Professional Development Forum

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

@Brianne Haxton - I've never thought of "professional hacks" as a thing but I love it.  I've never been one to schedule blocks of time to respond to email on my calendar, but I like this thought process behind it:


It's like a meeting, in that way. You can say, "I've only got 30 more mins with my email, so I have to really focus on this for that time." I may give this a whirl next week!
​
One email related thing that's been a game changer for me: I turned off the notification that popped up in my lower right screen to alert me to a new email. I still have the small envelope notification on my taskbar icon, but it's not something that pulls my distraction the same way the alert did. I gained so much time back in my day by not constantly switching my focus.

------------------------------
Stay awesome,
Quinn
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

Email is SO tricky! My personality is such that I can't turn off the notifications. Good for you @Quinn Drew and @Maria Mooshil for being able to do this - you'll have to coach me so someday I'll get there. Here's my approach to email:

- I do spend 30 minutes in the morning checking my email prior to whenever my first meeting is scheduled. This helps me get updates and set my mindset about the work that I need to accomplish that day and make any necessary adjustments.
- As the day goes on I'm typically in a bunch of meetings. Some meetings I am facilitating so I'm unable to look at my email. I've gotten very good at quickly scanning my email to identify and flag which items I'll need to address as soon as I have a minute and which emails can wait. I rely heavily on the flagging and tagging options to keep my emails separated by project/topic in Outlook.
-  The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks.
- Finally, I do really like setting a timed goal of reading emails. This happens naturally due to the small open blocks in my schedule, but it really does help to have that focused time. It's like a game. How many emails can I respond to with this 10 minutes I have. Try it out!

My bad habit is that even after I read emails I tend to file them away instead of taking it to the next level to ask if I really need to save it or not. Luckily I have plenty of storage space, but this does significantly extend my spring and winter cleaning of my Outlook folders. I need to work on this. If you have any tips or tricks for email storage/sorting - please share them!​​​

------------------------------
Alison Randall
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 16:17
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

@Alison Randall, if I can appeal ​to your environmentalist side, there is an impact on the environment from saving loads of email. It takes electricity and I-don't-know-what-all to store email at data centers. I've heard recommendations to specifically delete email with attachments, since they take up more storage space (and energy).

Now, I'm not saying I'm great about deleting email, but this is definitely a motivator for me!

------------------------------
Maria Liccardo
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 09:55
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

Email is SO tricky! My personality is such that I can't turn off the notifications. Good for you @Quinn Drew and @Maria Mooshil for being able to do this - you'll have to coach me so someday I'll get there. Here's my approach to email:

- I do spend 30 minutes in the morning checking my email prior to whenever my first meeting is scheduled. This helps me get updates and set my mindset about the work that I need to accomplish that day and make any necessary adjustments.
- As the day goes on I'm typically in a bunch of meetings. Some meetings I am facilitating so I'm unable to look at my email. I've gotten very good at quickly scanning my email to identify and flag which items I'll need to address as soon as I have a minute and which emails can wait. I rely heavily on the flagging and tagging options to keep my emails separated by project/topic in Outlook.
-  The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks.
- Finally, I do really like setting a timed goal of reading emails. This happens naturally due to the small open blocks in my schedule, but it really does help to have that focused time. It's like a game. How many emails can I respond to with this 10 minutes I have. Try it out!

My bad habit is that even after I read emails I tend to file them away instead of taking it to the next level to ask if I really need to save it or not. Luckily I have plenty of storage space, but this does significantly extend my spring and winter cleaning of my Outlook folders. I need to work on this. If you have any tips or tricks for email storage/sorting - please share them!​​​

------------------------------
Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 16:17
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

@Maria Liccardo I didn't know that about email! Like, @Alison Randall, I'm a filer - not a deleter.

Alison, I know a guy who hated opening his mail - like, real, actual mail sent to his mailbox. He'd let it stack up for months at a time and inevitably would miss things. Eventually he made a game out of it: he made a standing date with his roommate every couple of weeks to make a couple of cocktails and open their mail. He called it something funny, but now I can't recall it.

