We like Priority Inbox, but think it misses the mark on several levels. We’ll show you there is a better way to managing Email. Many of the ideas in this guide are built on the work of David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero. Feel free to modify these ideas to your needs. 

 Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they’ve started.
-David Allen  

Clearly, the problem of email overload is taking a toll on all our time, productivity, and sanity, mainly because most of us lack a cohesive system for processing our messages and converting them into appropriate actions as quickly as possible.
-Merlin Mann  

1. Filter all newsletters, email subscriptions and automated notifications that are not time sensitive to a folder other than your Inbox.  This is basically the Priority Inbox feature, but customized according to your needs. A little work here goes a long way to improving your Inbox. 

• Create a Gmail label (or Outlook Folder) called Filtered.
• Build a filter so that these non-important emails are marked read, archived and labeled as Filtered based on sender, subject or some other unique identifier.
• Check your Filtered label no more than once a day or possibly weekly.

2. Choose when to check Email and process to Inbox Zero every time. 

• Turn off desktop notifications of new emails.
• Commit to checking Email only a few times a day, or once every hour.
• Close your Email client when focusing on a specific task. Multitasking is a myth.
• Apply these criteria to every email the first time you open it to maximize your productivity. Every email has one of these possible outcomes: Do it (if less than two minutes), Delegate it, Delete it, Defer it, Respond.

3. Use David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology to organize your Email. 

• Create labels that match your work contexts such as @Do, @Errands, @Home, @Phone (use the @ signs so that these custom labels sort neatly in your email).
• When emails arrive that require more than two minutes of time label them with the proper context. If the email action can be done anywhere label @Do, remove from Inbox and move to next email. Once the Inbox is empty start working on the items labeled @Do.
• Use other labels as you need. If you have errands to run mark them @Errands and then check that label from your phone to organize errands on the road.
• For extra priority you can create an @ASAP label. Use criteria such as sender to mark these with red @ASAP labels so they stand out.
• When you complete an item, simply remove the label and watch it disappear from your list.
• The key idea is to get everything into an actionable state with the proper context while minimizing the time necessary to forward the action.

4. Create custom Contacts to manage workflows (Gmail and Google Apps only)

• Every Gmail user has the ability to create on the fly email addresses. If your email is jon@company.com then you can email jon+do@company.com and the email will be delivered. Use the + and any word to create a unique email for any Gmail user.
• Create contacts in your address book that match your custom labels. For instance jon+errands@company.com would be a new Contact named Errands.
• Use filters so that any email sent to the Contact you created named “Errands” skips your Inbox, is marked read and is labeled “@Errands”.
• If you remember that you need to pick up your dry cleaning after work send an email to your contact “Errands”. The email will be sent to jon+errands@company.com and auto filtered to your @Errands label. When you get in your car to run errands check your “@Errands” label and process the list.

5. Putting it all together with the Gmail Multiple Inbox feature

• Enable Multiple Inbox in Gmail.
• Make each of your important filters it’s own separate Inbox.
• Enjoy being able to see your Inbox, @Do list and any other custom labels you create at a glance.

Priority Inbox attempts to automatically identify your important incoming messages and separates them out from everything else. Gmail uses a variety of signals to prioritize your incoming messages, including who you emailed most frequently and which messages you’ve recently opened as opposed to which messages you’ve deleted.

The goal is to enable users to spend more time with the emails that matter most. A welcome feature in today’s flooded Inbox.

Here’s a simple video explanation.

Google Wave was ahead of it’s time. We wrote about Wave and your business in October of 2009. Although Wave held a lot of promise, we had problems finding the right ways to use the capabilities of Wave.

But all is not lost on Google’s experiment with Wave. Many of Wave’s technologies, such as real time collaboration, have already made it into other Google products.

Kudos to Google for being ambitious. The fact they pulled Wave so quickly was a bit surprising but I’m sure they’ll put the lessons from Wave to good use.

We’ve run across a problem we can’t fix and it revolves around the way Google handles their products. Google is successful because so much of what they do is automated. For the most part this works great as Google excels at knowing what people need and fulfilling that need in a convenient and usable online format.

The problem is that even with Google’s technical capabilities some issues still require commonsense and a human touch. In our case several clients wrote glowing reviews of Network Velocity on Google Maps. That’s great and we really appreciate it, except the clients wrote the reviews under one of our competitors names. As a result this competitor is receiving the notoriety and benefit of our client’s goodwill.

When we approached Google to fix the issue we were told that the data (the reviews) belonged to the users. This meant Google could not alter the reviews according to their stated policy that users own their data.

