Managing Information Overload February 20, 2008

Managing InformationOverload

February 20, 2008http://lsntap.org/tips101

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC011156011033&pid=CH062556091033&ofcresset=1

Legal Services NTAP www.lsntap.org

Is this your inbox?

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Email = Communication.Period.


Overview of Session

Take Control of Your Inbox Adopt Strong Email Practices Demote Email from Emperor to

Messenger (Change its function in your life)

Organize Your Online Experience

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Take Control of Your Inbox

50% of email can be deleted or filed 30% can be delegated or completed in

less than 2 minutes 20% can be calendared to complete

later

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Take Control of Your Inbox

Schedule uninterrupted time Decide your email protocol Process one item at a time and Reduce

to Zero. (4 Ds)– Delete– Do– Delegate– Defer for action

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Overview of Session

Step 1: Take Control of Your Inbox Create a filing system Create labels (Gmail) or tags (Outlook

2007) Create filters?


Tools to Help You

A Filing System (or Labels, if Gmail)– Group emails by category of your workflow

Rules (aka Filters)– i.e., Color code your boss. Filter by subject,

recipient, or sender.

Flag or Star– Create an easy To-Do or deprioritize

emails7


Gabe’s Former Life

• General file headers. No emails filed within them.

• Sub-labels catch most of my work.

• Tip: Naming matters. • Periods show up before letters

• a- or aa- to help organize by your priority not naming

• Daily practice: Read and file from inbox

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About Files

Files help you refine a search Files help you organize visually a lot of

information Files are useful for easy retrieval

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How To Create File Folders

Right-Click in most applications.

For Gmail, create Labels: locate Settings in upper R. Click Labels Tab.

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Color Code Your Email:Use Rules

• Visually organize incoming messages by sender

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Create Rules or Filters

Outlook: Tools | Organize (or Rules & Alerts)– See Outlook audio tutorial:

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC011156011033&pid=CH062556091033&ofcresset=1

– Read how for Outlook:http://www.ehow.com/how_2054490_create-rule-outlook.html

Gmail: Settings | Filters 12


About Filters & Rules

Rules can change the color of an email in your inbox for easy visual reference.

Rules can label or file email from certain senders – i.e., put all the email from your housing listserv into a folder automatically (or label it, in Gmail).

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Flag It!•Prioritize email

• Create the “new inbox” – your To Do list

• Right-click to flag, or star in Gmail

• Sort by Flags for To Do list and by Stars in Gmail

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Archiving Email

Manual, automatic, or unnecessary depending on your email client

Function allows you to search email but retain it

Outlook Tutorial: http://office.microsoft.com/training/Training.aspx?AssetID=RP102386761033&pid=CR100654581033

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Step 2: Adopt Strong Email Practices

Timely response Take action:

– Delete, Do, Delegate, Defer

Do’s & Don’ts

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Timely Response

What is your email protocol?– Respond within a day?– Respond within a half day?– Respond within 2 hours?– Respond within an hour?

Respond even on the “Defers”– “Thanks for your email. I won’t be able to

get to this until XX, and will email you then.”

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Do’s

Use a strong subject line Use email to reward, emote or

acknowledge positive things. Communicate information, request

action, facilitate unsophisticated problem-solving

Follow up on heavy problem-solving

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Don’ts Do not use email to track attachments

and documents as a filing system Do not use email to manage projects,

timelines, or histories Do not use email to schedule meetings Do not use email to do heavy problem

solving or brainstorming Do not use email to ask quick

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Step 3: Reduce what you rely on your email to do for

you Using new tools!

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Overview of Session

Step 3: Reduce what you use email to do

IM for quick check in Project Management tools for deadlines

and files Wikis for institutional knowledge Online schedulers & calendars


Instant Messaging I’m running 5 minutes late on another call.

Call you when off. What time is our meeting at again? Here is the login number I forgot to send I am about to send out an email to the

Advisory Board, do you have anything to add… (then cut and paste text for them to edit).

Here is the training description I was going to post? Thoughts?

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Instant Messaging for Quick Communication or Check In


Jabber: Instant Messaging

Jabber (www.jabber.org) -- a customizable open source IM (instant messaging) protocol with many clients:– Hugh uses Exodus

(http://exodus.jabberstudio.org/)– Gabe uses PSI (http://psi-im.org/)


Meetings and Phones

Meet-o-Matic (www.meet-o-matic.com) MeetingWizard

(www.meetingwizard.com) Free Conference.Com

(www.freeconference.com) GotVoice (www.gotvoice.com)

– Voicemail transferred to your email


Web Conferencing

www.legalmeetings.org www.teamviewer.com www.crossloop.com

Use for coordination and heavy problem solving or one-on-one in-depth meetings

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We all use Case Management Systems for

cases, so…

While we have technology systems that help us receive and track cases, few programs use systems that help staff manage and coordinate on projects or collaborative efforts. Instead, most of us rely on ad hoc management systems and email.


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Project Management in Action: PTLA

Pine Tree Legal Assistance wanted Gwen Daniels’ help in developing an online intake form for their Volunteer Lawyers Project.

They used PM tools to organize their goals, milestones, and drafts. They assigned tasks to all persons and tracked them online.


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Project Management in Action: NTAP

Problem: 7 staff and contractors, 6 LSC funded grants with specific milestones, 157 emails a day in my inbox, 1 aging brain.

Solution: Project Management (PM) software helped us: assign tasks and deadlines, brainstorm ideas across timezones, reduce email clutter, and have one central repository for all files and thoughts about a project.


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Project Management in Action: NTAP

Example: Cyber Piracy project

Becky is responsible for creating training materials. Gabe is responsible for finalizing Cyber Piracy research -- the raw data of which is in various versions. Pro bono lawyers are responsible for creating drafts of trademark material. Eva needs to review them.

PM tools help us organize this effort. What’s better? We receive notice via email of all uploads, revisions, drafts, or messages.


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Example in Action:ILAO’s Project Server

The Problem: We needed a way to manage internal software development projects that use staff and outside developers

The Solution: Set up a project server instance that allows us to create tasks for each phase of development and link those tasks together, assign and allocate resources, manage costs


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Resources

Training Material on Wikis & Proj Mgmt www.lsntap.org/coll105

Wikis: http://www.lsntap.org/bookshelf?tid=10

Project Management:

http://www.lsntap.org/bookshelf?tid=179


Other Tips

Manage your bookmarks Manage your news Open what you need every day

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Documents

Managing Information Overload February 20, 2008