Want to boost productivity and morale? Save time and improve relationships?

Stop sending emails.

How did we ever survive without it? A real time saver. For some things. For others – a real time zapper.

Just imagine….or maybe you don’t even have to imagine…it happens to many people every day. You have a question for your colleague, Jim. You type an email. Worried the tone is wrong, you re-do it. Then spell check it.

Jim gets it. Not sure how to respond, he saves for later when he has time to think.

As the day continues, you send him five more e-mails – requests, questions. answers to his e-mails.

By the end of the day – you’ve received five new ones from him – none of them answering yours.

You leave the office worried he misunderstood the tone of your first email, irritated at his lack of response.

Meanwhile, Jim is in his office staring at an in box of 100 emails having no idea when he will get to them.

Here’s a solution that has enabled many clients and colleagues to reduce this frustration. And those of you who know that I think most meetings should be postponed indefinitely, will be surprised that my solution to this issue is to have a meeting. A one-on-one meeting that you could have with Jim, daily or weekly, depending on the immediacy of most issues.

Reserve the time slot on your calendar, preferably for a face to face meeting. During this time, give each other your undivided attention – something for which most people are starving!

To the meeting you each bring a list of questions, requests, concerns, topics. And right there in real time – you handle it all – maybe even share a laugh or two.

I recommend you set meeting times like this with your boss, direct reports and any other person with whom you need regular communication.

It is a proven solution for saving time and building relationships. Using good old fashioned communication. You don’t even have to use spell check.

copyright 2008 – Jan Bolick, Business Class Inc
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P.S. Of course I don’t recommend you stop sending e-mail altogether. It can be a very productive tool.

In his book, Taming the E-Mail Beast, Randy Dean shares forty-five tips on how to make it the productive tool it was intended to be.

I recently had the opportunity to preview the book and interview him about it. And I’m thrilled to offer both book and interview with you here.

Click on this link to hear a 1-minute excerpt from interview with Randy Dean, author of Taming the E-Mail Beast. :   Business Class Interview with Randy Dean – E-Mail Sniff Test

To receive your free copy of the entire 45 minute audio interview, provide your name and email address* below. You’ll receive the link for the download via email shortly.

Be sure to order the book and get all 45 of Randy’s tips for managing email plus many, many bonus items by clicking here.

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