Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola
 

Time Tips: Email Time Reduction Tip#4

This is another installment in our series about saving time with e-mail. In this issue, we'll briefly discuss the bcc: field.

bcc: over-use. Some people bcc: "everyone" on an e-mail. The thinking is they don't want to leave out someone who might possibly want to be included in the distribution if the stars align just right or Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes declares them a winner.

The results of such an approach include:

  • A whole bunch of folks get an e-mail that doesn't apply to them.
  • You make yourself "fair game" to being copied on e-mails you have little or no interest in.
  • You expand the number of people who will reply to you with questions or comments.
  • Your e-mail address gains that much more exposure to being hijacked.
  • You may annoy people to the point that they just delete or block all of your e-mails.
  • You look unprofessional and undiscerning.

So, don't over-use the bcc: field. Copy only to people to whom that e-mail really applies.

Failing to use bcc: On the flipside of over-use, you have under-use. Failing to copy a person whose input is critical is a huge mistake. But why not just cc: all of the people who should get that e-mail? Well, that's OK if they have all given you permission to share their e-mail addresses with everyone else on the list (or you want everyone to have the ability to reply to everyone else on the list, thereby generating a blizzard of e-mails). But until you have such permission, use the bcc: field to protect people's privacy. You save time by not needing to reply to angry e-mails from the offended parties.

When to use bcc:

  • The message applies to everyone on the list ("the list" being the address of the recipients in the bcc: field).
  • Not everyone on the list has given permission for everyone else on the list to have their e-mail address.
  • You don't want any person on the list to respond to the entire list.

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.