. Emails . Phone . Meetings

The increase in productivity from investing a small amount of
time in efficiently managing these activities upfront is more
than worth the result.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT

Keeping up with the daily onslaught of emails is a major
challenge for most of us, both personally & professionally. The
following tips will help you manage the daily flow of emails:

. Create an electronic filing cabinet, much like the physical
cabinets you have, with electronic folders for category names

. Once emails have been read and responded to (if an action is
required), move the email from your inbox to your storage
folders. This makes it easy to track which emails still need an
action. Many companies impose limits on “inbox” size. By moving
your mail out of your inbox to a personal folder, an added
benefit is that the restriction on size will not interrupt your
day at precisely the moment you need to send an email.

. If your email program includes previous email content for that
email string when replying, be sure to delete earlier versions
of the string to avoid redundant emails filed. This makes it
much easier to find the latest copy in the string when searching
later.

. If your email has an attachment file, detach and save it as a
file in your electronic filing system for future reference, so
you won’t have to go searching through your emails to find the
file later. Relying on email subject headings can create a time
consuming search for the file later.

. If you frequently send the same type of email, save a copy as
a draft or template that you can reuse over & over (changing the
specifics such as name, date and amount for each email)

. If a document is available electronically, but you refer to it
frequently, print it and keep it in a hanging file or on your
desktop.

. Every 6 months or so, go through your folders and delete
emails no longer needed. This will save disk space and make your
searches more streamlined.

PHONE MANAGEMENT

. When you leave a voice mail for someone, if the issue you are
calling about is a straightforward question, ask it on voice
mail to avoid playing telephone tag. Also, encourage the
responder to leave the answer on your voice mail if they miss
you. However, if the issue is complex, do not leave a lengthy
voice mail explaining the issue (out of consideration for the
recipient).

. If you know you will be in meetings or unavailable at certain
times, let the person know o avoid voice mail telephone tag.

. If you are in the middle of a complex task that requires an
uninterrupted thought process, let voice mail answer the phone.
Otherwise, take the call to avoid a pile up of messages to
return later.

. Phone messages should be responded to within 24 hours. If you
have been too tied up to answer a question or inquiry, at least
respond to the person who called to let them know that, and then
give them an expected date by which you will have the answer for
them. This way you still seem responsive, even if you cannot
address their request immediately.

MEETING MANAGEMENT

. When calling a meeting, always draft an agenda and attach it
to the meeting invitation. The agenda will serve multiple
purposes:

o Help attendees prepare for the meeting o Provide a sense of
time allocated to each subject, so attendees can be mindful of
intended time allotments o Focus attention on the key issues to
discuss (in case the meeting agenda gets sidetracked) o
Demonstrate to others that you value their time & intend to make
the meeting productive

This work equally well for small or large meetings, but becomes
even more essential to productivity with a large meeting

. After the meeting, it is helpful to prepare “meeting minutes”.
The minutes provide a summary of the key points discussed, and
the associated outcomes and action items. They serve as a
helpful recap for the attendees, as well as others who could not
attend, but who have an interest in the subject matter. A track
record of accurate meeting minutes also helps to keep meeting
size to a manageable volume, as all of the affected parties will
feel less of a need to attend the meeting in order to understand
its’ directional outcomes.

. The day before the meeting, make sure to arrange for copying
of any required handouts.

. If co-workers are always dropping by for impromptu meetings,
don’t hesitate to create a “Do Not Disturb” time to be used for
those complex thinking projects, where being interrupted has a
big impact on your train of thought.

Copyright 2004-All rights reserved

About the author:
As The Organizing Wiz, Ilene Drexler works with clients who want
to get organized in their home or offices. As a member of the
National Association of Professional Organizers and the National
Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, Ilene is a part of the
industry’s leading resources for professional organizing.

The Organizing Wiz Phone 917-301-1981 Email:
ilene@organizingwiz.com
url: www.organizingwiz.com

When your resume comes across the fax line or is opened in an
email, it needs to be presented as professionally as possible.
Besides the obvious typos and misuse of words, your resume needs
to be highly organized and make a great impression as quickly as
it reaches your potential employers hands. With some
organizational skills and a little work your resume can be the
one that stands out.

Where should you start, I would suggest starting with a list of
your skills. Most people would probably not start in that manner
but I think that it gives you a more positive basis to work
from. When I speak of skills, I don’t just mean how many words
you type or that you can operate a hundred programs on your
computer. Use skills from volunteering with every organization
from the school PTO to your church. You might be surprised when
you really stop and think of everything that you learned while
being an officer in the PTO or organizing the volunteers for the
Little League concession stand. All of these are skills can be
effectively used when organizing your resume. Not only do they
require leadership and organizational skills but an ability to
work well with others.

Now that you have your skills listed, you should be pretty proud
of yourself. Sometimes making a list of your attributes is the
hardest part. We should all know what year we graduated and when
we finally got the nerve to resign from that dreaded 9-5 office
position.

Next, I would recommend making a list of all previous positions
with your job title as well as a brief description. Make sure
that you use some “key words” that will easily grab the
attention of the eyes scanning your resume. If you don’t have a
solid work history , I would recommend a functional resume
format. The functional format highlights your skills rather than
the time line of your work history.

Remember to see your resume as a marketing tool. On a billboard
you only get a few key words to catch the attention of the
traffic speeding by. Your resume needs to serve the same
purpose. It needs to spark the interest of the potential
employer so that they will want to know more about you and your
assets. That is how you land the interview.

About the author:
Kim Bauer is the President and Founder of www.wah-101.com A Work
at home web site that focuses on researching and providing
legitimate telecommuting job leads to her members. Keeping
parents with their children physically while providing for them
financially is the goal.