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[Design] High End Email
Arthur Fink
Thu, 06 Mar 2003 15:17:08 -0500
At 10:28 AM 3/6/03 -0800, Kaitlin Duck Sherwood wrote:
. . .
>Based on my recent experience as the author of some books on how to deal
>with email overload *and* as a "get through your email faster" trainer,
>I am not sure that people would actually make use of this. I met an
>amazing number of people who were almost hostile to the idea of spending
>any time learning how to get through email faster. Why? Unclear, but I
>think it's a combination of the following:
. . .
I agree with Kaitlin's analysis.
But there is another side. True confession: The two things that most
impede my effectiveness, or that show my lack thereof, are the clutter on
my desk and the clutter in my e-mail program. And it's clear to me that
developing habits of good hygeine, and acquiring tools that help in this,
are critical.
In my case, e-mails are (or may be) related to various things:
Customers or prospects, as I track my involvement with them.
To-do lists, deadline dates, etc.
Word documents, and other program objects
Schedule objects.
In summary, for most of my work life, e-mail precedes and trails most of
what I do, records what I must do, and holds me accountable for the
statements I've made.
If I thought that Chandler or any other tool offered a real chance of
helping with all this, and I believed that it would be a durable tool that
may become a standard, then it would be easy to sell me on investing my
time on learning it.
Am I alone? I think not.
Arthur Fink Consulting · arthur@ArthurFink.com
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Peaks Island, Maine 04108 · Designing systems that work
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