Conference quark::human_relations

    My organization is using "I" for information, "A" for action and "U"
    for urgent.  This allows me to pick and choose as I go through the
    millions of mail messages a day.  It does get overwhelming sometimes. 
    I believe that eventually people will get the hint and call.
    
    I share your frustrations in not having a discipline in cleaning up
    before vacation time or whatever takes you away.  I seem to pick up
    about fifty a day - most being the blast-o-gram type to the world.  I
    think that for some people it's just easier to blast the world instead
    of taking the time to find out who needs the information.
    
    Don't have any earth shatering answers just yet.
    
    Dave

    
    I have all unnecessary information (non-time-critical) go to an account
    on a separate node.  I do not have it forwarded to my main work node.
    
    I generally will log in from home several times a week.
    
    if I don't have time to handle e-mail tasks immediately, I will queue
    them to the printer and keep a stack of "to-do" items, recycling the
    sheets of paper when I complete them

I think the key to handling large numbers of mail messages is to file each
message in an appropriate folder as soon as you receive it.  I have one or
more folders for each project I am working on, an "ADMIN" folder for messages
about new personnel policies etc., and folders for distribution lists I
am on, personal messages, and so forth.

I have several training folders, one for each month, e.g. FEB_TRAINING,
MAR_TRAINING, etc.  When I receive an announcement listing several courses
I file it in the folder for the month of the last course listed in the
message (e.g. a message listing courses between February and April would
be filed under APR_TRAINING).  On the first day of each month I delete the
previous month's training folder; today, for example, I deleted all the
messages in the JAN_TRAINING folder.

Messages that I don't want to save but which I might possibly want to refer to
again within the next couple of weeks get filed in a folder for the current
month: JAN, FEB, etc.  At the end of each month I delete the folder from
two months earlier, i.e. I just deleted all the messages in my DEC folder.
This prevents my mail directory from getting too big.  I don't have to
worry about deleting an important message by mistake because it would have
been filed under another folder, such as a project folder.  If I get a
message about an event coming up in April I'll file it under APR, so I can
refer to it if I need it and won't forget to delete it after the event is
over.

Yes, it's daunting to come back from vacation and find 200+ unread mail
messages.  My first priority when I get back is to file all the unread
messages to their appropriate folders and reduce my NEWMAIL and MAIL
folders to zero messages.

Before I started using this system I'd accumulate 1000+ messages in my MAIL
folder and it was just hopeless: important messages were buried between
dozens and dozens of junk messages.  Every couple of years I'd ruthlessly
go through and delete large numbers of message to reclaim disk space but
inevitably I'd delete some messages that were important.  Now the (semi-) junk
mail gets filed in a monthly folder and deleted after it no longer has any
chance of being useful, and the important messages are filed in their
own folders.

				-- Bob

Something else that I forgot to mention: before I started using a personal
organizer I used to have two folders named URGENT and THINGS_TO_DO.  The
URGENT folder contained messages about things I had to do that day, while
THINGS_TO_DO were messages about things that needed to be done within the
next couple of weeks.  As I completed each task I'd file the corresponding
message(s) into a project folder.

				-- Bob

    One thing you should do is to get IS to enable you to be able to delete
    messages without first having to read them. Then most of the easily
    identified 'junk mail ' messages can be deleted. (As far as I'm aware,
    all the All-in-1 systems can have this facility - it just needs someone
    in IS to individually set each users 'flag' setting to do this)

    If the base noter is talking about VAXmail (as opposed to ALL-IN-1
    mail) then messages can be deleted without first being read.
    
    MAIL> directory
    
    MAIL> delete <number or note range>

    MAIL> del/al
    

    What do you have against Al?
    
    					andrew

    I realize that this is late (and slightly off target), but I definately
    prefer to receive Email versus voice mail; especially voice mail that
    drags on for the maximum time allotted.  
    
    -- Dave
    
    P.S.  I really liked Bob's suggestion about the month training folders,
    I'm going to have to try that one out.

