I’ve had a number of people ask me if there were time tracking tools that work with Outlook, for tracking billable time.

Here is one product that just came to my attention. Called Chrometa and it is a plug-in for Outlook. They say it will track how long you are in specific emails (reading, writing). I have no idea if it is any good, but the need seems to be out there so I hope this info helps someone. If you try it, let me know how it goes.

Michael

Here is a good article on some of the technical underpinnings of Outlook 2011 Mac.

http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/outlook/outlook-2011-mac-os-141278

Michael

Supervisors, don’t turn your employees into e-mail zombies. What do I mean by that?

Here’s a common scenario: a supervisor sends an e-mail to his or her employee and in the email tells the recipient that the action is due within an hour. When that hour is up and the e-mail has not been responded to, the supervisor calls or walks by the desk and says hey I sent you an e-mail why haven’t you done this? Within the next days, weeks, or months, the supervisor does this consistently.

The result? The staff are now all e-mail zombies. What do I mean by that? The staff are now constantly watching their e-mail for requests from their boss. They are fearful that if they don’t catch the e-mails immediately they may get in trouble for not responding quickly.

But here’s the problem. Because they are constantly watching e-mail, they are now attending to small low priority e-mails too, since they are right in front of them, and so are distracted quite often from their core work. They are now keeping their inbox open all times. Every e-mail that comes in they glance at to be sure it’s not from the boss. They keep blue-box e-mail notification on and constantly watch that box everytime it pops up to see if it’s something from the boss, but of course they now read every one, and their main work is getting interupted every few minutes.

They are now e-mail zombies. Research shows that it can take several minutes to get back into a task someone has been interupted from, so productivity has decreased greatly in your team as they now all live in their e-mail.

So don’t do this! Don’t kill the productivity of your staff!

My rule of thumb: allow and expect that replies to e-mail may take up to 24 hours. That way your staff don’t feel like they need to live in e-mail. And encourage staff to check their in-box only every 2 or 3 hours, after they have finished bigger blocks of work.

And for urgent notification, instead use the phone (yes the phone!). Or make it policy that you will all use text messages or Instant Messaging (IM) for (and only for) things that are urgent. You can always follow with details in an e-mail and alert them to that in the IM.

Then try to promulgate this policy throughout your company. You’ll be glad you did.

Michael

I am hearing some good things from my users about gSyncit, an Outlook add-on that syncs Outlook data with a number of cloud services. I haven’t tested it myself yet, but it looks like it may be a reasonable way to sync ToodleDo tasks into Outlook. It also syncs calendar and contacts data with Google, and notes with Dropbox. But I am most interested in its ability to do a ToodleDo tasks sync, and it looks good for that.

It’s not exactly what I am looking for since I am an Exchange user and gSyncit does not sync directly between the Exchange Server to ToodleDo server; you need Outlook running on your computer to make the sync. Why is that an issue?  Well, say you are traveling without your computer and just using mobile devices… if your computer at home is not running, the sync may not happen. But that’s a “corner case” as they say, and this should still work for most cases with Exchange users.

That said, I think the main customer for this product would be Outlook users who do not use Exchange. In other words, you are using Outlook to access your email from a POP mail server or equivalent (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo mail, AOL, Hotmail, and so on). For users like that, Outlook tasks are only stored on their computer, and they have no way to put their tasks in the cloud. So, gSyncit provides that way—you can now use ToodleDo as your tasks server and then use any of ToodleDo’s mobile apps to access your tasks on the road.

One other possible use of gSyncit is this. If you are a ToodleDo user and normally travel with your laptop, you can use gSyncit to allow you to use Outlook as your offline client for ToodleDo. Think about this. If you normally use the web version of ToodleDo to access your tasks, what if you are on a plane and cannot access the web? How do you access your tasks then? You’d need to use one of ToodleDo’s third-party Windows applications (like Task Angel) and have kept that in sync before you got on the plane. Well, now you can use Outlook’s Tasks module for that solution, even if you do not normally use Outlook tasks otherwise.

So gSyncit looks like it can fill a much needed niche. If I actually start using gSyncit I’ll write up my experience. But in the meantime, if you are using it, share your experiences here.