While I don't think we can do this exactly the same (for multiple reasons, haha), I'd totally be down to have a monthly meeting (even if it's just a meeting invite on both of our calendars) where we both take an hour to clean up our inboxes. What do you think? ​​

------------------------------
Stay awesome,
Quinn
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 10:39
From: Maria Liccardo
Subject: Professional hacks

@Alison Randall, if I can appeal ​to your environmentalist side, there is an impact on the environment from saving loads of email. It takes electricity and I-don't-know-what-all to store email at data centers. I've heard recommendations to specifically delete email with attachments, since they take up more storage space (and energy).

Now, I'm not saying I'm great about deleting email, but this is definitely a motivator for me!

------------------------------
Maria Liccardo

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 09:55
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

Email is SO tricky! My personality is such that I can't turn off the notifications. Good for you @Quinn Drew and @Maria Mooshil for being able to do this - you'll have to coach me so someday I'll get there. Here's my approach to email:

- I do spend 30 minutes in the morning checking my email prior to whenever my first meeting is scheduled. This helps me get updates and set my mindset about the work that I need to accomplish that day and make any necessary adjustments.
- As the day goes on I'm typically in a bunch of meetings. Some meetings I am facilitating so I'm unable to look at my email. I've gotten very good at quickly scanning my email to identify and flag which items I'll need to address as soon as I have a minute and which emails can wait. I rely heavily on the flagging and tagging options to keep my emails separated by project/topic in Outlook.
-  The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks.
- Finally, I do really like setting a timed goal of reading emails. This happens naturally due to the small open blocks in my schedule, but it really does help to have that focused time. It's like a game. How many emails can I respond to with this 10 minutes I have. Try it out!

My bad habit is that even after I read emails I tend to file them away instead of taking it to the next level to ask if I really need to save it or not. Luckily I have plenty of storage space, but this does significantly extend my spring and winter cleaning of my Outlook folders. I need to work on this. If you have any tips or tricks for email storage/sorting - please share them!​​​

------------------------------
Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 16:17
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

@Alison Randall  "The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks."

That is GOLD and something I never thought of doing. But I will now! Thanks for sharing your tips. 
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 09:55
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

Email is SO tricky! My personality is such that I can't turn off the notifications. Good for you @Quinn Drew and @Maria Mooshil for being able to do this - you'll have to coach me so someday I'll get there. Here's my approach to email:

- I do spend 30 minutes in the morning checking my email prior to whenever my first meeting is scheduled. This helps me get updates and set my mindset about the work that I need to accomplish that day and make any necessary adjustments.
- As the day goes on I'm typically in a bunch of meetings. Some meetings I am facilitating so I'm unable to look at my email. I've gotten very good at quickly scanning my email to identify and flag which items I'll need to address as soon as I have a minute and which emails can wait. I rely heavily on the flagging and tagging options to keep my emails separated by project/topic in Outlook.
-  The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks.
- Finally, I do really like setting a timed goal of reading emails. This happens naturally due to the small open blocks in my schedule, but it really does help to have that focused time. It's like a game. How many emails can I respond to with this 10 minutes I have. Try it out!

My bad habit is that even after I read emails I tend to file them away instead of taking it to the next level to ask if I really need to save it or not. Luckily I have plenty of storage space, but this does significantly extend my spring and winter cleaning of my Outlook folders. I need to work on this. If you have any tips or tricks for email storage/sorting - please share them!​​​

------------------------------
Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 16:17
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

@Quinn Drew thanks for giving me a new descriptor "filer". Ha! I definitely do this, but @Maria Liccardo your environmental note is compelling. I had not considered the server storage impact and have been thinking about every email I go to file this week to ask myself if I can delete it to save space. Thank you for that insight! It's slowly but surely working.

Also, totally down for blocking calendar time for email organizing/deleting!

Ironically, I love physical mail. I go through it immediately and am legitimately sad on days when the mailbox is empty.​ (Probably because the volume is much more manageable)​

------------------------------
Alison Randall
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 10:41
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

@Alison Randall  "The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks."

That is GOLD and something I never thought of doing. But I will now! Thanks for sharing your tips. 
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 09:55
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

Email is SO tricky! My personality is such that I can't turn off the notifications. Good for you @Quinn Drew and @Maria Mooshil for being able to do this - you'll have to coach me so someday I'll get there. Here's my approach to email:

- I do spend 30 minutes in the morning checking my email prior to whenever my first meeting is scheduled. This helps me get updates and set my mindset about the work that I need to accomplish that day and make any necessary adjustments.
- As the day goes on I'm typically in a bunch of meetings. Some meetings I am facilitating so I'm unable to look at my email. I've gotten very good at quickly scanning my email to identify and flag which items I'll need to address as soon as I have a minute and which emails can wait. I rely heavily on the flagging and tagging options to keep my emails separated by project/topic in Outlook.
-  The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks.
- Finally, I do really like setting a timed goal of reading emails. This happens naturally due to the small open blocks in my schedule, but it really does help to have that focused time. It's like a game. How many emails can I respond to with this 10 minutes I have. Try it out!

