NWEN Entrepreneur University 2012

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October 31, 2012

The upcoming NWEN Entrepreneur University 2012 is a great resource for startups in the Seattle area. We are excited to help sponsor the event, which is hosted by the Northwest Entrepreneur Network on November 9. The “Hothouse for Entrepreneurs” is an all-day crash course for startups, with three keynote speakers, engaging panels and a lineup of workshops. No matter where you are as an entrepreneur—developing an idea or looking for funding—you will find this event helpful and educational as you grow. We’ll have a table there, so stop by to see how you can become more productive! We’d love to meet you and your team; it’s not too late to register!

Infographic: 4 Executives and Their Email Inboxes

October 30, 2012

Ever wonder how you stack up compared to other peoples’ email inboxes inboxes? We polled four executives about their email management (in order to protect the innocent, we’re keeping them anonymous!). Check out the surprising results and see the variety in their responses in our email management infographic.

Do any of these executives sound like you? Where do you fall on the spectrum of Good…Bad…and Ugly?

Use Quick Steps To Process Emails Faster

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October 26, 2012

Want a faster way to process your emails? Microsoft Outlook’s Quick Steps applies multiple actions at the same time to email messages, allowing you to quickly manage your mailbox. For example, if you frequently move messages to a specific folder, you can use a Quick Step to move the message in one click. Or if you forward messages to your manager or assistant, a one-click Quick Step can simplify the task.Some of our favorite Quick Steps to set-up are:

Completed Tasks Quick Steps: removes all flags and moves emails to “Completed” folder
Delegated To Assistant: sends emails to your assistant to respond to and files email in “Delegated To Assistant Folder”
Client Email: adds a “Client” color category to your email
Send to Team: sends an email to your team or department

To learn how to set-up Quick Steps, download our Email 201 webinar recording. If you would like help setting up your Quick Steps, call us for a 15-minute phone consultation.

4 Tips To Help Your Assistant Respond To Your Emails

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October 24, 2012

Wishing your assistant could help manage your emails? While you are out meeting with clients or developing projects, your assistant is a great resource for staying on top of your inbox. Here are tips for helping your assistant help you:

Share Your Calendar – Make sure your calendar is synced properly, so you are both looking at the same, most up-to-date schedule. This allows your assistant to help you schedule appointments and meetings.
Establish Best Practices – Make sure your assistant knows your preferences, like how much buffer time is needed between appointments, how to identify when an appointment is still tentative, etc.
Share Email Folders – Consider sharing email folders with your assistant, so you can quickly and easily delegate emails for them to respond to on your behalf.
Schedule a Check-In Meeting – Create a quick check-in meeting each day so your assistant has an opportunity to ask you all of his or her questions. By batching questions together, you both will eliminate unnecessary emails.

Contact us for custom help streamlining processes between an executive and assistant.

Help! I’m Receiving Emails Faster Than I Can Respond

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October 22, 2012

Feeling overwhelmed by your ever-growing inbox? For most of us, emails flow in faster than we can read them, let alone respond to them. If you’re looking for a way to organize and manage your incoming emails, here are tips for “How to empty your email inbox in 4 easy steps.” You can also decrease your number of incoming emails by mass unsubscribing from junk mail. Continue following us all month-long for tips and tricks to manage your email!

5 Features in Gmail Labs You Don’t Want To Miss

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October 19, 2012

If you are a Gmail user, you’re in for a treat! Gmail Labs are a collection of features that Gmail is experimenting with—which you can try as well. You can enable labs in your account settings and begin trying some of their newest ideas. Here are 5 features that we love:

1. Background Send
Instead of waiting for your email to be sent, you can continue working in your inbox while your most recent email sends in the background.

2. Preview Pane
Similar to the layout of email apps on tablets, the preview pane allows you to see an email’s contents before opening it.

3. Forgot an Attachment
Never accidentally send an email without its attachments again! This feature asks if you intended to attach a file before sending.

4. Undo Send
In case you typed the wrong contact or noticed a typo, you can retrieve the email you just sent.

5. Google calendar gadget
View your schedule within your inbox! This saves time while sending emails about scheduling availability. Which are your favorite labs features? Share with us!

Top 5 Email Policies for Your Small Business

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October 17, 2012

Many small and medium businesses live and breathe through email communication, but reading unnecessarily long emails or receiving irrelevant emails are rarely at the top of anyone’s list. Establishing consistent email policies & etiquette across your business helps everyone manage their inbox and time more efficiently. Especially for small businesses, whose employees are wearing multiple hats, email policies ensure more time and resources can be spent working with clients or on projects. Here are our top 5 email policies for your small business to implement:

1. Don’t overuse “Reply All”
There are times when a reply is only necessary for the original sender, or maybe a few team members. Remove contacts from your response if the reply is not relevant to them. You can establish best practices for your specific business.

