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Manage Your Email Before It Manages You featuring Mike Song
The big day is here and yes, I am nervous. Thousands of people have registered and we are prepared for an amazing Telesummit. And yet, I am nervous.
More than anything though, I am excited. We get to bring you the “who is who” in the world of time management, productivity and being able to live your life with joy and minimum stress. I can’t wait for you to begin to change your relationship with time. And I am anticipating your feedback so that we know your progress and we know what you commit to changing in your life.
Our first session is with Mike Song. Mike is co-author of “The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You.” One of America’s leading experts on mail efficiency and etiquette, Mike has helped over 1 million professionals take back their lives by managing email more effectively.
Resources
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Our intention for the Time Experts Telesummit is that you have a breakthrough with your most pressing issues dealing with time. One of the best ways for you to do that is to commit to one or two lessons from each session and begin to practice them in your life.
So here’s our challenge to you.
Please post one or two main lessons that you plan to implement into your life or business from the Mike Song interview in the comment field of this post. This will serve two purposes.
- You will create accountability by sharing it with us
- You will help others learn from you
Example –> xxxx is what I learned and xxxx is what I am planning to do about it.
Can’t wait…
October 14th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Tried to get on today but couldnt patch through on telephone line, so I tried webinar but also had issue. Do you need to do web access first before you can call in? Disappointed
October 14th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
just got message: webinar is not available. Disappointed too.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
The phone number and access code I was emailed (703-259-9001 and 418-373-319) doesn’t seem to be active. Tried the webinar link and there was no organizer there either…
October 14th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I tried to get on via internet but couldn’t, and am disappointed.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Thank you for all the comments we’ve received about the webinar glitch. They have certainly helped us make sure that this doesn’t happen again.
I am disappointed that some of you weren’t able to get on the call. I want to make sure you have a chance to listen to the recording right away and post your learning here.
http://www.timeexpertstelesummit.com/teleseminar1
~Bill Baren
October 14th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I really liked Mike Song’s principle of “Send Less, Get Less” (because every email you send can generate a response). The techniques he mentioned for sending less made a lot of sense.
I’m going to hold off on pressing “reply all” since that creates exponentially greater email for everyone…
October 14th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
3 things I learned
- Mike’s suggestion to check email in batches
- Mike’s idea about training your co-workers
- Bill saying not to spend time “checking” your email (since not much gets done, it’s a distraction)
What I’m going to do about it…
I want to spend less time “checking” email and schedule more time for “handling” email
October 14th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Definitely learned a lot today during Mike Song’s interview and am inspired to approach my email in a new way. I am going to apply the principal of only checking email once every 45 minutes and turning off my “you’ve got mail” alarm. I’ve noticed that I’ll drop everything I’m doing when that little man tells me I have mail. Am looking forward to learning more at the other teleseminars.
October 14th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
There were lots of great tips, some of which I already do, particularly using folders in Outlook. But I’ve often worried that I’m too kurt, so I feel a a little reassured that I’m actually doing everyone a favor by being short and to the point. And the best tip for me for improvement is to not feel compelled to save everything (even though I save things to folders outside my inbox).
October 14th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Excellent tips on Email Management!
What I’m going to do about it…
I am going to…
…spend less time “checking” email and schedule more time for “handling” email
…write a e-newsletter to share these tips with clients and friends and mention the book or my assistance with setting these steps up
…set aside some time to clean out inbox and set a goal for my limit of emails in the inbox
October 14th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Mike had some great suggestions. I really appreciated his work life balance suggestion of being fully present when in your personal life and turning off the electronics. I would love to see more people getting back to being present again. I truly believe it is time to bring our focus back to inner mastery and let go of the multitude of external distractions that are running our lives. Turning off the TV and radio has been a big help.
Probably the most significant was the “permission” to not respond with a thank you. I’ll do my best on this one and remind myself I’m not being rude.
The batching of emails, so they are not being handled as an ongoing basis, makes total sense. Now I still need to get a handle on the one touch system when I do deal with the batch of email.
Thanks Bill!
October 14th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I love the commitment, Susanna and Zoe. Let us know how it’s going with your new email practice.
~Bill
October 14th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Thanks Bill for posting the recording.
I have already implemented a slower “check server” time (10 min now 30 min). Will limit email time each day, and not have email program open all the time.
Will try to find a way to “do it now” with more emails. (This is more problematic without the right tools for dealing with upcoming tasks that don’t “schedule” — resulting in an inbox of med-hi priority items. This will take some creativity, but I’m inspired to think about it now.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Thank you Bill for this awesome first teleseminar, inspite of the tech glitch.
What I will do, is be more selective in the info I receive (avoiding to be an “info collector”), by only reading what I need for my immediate business results. Also, HANDLE my emails only twice a day in timeframed block times.
I would add : only read emails that are in relation to your “daily to do list” and learn to have a great headline to those you send. Think of an email as a copy of an article or sales page you could write : the receiver is a “client” of you!!
October 16th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I learned quite a bit from this teleseminar and I’ve already started acting on it.
1. I unsubscribed from quite a few different newsletters and changed what I could to an RSS feeder so I can go and read it when I have the time.
2. I changed my check time from 5min to 45min. I also turned off the notification on my phone so I can go in and check my mail but my phone won’t constantly be vibrating.
3. I started sending less email and tried thanking people at the start and when I did that they were fine with that!
Thanks again for the great call. Just a few little changes in what I was doing have already made a difference in my productivity.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:47 am
It’s so exciting to see so many of you creating systems to minimize your time on email without sacrificing the effectiveness of your communications.
This will allow you to be more productive AND perhaps get you out and enjoying the world outside of your business.
~Bill
October 16th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
My new practice to regain control of my email:
1. I will be ‘handling’ my email rather than ‘checking’ my email.
4 options: respond/flag it (to be taken action later)/file it/delete it!
2. I will set up auto-routing for my low priority emails.
3. Stop all the “Thank you” emails unless it is absolutely necessary for the receiver to hear from me.
Awesome teleseminar!!
October 19th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Great teleseminar - coming out of it, I am committed to working on:
- writing fewer emails (and batching where possible)
- sharing the wisdom with friends and family
- making baby steps towards a one touch email approach (there are way too many emails that sit in my inbox and take up small chunks of my time every day when I decide to just deal with them later)
Thank you!
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:18 am
What I’ve already done and LOVE it:
1) set up some rules so that my e-zines go directly into a folder and also set up some more rules so that suspected junk mail are either deleted (from certain sender names) or put in a separate folder (with certain keywords, like credit or libido, in subject line)
2) changed my e-mail program so that it only checks for new e-mail once an hour, rather than every 3 minutes
3) didn’t say thanks once when I wanted to today.
Really great stuff that is already helping tons!!
October 27th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I have stopped saying “Thank You” and other types if validation via e-mail. I manage more and check less. Delete, delete, delete.