    Browsing some of the old postings, I ran into this topic and was
    reminded of why I got to work late this morning:  I took an extra
    half-hour dispatching about 60 messages in my home email box, getting
    the backlog down to about 50 for the first time in weeks.  (I already
    use a number of the tricks discussed here, such as having separate
    email addresses for mailing lists, and a private one for home vs. work,
    and folders for different things, but it still stays out of hand most
    of the time.)
    
    A trick I think I'll start using for inquiries of the type "Regarding
    the XYZ software package, can you answer ...?" is to send off a
    5-second reply saying "I'm sorry I've been so busy lately but I wanted
    to acknowledge your request.  It may be a while before I can get to it
    so please send your request again in a week if I haven't replied by
    then."  Or something like that; so many of the mail messages I get are
    questions like that which are hard to answer so I wind up putting them
    off for extended periods.  Yet I'd like to respond to them all; it
    makes me feel guilty ignoring them.
    
    The bottom line is this:  putting your email address into the hands of
    a larger number of people creates more work.  There is no magic way to
    reduce this workload; all you can do is (a) spend less time on each
    message, reducing the quality of your responses; (b) reduce the
    number of people who send you messages; or (c) find an assistant, human
    or electronic, to help you manage the workload.  (The easiest way to
    produce a quality response to an inquiry is to pass the buck:  "Jack,
    can you answer this one?  Thanks."  But only if Jack is known to
    reliably handle these.)
    
    -rich
    Mass Storage Engineering OEM D&SG  SHR3-1/W7     DTN:  237-2124
    braun@leds.enet.dec.com                            508-841-2124

    Here in BPDAG, we've adopted a standardization to help with the pile
    of e-mail we receive every day.
    
    Mail sent to out BPDAG.DIS list should have one of the following iden-
    tifying prefixes in the subject line :
    
    	(U):  urgent
    	(A):  action
    	(I):  information
    	(?):  general question
    
    During the typical week, my README folder (where I stick things that
    I want to read, sooner or later, but not now) collects about 100 of the
    latter two types.  Meanwhile, my NEWMAIL folder abnd new mail count stay
    tidy.
    
    I read the first two types ASAP.
    
    This is very convenient, and came into place with our new cost center
    manager when we reorganized last month.  I'm surprised that not every-
    one has adopted something like this.

Re: .11

That's a reasonable system, Mike, but I can usually figure out whether a
message is urgent or informational just by glancing at the the first
screen of the message.  You could create folders named URGENT, ACTION,
INFORMATION etc and accomplish pretty much the same thing as having the
subject line marked.  The INFORMATION folder might be for messages which
you haven't read yet, while URGENT and ACTION might be for assignments
which you haven't completed yet.  When a message was acted on it would be
filed in another folder.

				-- Bob

.12> That's a reasonable system, Mike, but I can usually figure out whether a
.12> message is urgent or informational just by glancing at the the first
.12> screen of the message.
    
    The beauty of the system we now use is that I can run a batch job
    every morning at 7am to automatically file (I) and (?) mail messages
    before I even get into work.
    
    If I had to read the first screen to tell urgency, I might as well read
    the whole thing.  The longest single action for me is to infer context
    and meaning to the mail, once I've done that, subsequent screens are
    pretty fast to scan for key items.

    is office filter such a hidden tool that nobody knows of it? I run
    office filter hourly and it preprocesses my mail for me. I have two 
    main rules: anything sent to project specific distribution lists gets
    filed in a read it now folder. Second, if the mail was sent to a
    distribution list and not to me directly it gets placed into a junk mail
    folder. You'd be amazed at how much 2 simple rules will reduce the
    junk. 
    
    And occaisionally I just do a del/al on the junk mail folder.
    
    Dj

    Dj,
      I had this set up on my system once upon a time, but it never worked
    right and I was still getting everything directly - Do you have a copy
    of the program that you could mail me and help me put in place?  I
    believe the one I have is suspect - but you're right, in theory at
    least, it's a *great* tool!
    
    
    bright blessings,
    -HA