My bad habit is that even after I read emails I tend to file them away instead of taking it to the next level to ask if I really need to save it or not. Luckily I have plenty of storage space, but this does significantly extend my spring and winter cleaning of my Outlook folders. I need to work on this. If you have any tips or tricks for email storage/sorting - please share them!​​​

------------------------------
Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 16:17
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------

I am late to the professional hacks party, but I wanted to add that I am HUGE fan of extensions in chrome (or whatever browser you may use).   Some of my personal favorites are Morning Espresso, which loads all the tabs I need every day to get my job done, Cookie Auto Delete, Zoom Scheduler, Clip Binder, Calendly Extension  -- I use several -- anything that can cut minutes or seconds out of my day I am all for!  I am all about a work smarter not harder attitude!  If you are not one who has played around with extensions before I highly recommend.  There are also a ton of fun ones! A favorite fun one, as a cat lover, is called Tabby Cat -- every time I open a new browser tab, I get a silly and fun cat photo :)

------------------------------
Mandi Ginn-Franz
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 03-14-2022 11:51
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

@Quinn Drew thanks for giving me a new descriptor "filer". Ha! I definitely do this, but @Maria Liccardo your environmental note is compelling. I had not considered the server storage impact and have been thinking about every email I go to file this week to ask myself if I can delete it to save space. Thank you for that insight! It's slowly but surely working.

Also, totally down for blocking calendar time for email organizing/deleting!

Ironically, I love physical mail. I go through it immediately and am legitimately sad on days when the mailbox is empty.​ (Probably because the volume is much more manageable)​

------------------------------
Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 10:41
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

@Alison Randall  "The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks."

That is GOLD and something I never thought of doing. But I will now! Thanks for sharing your tips. 
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 09:55
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

Email is SO tricky! My personality is such that I can't turn off the notifications. Good for you @Quinn Drew and @Maria Mooshil for being able to do this - you'll have to coach me so someday I'll get there. Here's my approach to email:

- I do spend 30 minutes in the morning checking my email prior to whenever my first meeting is scheduled. This helps me get updates and set my mindset about the work that I need to accomplish that day and make any necessary adjustments.
- As the day goes on I'm typically in a bunch of meetings. Some meetings I am facilitating so I'm unable to look at my email. I've gotten very good at quickly scanning my email to identify and flag which items I'll need to address as soon as I have a minute and which emails can wait. I rely heavily on the flagging and tagging options to keep my emails separated by project/topic in Outlook.
-  The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks.
- Finally, I do really like setting a timed goal of reading emails. This happens naturally due to the small open blocks in my schedule, but it really does help to have that focused time. It's like a game. How many emails can I respond to with this 10 minutes I have. Try it out!

My bad habit is that even after I read emails I tend to file them away instead of taking it to the next level to ask if I really need to save it or not. Luckily I have plenty of storage space, but this does significantly extend my spring and winter cleaning of my Outlook folders. I need to work on this. If you have any tips or tricks for email storage/sorting - please share them!​​​

------------------------------
Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 16:17
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

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Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

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-Brianne
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Thank you for sharing this. Very interesting. Some of this I didn't know. I've always kind of thought extensions were bad. But see here you show how they are helpful. I'd love to learn.m about this more.

