The Taming of the Inbox

I had a brief, yet celebrative moment yesterday; I zeroed out my inbox! Yes, for one fleeting and shining moment it was empty.

It’s a little disconcerting that by Monday morning, it will be regenerating, but such is life for the vast majority of us who are connected. Don’t lose hope, you can manage your inbox, but it takes a little effort. And there are huge benefits! Just that small, albeit temporary, victory is just one.

A recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that the average knowledge worker spends 28 percent of the workweek either writing, reading, or responding to email.  While you may not be technically classified a “knowledge worker” there is likely a high correlation to being an “imparting knowledge worker”; as in a teacher or administrator at a Charter School.

My favorite Charter School Administrator recently confessed to having something like 4,000 messages in her inbox. That’s a lot! Can you beat that record?

There are hundreds of excellent articles about this subject, so let’s approach it from an Information Architecture perspective. Like my father always said, “If you start with the right set of tools, the job is much easier”. Consider a couple of tools that should assist you in taming your inbox.

Start with an enterprise class mail system

The single most important step you can take to tame your inbox is to start using a real email solution. My recommendation for education has not changed in 10 years – Microsoft Exchange based email is the gold standard of email systems. It is now available as a free service from Microsoft as a Cloud Based (hosted service) and is called Office 365 for Education.

Hosted Exchange Email is the infrastructure an organization’s email runs on, the manner in which you connect to a hosted Exchange system is entirely up to you. You can use an internet browser, a desktop or laptop client such as Outlook (Mac or PC), an iOS device such as an iPad or iPhone, or any smart phone, or tablet.

Aside from Google mail, the alternatives are not even a close second. And privacy issues alone make me shudder in using Google mail, yes even the enterprise version of Google mail. Just because you are not getting advertising, does not mean your email is not being crawled for content.

I am especially puzzled when I come across schools that are using the “free” email that is included in their webhosting account. What an oxymoron that is! There is nothing free about dealing with the SPAM, the loss of messaging control, and the wide variety of compliance issues that accompany this choice of email systems.

A hosted Exchange email system is reliable, secure, compliant, feature rich, and it’s free. What are you waiting for?

Use Instant Messaging more for short or transitory conversations

Text messaging is quickly overcoming email as the mode of communicating in the digital world, but using it in education presents unique challenges. It is a little difficult to enforce a “sterile” learning environment, free from the disruptions of personal electronic devices (PED) if the teacher is constantly checking her own text messages on a PED in the classroom. 

A much better classroom solution is Lync 2010, another free education solution from Microsoft that is far superior to text messaging than what you find on your PED. Lync 2010 provides Instant Messaging (IM) on the desktop, your laptop, and your smartphone and there is a presence indicator for all of your communication. Don’t underestimate the importance of knowing the presence or availability of your intended recipient.

In addition to IM, Lync allows you to turn your texting into a full on video conference with just a click of the mouse. And you can connect with multiple individuals at the same time. And on top of all of that, you can share documents, transfer files, and even show others what you are viewing on your desktop.

In summary, by using Lync more and email less, you will reduce the endless stream of one liner emails that land in your inbox.

Implement a connected eRM/CRM system

The best improvement I have personally implemented in my inbox taming is Microsoft Dynamics CRM; we call it Education Resource Management or eRM for Charter Schools. I can sum up my experience in four short words – “Feel Free to Delete!”

Using eRM/CRM, allows you to associate an email with a contact, a company, a support case, a contract, an order, a meeting, a telephone call, or a dozen other items, and then DELETE it. The email is retained in the eRM/CRM system and you can now refer to it in context of the information it is associated with.

The most likely reason you keep all of those silly emails in the first place is just in case you might need to refer to it later. Fair enough; but while the search function in your email program is powerful, the association of emails with the people, processes, and things in your world is much more useful.

Not ready for an eRM/CRM system? A well thought out system of folders in your email system will be very helpful.

Utilize SharePoint for document collaboration

Ever notice how many emails can be generated over just one document? You send a document for input from an associate; they make a few changes, and then send it back. Next you send it off for approval, there are a few more changes and the document comes back. And finally you send it off for publication or printing and there are the confirmations and drafts and … well, you get the picture.

One of the most inbox clogging activities we observe is using email as a document collaboration platform. As the complexity and the connectedness of your organization grow, the multiplication effect is an inbox assault. At some point you may just have to call a meeting and sit down with all of those documents and team members to sort it out.

SharePoint changes the dynamics associated with collaborative effort and it will bring great happiness to your inbox. And if you have looked at SharePoint and find it a bit clunky, then you really have not looked closely enough.

If you use the synchronization tools in SharePoint and the network mapping tools in Windows that support SharePoint, you will find that getting a document onto your SharePoint document library is a simple as dragging and dropping or saving to a designated folder on your computer.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention – it’s also free and included in Office 365 for Education.

Summary

There are countless articles, even entire websites devoted to the techniques of managing email. And some of them are excellent. However, designing an efficient Information system will have more overall impact on your inbox than techniques.

Start with an enterprise level (not a consumer grade) email system. Embrace an IM or text messaging system that is integrated in your organization. Connect your email with the people, processes, and things you deal with inside a business management system. And use SharePoint for document collaboration, sharing, and versioning.

Good luck mastering your inbox; it makes for a much more enjoyable weekend.