Michael

Funny, I’ve gotten a number of e-mails in the last month or so saying (effectively) “I’ve discovered this new feature in Outlook 2010 called Quick Steps, and I am surprised you don’t know about it!”

Well, actually we wrote about Quick Steps some time ago, and we feature it in our Outlook 2010 article that is listed in the “Important Articles” section of our blog:

http://www.michaellinenberger.com/Outlook2010Introduction.htm#QuickSteps

We even made a You Tube video about Quick Steps (linked in that article) and mentioned that a few times in our newsletters too.

So, yes, we do know about Outlook 2010 Quick Steps, thanks!

But the thing is, over time I have changed my mind about how useful they are for most of the MYN processes. After trying them a bit I just haven’t seen that much (if any) time savings in using Quick Steps for MYN. If you create a Quick Step to file mail to the Processed Mail folder, the Quick Step requires 2 clicks (select mail item, then click button up in Quick Step section), while dragging only requires one click (click and drag in one motion).

If you are converting an email to a task it’s the same number of clicks (though I admit, for creating the task as an attachment you save one click). My opinion is that, in general, Quick Steps are fun to use but offer no significant time savings for most MYN processes.

That said, key savings can be had when you are combining two or three steps into one. The demonstration of Quick Steps in the article above is a good example of that. And if you find other multi-step operations, go for it. It’s just that we do not have many applicable multi-step processes in our standard MYN teachings. Which is why we did not cover Quick Steps in our 3^rd edition of the Outlook book.

That said, if you have a killer Quick Step for MYN that actually saves a lot of time, let me know—I am willing to stand corrected!

Michael

One of my major teachings for e-mail management is to stop using 10, 20, 30, (100?) topic-named folders to file your mail. I’ve always claimed doing so is too slow to file and too slow to find things. I provide quicker and better alternatives in my Outlook books (with smart ways of using Instant Search being one of the main ones).

Well, IBM Research now backs me up. Here is a formal research study that shows just how slow folder filing is compared to using a search tool at search time. Check it out.

http://people.ucsc.edu/~swhittak/papers/chi2011_refinding_email_camera_ready.pdf

Michael

As you know, in my Outlook Book, I give very specific advice on how to process and empty your Outlook Inbox. That advice includes converting all action e-mails to tasks, filing mail in one folder, and using the Outlook flag tool only for deferred replies that you intend to get to by day’s end. The goal of all this is to empty the Outlook Inbox quickly and to manage any tasks in there responsibly. I have a nice step-by-step process for this that I show in the book (it’s summarized in Appendix C), and for simplicity I keep those steps short.

But it occurs to me that as I follow my own recommendations I hit a lot of gray areas, and so the process I use in my real life goes beyond the simple instructions in the book. To be fair then, I thought I should write down my real-life Outlook Inbox process that extends the steps in the book—doing that may help someone with their own special cases.

So that’s what I have done below—I’ve provided a write up of how I process my mail. Of course, doing this means I have to get into some detail to describe the many subtleties I encounter, and doing that will make this write up a bit long. Also, some of this may seem overly obvious. But so be it! That is the price of being helpful. So I hope this rambling helps you with your Inbox processing.

My Outlook Inbox Process

I have a lot of decisions to make as I scan through my Inbox.

First, if an e-mail is obviously spam or unneeded mail, I delete it immediately. I usually make a quick 2- minute pass through my entire new days’ worth of mail deleting mail based on titles alone. That way I can quickly get my Inbox trimmed down and into a less overwhelming state.

Next, I start at the top of the Inbox again and march down looking at each e-mail one at a time by quickly reading the mail or scanning the titles.  After quickly reading an e-mail, if it’s obvious I don’t need to refer to it again later, then I delete it right after reading it. Conversely, if there is some chance I may need to refer to it again later, I don’t delete it—rather I drag it into the Processed Mail folder immediately. I don’t agonize over whether to save an item or not; if there is any doubt then I save it quickly and move on; I save a lot of mail by the way.

In the old days when I applied categories to mail a lot, I would leave such mail in the Inbox and then categorize it in groups at the end of the day, and only then drag it all to the Processed Mail folder. These days, however, I use Instant Search much more, and only categorize a few items. Therefore group categorization is not so useful and I instead apply categories as I see the mail, and immediately drag them to the Processed Mail folder. In general, nothing sits in my Inbox after I’ve made a decision on it. That’s the purpose of an Inbox—to receive new mail and make decisions about it; not to store things. Store all mail in the Processed Mail folder.

Action E-mails

The next types of mail are those e-mails that have some action for me to take; there are a lot of subtleties here.

If I can take the action quickly—say in a minute or less—then I do the action immediately. Normally that means a quick reply; but it might be a very quick phone call or a quick trip to a website. Once the action is done I toss or file the mail immediately.

If the action cannot be done quickly then I decide whether the action is a longer reply or if it’s something more. If it’s just a long reply, then I flag the e-mail with the Outlook flag tool and I leave it in the Inbox. I commit to making a reply quickly—within a day or so. Later, after making that reply, I remove the flag and move the item to the Processed Mail folder (or I delete it).

If the action clearly is more than just a long reply at end of day—say it may require a bit of effort or research or some time on my part to consider or complete—then I convert the e-mail to a true task; in the title of that task I enter a good clear action phrase and I set an appropriate priority and start date; and then I immediately file the e-mail into the Processed Mail folder.

Gray Areas

Now, here is a gray area. Let’s say I get an e-mail and I’m not sure whether it needs a longer reply or rather may need more thought and potentially more action (or maybe I can even just dismiss it). In cases like that where I am not sure, I usually want to let it sit a bit; it’s amazing how a couple hours of time will often work the question out in my background mind, or through the course of events. In those cases I do this: I flag the e-mail as if it were a deferred reply. Then, when I come back to the e-mail at the end of the day or early next, as I reread it to decide on the reply, if it truly requires action more extensive than just a reply, and I cannot do it now, I convert it to a true task then. Then I remove the flag and file the e-mail away.

Another gray area is this. What do I do about e-mails that are rather long and I don’t have time to fully read them now (and so I don’t know yet if they need action)? The answer is “it depends.” If I think there will be some action required, (I just am not sure yet), then I mark it with a flag. I just make sure I re-read the mail item later that day or early next and fully convert it then when I know (and then I remove the flag and file it). Again, all flagged items must be visited within a day or so (and the flags removed at that time). But if I know the e-mail is just informational (definitely no action other than reading it), then it gets tougher. I definitely don’t flag it… that’s just for potential reply or short-term action mail. What to do really depends on how interested I am in the topic of the e-mail. If it’s something I really intend to read today, then I leave it in an unread status and leave it in the Inbox till the end of the day and read it just before I empty the Inbox. But if it’s not worth reading today, then I might mark it with an appropriate category (Articles is the category I often use, but maybe you could create a category called “For later review”) and in all cases I file it in the Processed Mail folder for later reading when appropriate. Perhaps on a slow day you will group on that category and go through that mail. But more likely you will only revisit this mail during a specific search for it, which is fine. Or I just admit my lack of future time and delete it immediately; some things we know we will never get to, so we might as well cut and run now.

More about Flags

BTW, I know above I have broken my rule about using flags only for deferred replies—I show using them for marking some short-term actions as well. My rule of thumb is this: only flag items that you can commit to attending to within a day or two at most. If you suspect you’re going to wait longer than a day or two, then convert the e-mail to a true task; don’t try to use a flag. Why this distinction? You do not want to let flagged mail (or any mail) sit long in your inbox because after a few days you will forget what the email title means and then you’ll have to reread those items to determine why you kept them in the Inbox, and re-reading mail is a big waste of time. And your Inbox gets cluttered with too much old mail. So just get them out of there. Leave the Inbox clear for processing new mail—that’s the role of the Inbox.

More on this. Longer term tasks need management tools, and the flag tool does not provide them. You need an easily set priority, a start date, and especially a rewritten subject line that you can scan quickly. With those set you can then manage tasks in bulk in the task system, using the MYN principles. You cannot set those easily in flagged mail. (There  actually are ways, but they’re harder and so you won’t use them; and flagged tasks have other disadvantages. So always favor true tasks).