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Delon Delafosse
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-16-2022 08:59
From: Mandi Ginn-Franz
Subject: Professional hacks

I am late to the professional hacks party, but I wanted to add that I am HUGE fan of extensions in chrome (or whatever browser you may use).   Some of my personal favorites are Morning Espresso, which loads all the tabs I need every day to get my job done, Cookie Auto Delete, Zoom Scheduler, Clip Binder, Calendly Extension  -- I use several -- anything that can cut minutes or seconds out of my day I am all for!  I am all about a work smarter not harder attitude!  If you are not one who has played around with extensions before I highly recommend.  There are also a ton of fun ones! A favorite fun one, as a cat lover, is called Tabby Cat -- every time I open a new browser tab, I get a silly and fun cat photo :)

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Mandi Ginn-Franz

Original Message:
Sent: 03-14-2022 11:51
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

@Quinn Drew thanks for giving me a new descriptor "filer". Ha! I definitely do this, but @Maria Liccardo your environmental note is compelling. I had not considered the server storage impact and have been thinking about every email I go to file this week to ask myself if I can delete it to save space. Thank you for that insight! It's slowly but surely working.

Also, totally down for blocking calendar time for email organizing/deleting!

Ironically, I love physical mail. I go through it immediately and am legitimately sad on days when the mailbox is empty.​ (Probably because the volume is much more manageable)​

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Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 10:41
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

@Alison Randall  "The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks."

That is GOLD and something I never thought of doing. But I will now! Thanks for sharing your tips. 
​

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Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-10-2022 09:55
From: Alison Randall
Subject: Professional hacks

Email is SO tricky! My personality is such that I can't turn off the notifications. Good for you @Quinn Drew and @Maria Mooshil for being able to do this - you'll have to coach me so someday I'll get there. Here's my approach to email:

- I do spend 30 minutes in the morning checking my email prior to whenever my first meeting is scheduled. This helps me get updates and set my mindset about the work that I need to accomplish that day and make any necessary adjustments.
- As the day goes on I'm typically in a bunch of meetings. Some meetings I am facilitating so I'm unable to look at my email. I've gotten very good at quickly scanning my email to identify and flag which items I'll need to address as soon as I have a minute and which emails can wait. I rely heavily on the flagging and tagging options to keep my emails separated by project/topic in Outlook.
-  The other trick I have is that often I will be copied on email conversations and I will wait to respond and read the emails until the majority of the conversation has taken place. BAM! Just saved myself time reading through 3-5 emails and I can just read the one email that has the long chain so I absorb all of the conversation at one time instead of in chunks.
- Finally, I do really like setting a timed goal of reading emails. This happens naturally due to the small open blocks in my schedule, but it really does help to have that focused time. It's like a game. How many emails can I respond to with this 10 minutes I have. Try it out!

My bad habit is that even after I read emails I tend to file them away instead of taking it to the next level to ask if I really need to save it or not. Luckily I have plenty of storage space, but this does significantly extend my spring and winter cleaning of my Outlook folders. I need to work on this. If you have any tips or tricks for email storage/sorting - please share them!​​​

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Alison Randall

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 16:17
From: Maria Mooshil
Subject: Professional hacks

This is a timely post for me, @Brianne Haxton. Over the past week, I've been thinking hard about my email habits. I come from the news industry, where answering emails quickly is important. And though I'm no longer in that field, I'm still pretty instantaneous with emails. Let me tell you, this is a VERY BAD THING! LOL! Not only does it distract me from my work at hand, but I see how it pressures the original email sender to respond to *my* response, which is never my intention. 

I'll never be someone who schedules a set time to look at my emails; if I see one, I open it! However, like @Quinn Drew I have removed screen alerts and just have the little envelope on the taskbar icon.  And I'm working on being more patient after I open an email. So I'll almost always read an email right away, but I'm trying not to respond so quickly. Instead I'm flagging them so I can come back and consider them -- and my responses -- a little more carefully.  For me, it all comes down to patience, slowing down, and not obsessing over unopened emails. Those are the things I really need to work on!  
​

------------------------------
Maria Mooshil

Original Message:
Sent: 03-03-2022 11:36
From: Brianne Haxton
Subject: Professional hacks

Reading the Open Forum post about Life Hacks made me think of a tip I read recently that you shouldn't check email first thing in the morning. As someone who spends much of their working day in meetings, my inbox tends to get pretty full. I find that most mornings, I grab my coffee, log in, and head straight to my inbox. 

I wanted to learn a little bit more about this idea of not checking your inbox first thing, and I found this article that addresses it. It gave some solid reasoning for avoiding emails first thing (lest you get sucked into the great email vortex!) and good alternatives for reviewing your inbox-- while on your public transit commute, later in your morning, during a scheduled break in your day, etc. 

Does anyone do any of these things regularly? I'm curious how it works for you.

------------------------------
-Brianne
------------------------------