Manage Your Mail
Don't just stop what you're doing every time an e-mail comes in. The more reactive you are, the less productive you are. --Chet Holmes
Bad news: There's no time machine a la "Back to the Future" or other magic trick you can use to create more time in your day, says Chet Holmes, author of The Ultimate Sales Machine. "You can't manage time," he says. "But you can manage yourself...Don't just stop what you're doing every time an e-mail comes in," warns Holmes. "The more reactive you are, the less productive you are." Before you know it, you'll have spent the entire morning answering e-mails. Schedule specific blocks of time when you'll sit down to respond to and send out e-mails.
The Rules and Alerts function is the most under-used tool in Microsoft Outlook, laments Linda Finkle, CEO of Incedo Group, an organizational consulting company. A few clicks ("Tools," and then "Rules and Alerts") allows to you send incoming mail to folders based on who sent it or keywords contained within. Have all newsletter subscriptions and personal mail sorted out, she suggests. That way, you won't be tempted to browse a gossipy industry newsletter when there's more important work to be done.
-Chet Holmes, author of The Ultimate Sales Machine, in Tricks to Free Up Time in Your Day
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