Using Verizon’s backup software, I was able to print out all of the phone numbers from my old phone. I did a quick pass though and circled all the contact numbers I thought I wanted to keep. I then went through my gmail contacts and deleted contacts I no longer needed. I then added my phone numbers to my google contacts, adding to existing contacts when available, and creating new contacts as needed. After that I found all the street addresses that I could, and added them to google contacts. Pretty soon I had a solid contact list in google contacts.

At the time, I used Nueva Sync to sync my google contacts to my iPhone. Nueva Sync is an over the air sync tool. After a few minutes, All my google contacts were on my iPhone! Awesome. After having had this setup for a year and a half, I can’t understand how i survived with such a disorganized contact system. I guess, as with with a lot of things, you don’t realize how bad things are until you change it.

I realize that not everyone has the same set up as I do, and that’s okay. However, I strongly encourage you to consider what options you do have. If you are on pen and paper, make sure you have one address book with all contact info. If possible, I highly recommend electronic systems that sync between a mobile phone or PDA and some service on the internet. With contacts in a mobile device as well as on the internet, you will pretty much always have your info available. And you don’t lose all your numbers if you lose your phone.

If you use gmail, you already have an electronic address book in Google contacts. Google sync sysns with several mobile devices. Soocial is also an address book/ syncing option. And there are others, just a google search away – check them out.

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First, I want to say that most people get too much email. You should look at the emails you are getting and see what you can cut out. Any automated emails that you don’t read anymore (or never did read) should be unsubscribed from. If you are reading blogs, I will recommend subscribing to an RSS feed instead of email updates. Bulk emails that you do read, but are not urgent, could have some kind of rule that moves them to a different folder (more on that later). From here forward try not to sign up for emails that you don’t care about, and unsubscribe immediately when something is no longer useful.

Now that you have cut down on the volume of stuff that is coming into your email, I am going to outline a process to handle the emails that do hit your inbox. I am going to reference names like David Allen, Michael Hyatt, and Merlin Mann. The concepts I am going to share with you, I learned from them.

I am also going to say crazy stuff, or at least things you disagree with. All I ask is that you hear me out. I am going to explain the thinking behind these things. Just read to the end.

First crazy thing: Most people check their email far too frequently. Outlook will pop up notifications in near real time (same with google if you download some software). Ask yourself how often you need to check these emails. The answer will be different for everyone. Michael Hyatt disconnects outlook from the mail server, and only downloads new emails 3 times a day. As the CEO of his company, he can dictate that. I can’t, and you probably can’t either. But most of the time you can check it less often than you do. I have my outlook client set to download every 30 minutes. That is about as late as I can get because I sometimes get email notifications about server issues. Just think about it.

If you are like I was, you left pretty much every email in your inbox forever. I did this because I needed to keep some emails for reference. Others I kept as reminders to do things, and still others I needed to think about. I was using it as a storage area, a calendar, and a to-do list. This quickly became overwhelming. Second crazy thing: an email inbox is not a storage area, a calendar, nor a to-do list. Do you leave your electric bill in the mail box to remind you to pay it? Or file letters from your family in the mailbox? No. That is not what a mailbox is for. Well, that is not what an email inbox is for either. An email inbox is a place for emails that you have not read yet. We are going to call these “unprocessed emails.”

As you can guess, dealing with your “unprocessed emails” is called “processing your inbox”. Third crazy thing: there is only a limited number of options on how to deal with each email. There is a systematic approach you can take to figure out how to deal with an email. I will give you a decision tree you can follow, but before I do that I want to go over the different options.

Trash – There is nothing of value in this email. Example: email that the coffee machine is broken when you don’t drink coffee.

Informational– The email contains information. Example: New dress code policy

Actionable – This email contains an action that needs to be done (by you or someone else). Example: You boss emails you and tells you to do something.

That’s it! Those are the “things” an email can be.

Now it is time to process you inbox. Here is how you do it. Start at the bottom and read each email. Use the this advice to help you decide what to do with each email:

1) If it is actionable by you and the action can be completed in less than two minutes, do it immediately. After doing the action, you should need the email anymore, so delete it. Go to next email.
2) If it is actionable by you but will take longer than two minutes, you need to defer it. If you know exactly when you need to do the action, put it on a calendar. If you don’t, then put it on some sort of to-do list. Depending on you unique set up, you may be able to delete the email at this point. If not, don’t leave the amil in your inbox! Create a folder called @calendar or @todo or something. Move the email there. Remember to delete the email when the action is done. Go to the next email
3) If is actionable, but not by you, you need to delegate this. This includes items you delegate to people you supervise, as well as things that you send to your manager when it is above you pay grade, as well as the things you might send a peer because it is something outside your sphere of responsibility as well as things where someone else has to do something before you can do your part. In some cases you will need to follow up. Create a folder named @followup or @waiting for or @pending (whatever) and move the email to that location. Delete the email when appropriate. Go to the next email.
4) If it is not actionable, but it contains info you need to keep, then move the email to a reference area. I move permanent records to a folder named @records, and I mix temporary records with follow-up items in @followup. Whatever works for you. Some people print the email and put it in a file folder. Just get it out of you inbox.
5) If the email is not actionable, but contains information that might later lead to an action, put it in a @someday/maybe folder. Go to the next email.
6) Trash! There is nothing of value in this email. Delete it and move on.