We understand the policy. However, in our case it doesn’t make sense. The reviews mention our company explicitly by name but are credited to a competitor! Google holds fast in their refusal to correct the bad data.

We’re disappointed. Google is a great company but they must resist the temptation to be a faceless automaton. Use some commonsense!

Google experienced a backlash of a similar nature with the release of their Nexus One phone. Google completely skipped the fact that users may have issues and need to speak with a human being to find a resolution, initially offering only email support. Google lost the human touch and the result was a Public Relations disaster.

Google needs to stay human. Even though Google is great, no technology can replace humans.

Don’t believe me? Google it, or better yet, ask a human being and let me know what results you get.

Each upgrade represents a significant investment in licensing, migration time and user training.  To make matters worse, some software vendors require an upgrade by discontinuing support on products as soon as 24 months after release!

For those looking to break the cycle of software upgrades there is an option: a move towards Software as a Service (sometimes called Cloud computing). A prime example of Software as a Service is Google Apps. With any web browser Google Apps users have access to a suite of products that are very competitive to Microsoft Office. No installation, no security patches and more importantly, no upgrades!

In addition to controlled costs and easy scalability, one of the major benefits of Software as a Service is the ease of obtaining updates. In fact, new Google Apps features are rolled out almost daily, but there is zero impact on the user as upgrades are done on Google’s Servers. The next time a user logs in new features are available. It’s that simple. No upgrades, no overtime, no risk of losing data. Since the changes are done on a regular basis vs a completely new interface every few years no user retraining!

Given the prospect of staying on the software upgrade cycle and considering a move towards Google Apps what makes sense for your business? If you are struggling with this question, or other ways to effectively manage your technology, we encourage you to contact us at 858-270-3595 x 1 to learn more.

My current filters automatically divert ~20 messages per day to a folder I scan once or twice a week. While I do want to receive these emails, they are mostly automated informational emails that do not require action on my part. With automatic filters routing these emails to a special folder I can check these messages on my schedule, not the senders. I regain control of my email and my time. It’s a refreshing change!

Some highlights from their post:

• Important decision. 15 proposals were submitted. The top four candidates gave oral presentations to city officials. The City Council unanimously chose Google Apps.
  
• Improved collaboration. Much of the city’s work requires multiple people – even multiple departments – to work together. With instant messaging, video conferencing, and simultaneous review and editing of documents by multiple people, employees will have better tools to work together on projects.
  
• Easier remote access. In a fast-paced city government, people often need access to work information when they’re not at work. With Google, employees will be able to access their information from any computer with an internet connection, as well as from their mobile phones.
  
• Expanded storage. With Google, we can provide employees 25x the email storage they have today, saving them from having to make difficult decisions about which emails to keep or delete.
  
• Cost savings. Moving to Google will free up nearly 100 servers that were used for our existing email system, which will lower our electricity bills by almost $750,000 over five years. In short, this decision helps us to get the most out of the city’s IT budget.

Forms allow Google Apps users to create custom forms for gathering information. Forms can be used for many purposes: from vacation requests or ordering lunch to complex business processes or client surveys, forms are a powerful feature of Google Apps. Below is a screenshot of creating a sample form:

Notice above the different types of questions and the simplicity of the interface. No advanced programming knowledge needed! Forms can be emailed, require sign-in to use or made public for use by anyone. Each completed form will become a row in a spreadsheet and alert notifications can be set as needed.

Here is a basic form:

Here is an example of the spreadsheet this form creates with one submission:

Once a form is created it is very simple process to create graphs from the data. As an example I’ll share data from a form I created to track my diabetic dog’s blood glucose.

Diabetic dogs require accurate tracking of blood glucose, insulin doses and food over long periods of time. Our vet was regularly asking for this information so I made a form, used the spreadsheet data to create a graph and then made the graph public and shared the link with my vet. Now the vet can get real time updates on my dog’s diabetes by visiting the chart I published online. Think about the potential for your business. How could you use this functionality? Track client responses? Gather sales inquiries? Employee feedback? Executive dashboard? Here are the examples from my spreadsheet.

The form:

The data:

The graph (click for big):

When a form is submitted the spreadsheet and graph are updated in real time! What metrics in your business could you track on a daily basis that could make a difference for you?

Since Google Apps Forms are online applications all that is needed to use these powerful tools are a Google Apps account and a web browser. In fact, most of the time I use my iPhone to fill out the form to track my dog’s diabetes. See screenshot below: