Email

Yes, I *Did* Release A Product Last Week

I’ll make this one quick. I was talking to a long-time reader over the weekend, and here’s how part of the dialog went: Charlie: “It was a great week! I created a lot of cool stuff – but the newest thing for me was that I released a product. Reader: “You released a product? Did [...]

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The S.T.A.R. Method: A More Effective, Less Stressful Way to Process Email

Do you struggle with having a manageable email Inbox? Are you worried that you’re missing something important because you can’t keep up with the volume of email traffic you’re getting? Don’t worry, you’re not alone – and there’s an easier way to get have less stress and overwhelm without being anal-retentive that doesn’t require you [...]

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Concentration Made Easy

Have you ever checked email without meaning to? Or found yourself on Twitter without intending to be there? That happens to me once in a while occasionally far too often, too. What I came to realize was that, as frustrating as it was, it was just a series of habits and reflexes at work. I [...]

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Stop Checking Email!

Odds are, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably checked your email a few times today. And I have a couple of questions for you: Why are you checking your email? What’s in there that will really make a difference to what you’re doing for the day? Take a second to think about your answers. If [...]

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Objectify Email to Get A Grip on It

Imagine that I hired you to sort marbles out of a bucket. In your bucket are three types of marbles: 1) chipped marbles, 2) normal-sized marbles of various colors, and 3) jumbo-sized marbles of various colors. I want you to throw away the chipped ones, sort the normal-sized marbles by color and place them in [...]

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When Email Messages Are Mini-Products

Something has always bugged me about the common advice about email correspondence. It was only when I was talking to Naomi yesterday that it really hit me: for many of us, email messages are a mini-product. They’re connective tasks that are also creative tasks. Not every email is like this, of course. Some fall within [...]

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How to Get Started by Asking Questions

Usually, asking how to get started via email is ineffective. This is especially true for those email messages that pretty much amount to someone saying “I’m stuck and need help.” There are cases, though, where a well-stated email can help you get started, and it all depends on whether you’re asking a question that specifically [...]

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Is this Signal or Noise?

Are you increasing signal or adding noise in your communication with other people? Most of the time you hear people complaining about the noise they get from other people, whether it’s junk mail, spam, inane phone calls, water cooler emails, or that chain mail that’s been forwarded forty-seven times. Very rarely do we admit that [...]

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R.A.F.T: Managing Email Rather Than Letting Email Manage You

Email has become the primarily method of communication for most people in nearly all organizations. Unfortunately, too many of us have yet to really understand how to work with email yet and the management of email correspondence has become a major source of work in and of itself. As with most of the meaningful components [...]

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