6 billion business e-mail messages sent worldwide in 2001, it is impossible to deny that e-mail is one of the most successful tools ever invented. .
Ironically, it is e-mail's very popularity that creates a new challenge. As both the style of usage and sheer volume grows, the ability of end users to identify and respond to valued business issues is severely hampered. In fact, according to Gartner Group:.
One third of internal business e-mail is unnecessary.
Employees spend an average of 49 minutes a day managing e-mail .
Almost a quarter of employees spend more than an hour a day managing e-mail.
Only 27 percent of e-mail that employees get demands immediate attention. .
Take, for instance, this snapshot of an Amacis employee's inbox. Recognizing that he is drowning in unproductive e-mail, he has turned on the junk mail filter feature within Microsoft Outlook. This feature has allowed him to weed out 37 of his 128 new messages.
However, he is left with the significant problem of sifting through 81 messages in order to identify and respond to the important ones. .
.
Of the remaining messages, a mere 12% were business related and only 3% required attention. .
In order to identify the 3% of e-mail that require attention, he must manually sift through the 97% of remaining clutter. Even when he identifies the valuable e-mail, he is not provided with any productivity tools to make it easier and quicker to process them, for example easy access to the data that he needs to respond or prepared template responses.
Not only have too many communications been passed along to the user, but often at inappropriate times and there is no assessment of value and hence priority placed on those that have passed through.
While just about any user of e-mail will recognize these problems, attempts to ameliorate the problems have generally been restricted to manual procedures. Hence while 70% of companies have some sort of e-mail policy, rarely can this policy be implemented or monitored in a meaningful way.
Leonard's merits and demerits of email are achievable, but there are more pros and cons of email he could have talked about. ... Email is now used for trade. ... It feels satisfying and productive without much effort. ... Divorce rates have increased because husbands and wives have to check email at different times making it difficult for them to meet. ... Not to mention the darker side of email. ...
I was always under the assumption that I spent my time productively and spent little time on wasted activities. ... My forecasted numbers fell short of the actual time spent in each area except for two, email/phone and planning. ... One such area of improvement would be by reducing my trivial (C) time and making the wasted (D) time non-existent....
A look at conflict that can surround the virtual team's decision making processes will follow. Time Management Making virtual teams work is not easy. ... A simple email exchange can generate hard feelings if information that is needed cannot be shared in a timely manner. ... Reading a long newsgroup or email thread can be difficult, and many email programs and search engines index mail and news postings poorly. ... If possible, use a medium other than email to resolve the issue; this helps avoid further inflammatory misunderstandings (Jourdain, 2003). ...
We felt that she was not showing a good example to the rest of us because it was obvious that the BM cared only about her vacation time and not about making the transition of her being the new BM smooth. ... The next day when the ABM returned to work, he was checking the email and saw the message that the BM sent about him. ... The ABM was furious and replied to the email saying that he did not care what they thought about him and in fact he was in court, and he was resigning that very moment. ... If he was going to take sides, he should not have made his ill comments about the ABM public thro...
The laptop and everything else aids in making sure minutes and seconds. ... These questions are easily answered with this - what will be the most productive way for you to ensure you keep your client's business. ... Email would be the answer to this question. ... Email so far is the cheapest way of communication. ... Email systems and message boards allow users within the company to a quick answers without having to use up the phone lines or leaving their workspace - which makes their day much more productive (Holtz 48-72). ...
The need for effective decision making within the team would pose a significant challenge to us. ... The receipt of posts and emails in a timely manner is crucial to our coordination efforts but it will certainly become evident that other means of communication are necessary. ... This definition is a narrow, focused one we are using for purposes of making our point in relation to the eClass environment. ... Since we are unable to see each other, it is important to keep in close contact via email, posts or chat sessions. ... The interdependence of time management with effective communicat...
Cell phones and e-mail tie executives to their work twenty-four hours a day, increasing the pressure on them to be constantly productive. ... We see Bill's terribly productive businessman-neighbor glibly announce that he's read-ing, while in reality he is listening to the book-on-tape version of The Bridges of Madison County. ... Bill's social life barely exists: his wife is having an electronic affair, while he and his son communicate mainly by email. ... You"ll be making more and more money. ...
It is hard to believe that at the start of this century, time wasn't even standardized. The nature of the workplace has changed dramatically. The traditional average working day is no longer 9:00 - 5:00; time seems to go by faster. While employees are working longer hours and commuting further. We have invented mainframes, microprocessors, microchips, PCs, Modems, DSL, Cable, Ethernet, LAN, WAN, optical fiber and the World Wide Web. ...
Making time for self always seems inevitable. While making time for others, it is also vital to have personal time set aside for yourself. ... Avoid unnecessary start up delays, emails and appointments. ... It has been said that once you begin to leverage your style of learning you will become more productive within your schoolwork (Ronald Gross, 1999). ... It is important to think in terms of making time rather than finding time. ...
