Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola
 

Time Tips: Email Time Reduction Tip#3

I've recently had to deal with one person who over-used Reply All and one who just could not seem to grasp this feature. Both folks probably cause huge wastes of time among their e-mail recipients, all the time. Like the daydreamer who drives no faster than 40 MPH on the onramp to the 65 MPH freeway, their actions cause problems for everyone but them.

Reply All over-use. In the one case, this person replied to the basic message of my e-mail, and everyone got a copy. So far, so good. But then he added additional topics that didn't concern most of the recipients. So now those folks had to either assume they were part of the new conversation or they had to ask for clarification.

Failing to use Reply All. A customer needed technical support. I work in sales, and the person I cc:d is the technical expert for this product. I had replied to the customer's initial inquiry and noted he needed to Reply All so our technical guru would get the messages and I would simply remain in the loop. But every time he wrote, he wrote only to me. This meant I had to forward the message to our technical guy and once again remind the customer who could provide the necessary assistance and how he could make sure that happened. With time zone differences, this also causes unnecessary delays.

When to use Reply All. Use this method only when three conditions are all met:

  • The message applies to everyone on the list ("the list" being the address of the recipients in the "To" and "cc:" fields).
  • Everyone on the list has given permission for everyone else on the list to have their e-mail address.
  • You agree that it's OK for any person on the list to respond to the entire list.

If your e-mail does not meet all three of the above conditions, then choose from:

  • Use Reply All, but delete those addresses to your message does not apply.
  • Use Reply All for that portion of your message which does meet all three conditions, and write a separate message for content that does not--sending it only to the appropriate people.
  • Use the bcc: method.

Sending e-mail properly--whether Reply All, cc:, or bcc:--simply requires a little planning and consideration. By reducing confusion and heading off potentially huge problems, it can save you--and everyone else--quite a bit of time.
 
A great way many businesses are managing time is using software. There are many forms of time and attendance software which allows managers to track and monitor employees time usage.
 

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

  • Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
  • Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
  • Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
  • Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
  • Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

  • Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
  • Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
  • Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
  • Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
  • Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
  • Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
  • Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.