Comments on: This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Reclaim Your Inbox

By: Post Ideas « Nicole Helregel

Post Ideas « Nicole Helregel — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:45:11 +0000

[...] Email http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2012/reclaim-your-inbox/ [...]

By: Lindsay Sarin

Lindsay Sarin — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:22:07 +0000

*New Tool!*

Baydin has created an add-on for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, that allows you to “boomerang” your messages from within the regular gmail inbox page. http://www.boomeranggmail.com/

By: Ellie

Ellie — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:47:21 +0000

Interesting. I do go to someone’s office if email has proven to be a poor way to communicate with them, usually either due to tone issues or complexity of the topic. But overall I find someone stopping into my office to be much more disruptive to my workflow than an email.

And for me, it’s much harder to retain information from a face to face interaction as opposed to being able to go back to something in writing.

We actually have a standard line in my family if we’re talking on the phone and ask the other person to do something, “Send me an email or I won’t remember.”

By: Ellie

Ellie — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:29:40 +0000

I was fascinated reading through drafts of this piece about the expectations in the authors’ work environments. I’ve worked in 4 different libraries: 1 university, 2 community colleges, and 1 small liberal arts college, and none of them have had those types of expectations or behaviors for immediate responses to emails. I was in fact chastised for responding too quickly at one of them. Immediate replies implied you didn’t have enough work to do or hadn’t been thoughtful enough in your reply – expectations were more like within a few days there. I wonder what factors play into creating that type of environment.

By: Facebook Messages: Where Things Go To Die « Library Scenester

Facebook Messages: Where Things Go To Die « Library Scenester — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 14:43:29 +0000

[...] have a co-authored article up over at In the Library with the Lead Pipe about email management. We would love to hear more about your experience with email and your [...]

By: Emily Ford

Emily Ford — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 01:02:18 +0000

I recently started using a method recommended to me by a friend called The Secret Weapon. It's a combo between zero inbox and using Evernote as a tool for task management. I love it. instead of using a convoluted system of colored stars (blue for collection development, yellow for deal with now, green for cool articles to read sent to me by colleagues) and Gmails Priority Inbox, The Secret Weapon works. Also, it's on every darn device I have!

By: Lindsay Sarin

Lindsay Sarin — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:49:54 +0000

Hear hear John! You make an important point that it’s important that we set your own rules and try to control the flow of emails that you send (lead by example). I’ve become a bit of the weirdo around the office, because I actually go to someone’s office to speak with them instead of sending an email.

Hopefully, you’ll get a chance to set-up some sort of email training formal or otherwise (and if you do please let us know how that goes).

By: John Jackson

John Jackson — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:41:29 +0000

“Clearer communication about communication” is a key point and one that (ironically enough) came up during a customer service training class I was helping to teach this morning for library staff at MPOW. There was general consent that some sort of “email training” would be beneficial for everyone: not just tips and tricks, but outlining expectations.

I once heard (from a Merlin Man podcast) that every email is like a tiny pebble and those pebbles pile up over the course of a day. Anytime we email a colleague, we have to be mindful of the fact that that person may have a pile full of pebbles on their desk so our request, however small, is only one of what may be a mountain of rocks.

The biggest problem with email, IMO, is that no matter how good my filters are, I can’t control the inflow in the same way that I can step away from my desk or refuse to pick up the phone if I’m trying to focus on a task. The pile of tiny pebbles will reach me eventually.

I’ll admit that I once saw Google Wave (may it rest in peace) as a savior from email and I’m still sad that it didn’t succeed in changing the way we communicate in organizations (comment-like email formatting; inline doc collaboration; built-in IM). Chat and social media is beginning to help us rethink communication, but slowly (especially so in libraries). Like you said, it’s here to stay… much to my dismay.

Until something better comes along, you’re more likely to see me calling a colleague than sending an email, if I can avoid it. :)

By: Erin Dorney

Erin Dorney — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:13:46 +0000

Hi Gretel. Forwarding listserv messages to a separate folder is a great strategy. Thanks for sharing that tip ::going to set that up now:: :)

By: Gretel Stock-Kupperman

Gretel Stock-Kupperman — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:36:21 +0000

Great article! I live by the GTD (Getting Things Done) philosophy of “Do, Delegate or Defer.” Along with striving for inbox zero, I either Do (complete the task if it takes less than two minutes), Delegate (send it to someone who needs to handle it) or Defer. Defer in my case means attaching a time-based outlook task on the email so that it hits my electronic to-do list.

This strategy is critical for me in handling the stress of every day email. Oh, and I auto-forward listserv emails to a separate folder, which I can read at my leisure without having to see it in my inbox. VERY helpful.