2. Share folders & calendars
This is a great idea for executives and their assistants to reply to emails and schedule appointments more efficiently. Rather than send emails back and forth asking when one another are available, you can view shared calendars and expedite the scheduling process.

3. Include a time estimate when you delegate tasks
This not only keeps everyone on the same page, but it eliminates the need for emails checking-in on the status of pending tasks.

4. Use “EOM”
For those times that you just need to send a quick email to let a colleague know something is ready or finished, for example, use the “End of Message” acronym. If your message is brief enough to fit in the subject line, just type the message followed by “EOM.” The recipient can read your message in the subject line and delete the email.

5. Don’t keep a conversation going unnecessarily
When the purpose of the email has been solved or completed, try not to continue responding. For instance, if your response simply includes, “Thanks,” it may be unnecessary for both you and the recipient.

Integrate these email policies into your small business in order to save everyone time and energy. Have any other policies that your team uses? Share them with us!

What You Should Know About the Twitterfication Of Email

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October 16, 2012

How many times a day do you read an unnecessarily long email that eats away at valuable minutes? How often do you send these types of emails?

The rising trends with Twitter have produced a whole new way for people to communicate. People want information that is concise (think 140 characters) and right in front of them. They don’t want to work hard to find articles, stories, and information that are pertinent to their busy lives; they want it to find them and they want it done quickly. Long gone are the days of lengthy, detailed articles.

This change in communication and information consumption affects other forms of media as well. People are still dependent on their email for coordinating at work and at home, but they want their email to be short and succinct as well.

If you want people to respond to your emails, we suggest you try:

- Writing very specific subject lines

- Keeping the body of your emails short

The idea behind these two changes is that your recipients easily know what your purpose is and they can consume the information quickly. You have a much better chance of them responding to you. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Tools to Mass Unsubscribe From Junk Email

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October 10, 2012

How many mass emails do you receive each day? How many of those emails do you automatically delete before reading? Rather than allowing junk email to continue to clutter your inbox, we suggest you try a tool to mass unsubscribe. Here are two solutions that can help you clear out unwanted junk mail.

SaneBox
Features:

Smart filters to determine importance of each email and move unimportant messages out of your inbox
Moves your email attachments to the cloud to save valuable storage space
Easy unsubscribe
Reminders to follow-up to emails
Defer emails for later days

Pros:

Very easy to unsubscribe from lists
You can “train” Sanebox to sort your email

Cons:

It can take a while to recognize some email addresses

Unroll.me
Features:

Organizes and prioritizes each email
Syncs across all of your devices

Pros:

Receive a synopsis email once a day (you choose what time) with all potential junk from the day. Then you can quickly click the on emails you no longer wish to receive.

Cons:

Only works for Gmail accounts

Quiz: Do You Have an Email Management Problem?

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October 8, 2012

Wondering if you could benefit from improved email management? Take our quiz to find out!

1. How many email accounts do you have?
     A. 1-2
     B. 3-4
     C. 5+

2. How many times a day do you check your email?
     A. 1-4
     B. 5-10
     C. 11+

3. How many emails (read or unread) are currently in your inbox?
     A. 0-10
     B. 11-30
     C. 31+

4. How many subscription emails do you automatically delete before reading every day?
     A. 0-3
     B. 4-10
     C. 11+

Each A is worth 2 points, each B is worth 4 points, and each C is worth 6 points. Now add up your score and find out how you rank:

8-12 points: Email Pro
Congratulations! Looks like you are pretty organized with your email accounts—you check your email only a few times during the day, you keep your inbox maintained, and you don’t have too many unnecessary subscriptions! You are doing a great job with email management, so keep following our Twitter and Facebook this month for extra tips to keep it up!

13-18 points: Email “Happy”
You’re right in the middle—you have some pretty good systems but you also have room for improvement. You might need to remove some unnecessary subscriptions or develop strategies to empty your email inbox. We recommend you follow our Organized Thoughts blog all month long for email management ideas you can implement, as well as follow our Twitter and Facebook daily for easy tips.

19-24 points: Email Overload
Uh oh, looks like you could use some email management help! Don’t worry, we’re to help you gain control of your inbox. Follow our Organized Thoughts blog all month long for help organizing your inbox and improving your email systems. You should register for our webinar in December, Email Management 101: How to Keep Your Inbox Empty, for specific ways to manage your email. And you can always call us for a free 15-minute phone consultation with our productivity consultants.