stealth Marketing that was sent to me by Chuck Siegel from Honeywell Battery. Although much of it is dated, some of it is right on. He speaks about the mind being a cooker – ideas need to be thought about then left for the subconscious mind to solve. I think my 2 minute rule feeds to this. I have time to read almost any email in 2 minutes but sometimes need to think about it before responding. I find often that the emails I filed as todo can be responded to the second time I look at them in less than the 2 minutes because my mind has been processing it without me focusing on it. I wrote about this in my June 4th posting.