Sometimes emails can belong to more than one category at the same time. An email from your boss might contain reference material as well as an action. Handle it accordingly.

An email might become trash after being part of a different category. Just delete it when appropriate.

Feel free to name the folders somethings else if you prefer, and tweak the process if needed.

Don’t forget to regularly process the other folders that you create!

Here is a shorter version of the decisions:

Actionable, 2 minutes – do it.
Actionable, longer than 2 minutes – defer it (@calendar/todo list)
Actionable, someone else – delegate it (@waitingfor)
Informational, got the info – delete it
Informational, temporary – appropriate folder (project or @waitingfor)
Informational, permanent – keep it (@records)
Otherwise – delete

I hope this helped.

Here are the articles I promised:

by Michael Hyatt-
Yes you can stay on top of email.
Overcoming email overload, part 1.
Overcoming email overload, part 2.
Overcoming email overload, part 3.

by Merlin Mann-
Inbox Zero Article.
Video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero Talk at Google.

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Now, I don’t really care if someone like the iPhone or doesn’t. There is a lot to like, and several things to dislike. That’s fine. I was looking at win mobile phones, I am not an Apple fan boy. But I am getting annoyed with people saying something that flat out is not true. On my iPhone I can check my gmail account,my work email account, my google calendar,  and work calendar. I can surf the web (except flash websites).  I have todo list apps, note taking apps, games, contact managers. Heck, I can even write blog posts on the phone. If you don’t like the iPhone, cool. But it is a smart phone. It just is. Deal with it.

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Now, that might seem weird to some people. Personally, I appreciate friends helping me to be a better person. Also, I am a christian. This blog isn’t “about” Christianity, but I am not hiding it or anything. The person who made that comment happened to be christian as well, and was concerned about how angry I was in my statement. Which is what I wanted to talk about. I think it is great for people to tell you when you are off base, or being a jerk, or over the top. Many people see your communications on facebook – friends, family, co-workers, employers, and I want to make sure that I am putting my best face forward.

I also want to be genuine. Having a mobile device gives an opportunity to post things as they happen. Pretty cool, I think. But maybe there are some negatives. Walking out of Rite-Aid after bad service 20 years ago you might say to the person next to you that that was awful. Now you can say it to all of your online friends/followers/readers! Pretty cool, unless you say something stupid.

The same day a similar thing happened to my cousin. She updated facebook that it sucks when people come into the bank 3 minutes before closing and have really complicated transactions that cause her to after work later than she otherwise would have. Someone commented that is was horrible for my cousin to complain about having a job when the commenter wished she had a job, etc, etc. I think that my cousin was in a similar situation to mine. We said something, someone else took it badly, and reacted wrongly.

Note that I am not saying that someone saying something you posted was bad is always wrong. I am saying that you need to be careful when doing that. The fact that in both cases the commenter deleted their comments communicates to me some kind of regret in what they said.

In my cousin’s case I think the person commented when they were already in an emotional state. I don’t know them, maybe they just got laid off. Maybe they were feeling extra discouraged at that time. But they went off on a crazy rant, and I am pretty sure they regretted it.

In my case, I think the person commented without thinking it through. I found out later from a private message that this person had an issue with the word screw. Or scr*w as they wrote it in the message. I guess they consider it a curse word and it showed that I was under extreme anger. Obviously I didn’t think so. Anyone who knows me or reads my writing knows that I am not big on using curse words, or even medium. But this did remind me that different people have different interpretations of what a curse word is. Some people have issues with the word crap. Or cr*p, if I want to be extra careful.

If the commenter had taken the time to talk to me before making a public comment they would have found out more of the story. Maybe the amount of anger I had was justified for what I experienced. Maybe the didn’t understand the actual amount of anger I had. I think it would be a good idea for people to think about what they are saying, before saying it. Examine your motives. Get the whole story before speaking into a situation. In both cases a little thought and meditation before commenting would have gone a long way.

I didn’t write this to call out or embarrass those commenter. I just thought that there were a lot of missteps. These events happened a few months ago. I am not trying to dredge up the past or hold grudges, I am trying to take my own advice of thinking before speaking.

I did learn from this experience though. I need to be careful what I write, because there are people out there just looking for a reason to criticize you. Maybe out of attempts to help, or maybe they are just negative people. BUt someone is always willing to step up and complain.

In any case, if you don’t like my facebook, twitter, friendfeed, blog, or whatever posts, you don’t have to read them.

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