Prevent Pollution :: essays research papers

All time-management courses boil down to one basic piece of advice set priorities and portion out the bulk of your time to tasks that are crucial to meeting your goals. Minimize interruptions and spend big chunks of your time in productive and creative activity. Unfortunately, current information systems embolden the opposite approach, leading to an interrupt-driven workday and reduced productivity. Here are six steps to regaining control of your day Dont check your email all the time. readiness aside special breaks between bigger projects to handle email. Dont let email interrupt your projects, and dont let the computer dictate your priorities. Turn off your email programs " jab" feature (the annoying bell or screen flash that notifies you every time an email message arrives). If youre using Microsoft Outlook, go to Tools > Options > Preferences > E-mail Options and uncheck "Display a notification message when new mail arrives." Dont use "reply to all&q uot when responding to email. Abide by the good old "need to know" principle thats so beloved by the military and send follow-up messages only to those people who will actually benefit from the reply. Write informative subject lines for your email messages. walk out that the recipient is too busy to open messages with lame titles like "hi." Create a special email address for personal messages and news programletters. Only check this placard once per day. (If youre geekly enough to master filtering, use filters to sort and prioritize your email. Unfortunately, this is currently too difficult for average users.) Write short. J. K. Rowling is not a good mathematical function model for email writers. Avoid IM (instant messaging) unless real-time interaction will truly add value to the communication. A one-minute interruption of your colleagues will cost them ten proceeding of productivity as they reestablish their mental context and get back into "flow." Only the most important messages are worth 1,000 percent in smash costs. What Companies Can DoAt the corporate level, we need to implement four more steps Answer common customer questions on your website using die and concise language. This will save your customers a lot of time -- thus making you popular -- and will keep them from pestering you with time-consuming phone calls and emails. substance abuser test your intranet. Clean it up so that employees can find stuff faster, and make the intranet homepage their entry point for keeping up on company news and events.