At the end of the day I try to file away all the rest of my mail and I only leave behind flagged mail I cannot yet process. But if a flagged mail item gets more than 2 or 3 days old, then I bite the bullet and convert it to a true task no matter what. To make that possible, I sometimes use creative task names like “Make decision on this email about…” or “consider more fully this email about…” or some such thing. Just find a way to get it converted to a task (with a clear next action in the title) and get it out of the Inbox.

By the way, never leave a flag on an item that you move to the Processed Mail folder; they serve no purpose there and then they clog up your To-Do Bar task list. Remove all flags before you move the mail.

So that’s it! That’s my real life story of how I process mail in my Outlook Inbox. I hope the extra details I show here, and my coverage of special cases, helps you in your e-mail processing. Let me know if you have any cases that don’t seem to meet the above, and I’ll tell you what I would do.

Michael

In this season of giving, here’s an add on to Outlook that prevents too much giving—it’s a module you can download from Microsoft that blocks Reply All.

Now, this is not a full solution, because it only works for people on your same Exchange system, meaning users in the same company; but that’s still a big plus.

Here’s the main way it works. When you are ready to send a message, you can mark it so that recipients cannot Reply All to that message. It also goes beyond that. You can also set it so -all- outgoing messages automatically have that setting enabled, or to prevent Reply All for all messages you receive. As the article in the link below humorously suggests, maybe you would like to sneak onto the computers of certain people in your company and make that setting?

Here’s the Cnet link with all the details:

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57344703-285/how-to-prevent-reply-all-in-your-outlook-e-mails/

Michael

Here’s one solution to spending too much time in your e-mail, which is a bad habit that even practiced MYN users can get into.

Why is the e-mail trap so easy to fall into?

One reason we end up reading e-mail all day long, and so not getting our “real” work done, is because e-mail incorrectly answers the question “what should I do next?” It’s just so easy to keep reading the next e-mail that’s in our list, and then the next and the next. It’s right in front of us and it feels like we are busy and occupied and doing good work. But it diverts us from putting our real work in front of us, and focusing on it.

Here is one way to get your real work clearly “in your face” right from the start so you work on it first. It is to start each day creating what I call the Day Focus list, and you can do that right inside the MYN task list.

What is the Day Focus list? The Day Focus list is simply the MYN Critical Now list combined with the MYN Target Now—these two together make up the Day Focus list in MYN.

As an MYN user you already know what the Critical Now list is; it’s those things absolutely due today—it’s the High priority in Outlook and ToodleDo. But you may not have used the Target Now list before. Target Now is an optional part of my MYN training and a very small part of the Outlook book. If you want to read more about Target Now, see the first part of Lesson 9 in the Outlook book. Briefly, the Target Now list identifies those items within the Opportunity Now section (medium priority) that you intend to get to today. They are essentially your most important Opportunity Now tasks.

So the MYN Day Focus list is those two things combined—the Critical Now list plus the Target Now list. The top part of this clearly shows what you must do today, and then the lower part what you really want to do (but may not get to). Here’s how that looks:

Why is this needed?

This is needed because it adds focus to your optional list. We can get lazy with a task list that has a lot of optional items—ones that continue on our list from day to day; it’s easy to just let them continue on forever. By creating the Target Now section each day, we focus our attention and make a significant commitment to working on those optional tasks. And by combining that with Critical Now, we now have a two-part “daily” list to strive toward completing.

As a current MYN user, the key addition here is you adding the Target Now process every day—it takes daily maintenance. Why? Because as shown in the Outlook book, in Outlook (and in ToodleDo by the way), the Target Now list is designated by those tasks that have a start date of today and that section clears itself each day (tomorrow all those tasks will have a start date one-day old). So in Outlook the underlines go away and in ToodleDo the “Today” status disappears. The process then is each day you need to recreate the list by setting the start date of you most important Opportunity Now tasks to today. Obviously this does take some work, but it’s good work since it forces you to rethink your list every day and make sure you have the right focus.

I encourage you to give this Day Focus list process a try. I think you’ll find it helps beat the e-mail obsession many of us have all day long, and allows us to get more of our real work done each day.

Michael

I continue to be amazed at the rapidly changing smartphone market share numbers. This just came out from NPD Group on U.S. smartphone sales:

Google Android: 53%

Apple iPhone: 29%

BlackBerry: down to 10% (yikes!)

Michael