Guest: Alan Lepofsky - IBM
Host: Jennifer Clemente - ShortCuts

Jennifer Clemente - ShortCuts
Welcome to ShortCuts, a weekly online broadcast brought to you by IBM Workplace. We're here to help you get the most of everyday Internet and e mail tools. I'm Jennifer Clemente. This week's question came to us from our mailbag. I swear I get about 200 emails a day. I'm drowning in them. What is the best way to figure out what to read and to reply to first?

On the phone with us today from Cambridge, Massachusetts, is Alan Lepofsky from IBM's Lotus brand. Alan has been using Lotus Notes for over a decade now, and runs a blog called Lotus Notes and Tips. Alan, I'm sure you're familiar with this problem of email glut. How would you recommend somebody prioritize their email?

Alan Lepofsky - IBM
So, the first thing I would do is actually start to think about where you are when you are currently reading your email. What I mean by that is, are you in a work environment or a home environment, a personal environment, a business environment? The first thing I do is sort of filter out my inbox to get my work related messages in one place and my personal related messages in another. I get messages from family members, I get messages from sports teams I'm a part of, and then I get my work related e mail. And honestly, if they're all jumbled together at one time, it makes it a little bit more difficult to work with, to be productive, and to keep your head wrapped around what you're doing. So, the first thing I do is, I have rules in my mail file that actually take messages based on who they're coming from and move them into specific places in my mail file.

So, I can get family members' email in one folder, teammates for sports teams email in another folder, and then my work related one leave in my inbox to process. So, that first sort of delegation step of, okay, who you are and when I'm going to work with you really helps me sort of focus on my day. Maybe I look at the family ones during lunch or during a break between meetings, but I really try to focus on my work ones during those work hours. The other thing I do is take advantage of some features that most email programs have that allow you to color code email based on who the sender is. So, for example, I can highlight message that come from my management chain, and I can easily say, "Okay, this is one that I know I have to act on," it's coming from my manager, or my manager's manager, as opposed to maybe just three or four emails that have come in from co-workers who aren't involved with current projects that I'm working on, so I know they're not at the top of my priority list.

And then different email programs have different ways of handling this, but there's a few features in programs like Lotus Notes from IBM that allow you to do things like, be indicated if you're the only person the message has been sent to, or if you're just one of many people it's been sent to, or if you were carbon copied instead of it being sent to. That really lets you sort of get a visual indication of how important you are to that email. If an email message is sent just to you, odds are that's something you need to act on long before a message that was sent to 25 of you and your co-workers. So, these little message indicators that let you know if you're the only recipient really are sort of another level of filtering indicating where you should put your priority in looking at those messages.

Jennifer Clemente - ShortCuts
Okay, thanks, Alan. Thanks for coming back on to ShortCuts.

Alan Lepofsky - IBM
You're welcome.

Jennifer Clemente - ShortCuts
For a transcript of today's show, visit us on the Web at ibm.com/shortcuts. There you'll find more information on this week's topic. And again, if you've got a question for our experts, write us at cuts@us.ibm.com. From all of us at ShortCuts, thank you for listening.