Law Times

Law Times • may 4, 2009 Control your e-mail and other information, don't let it control you Taming the beast BRIEF: LEGAL TECHNOLOGY have thousands of messages in my e-mail inbox. This appar- ently makes me disorganized. I will admit, too, then that my desk is covered in papers and ap- pears to be in a total shambles. Truth is, I feel organized and I know where everything is but experts would say mine is not the example to follow. Less, they would point out, is more in terms of getting organized. At the recent LegalIT 3.0 con- ference in Montreal, two such experts gave a session on "taming your inbox." The presenters were Cecily Drucker, a San Francisco real estate lawyer who developed software package MonetaSuite to track time spent on computer- based activities; and Ben Schorr, the CEO of professional consult- ing firm Roland Schorr & Tower and author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 for Lawyers. Schorr's a proponent of man- aging and aggregating as much of your information as possible into one place. Rather than "drinking from a firehose" and having to jump between programs for each thing you do, he says funnel as much as you can into Outlook. In many cases, your voice mail messages can be sent directly to your e-mail. Your calendar and tasks can be managed from the main Outlook interface, which is what most law firms and other businesses use. There are also a variety of Outlook plug-ins avail- able from third-party vendors that can provide such things as business analytics. The 2007 version of Outlook also has a strong search feature, which also helps when trying to quickly access information. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, which many firms also use, allows you to safely share data that is stored in Outlook 2007 with co-workers no matter where those people are located. Now that you know you can BY GAIL J. COHEN Law Times In the name of efficiency, you can set certain times to check e- mail and at those times, don't monkey about. Get in and check and deal with each message as quickly as you can. Turning off the notifications also stifles the temptation to go and check what just came in. Schorr points out that you can set up customized notifications using Outlook rules so certain e-mails will trigger notifications even if all the others are turned off. Once you've achieved the dis- cipline to limit your time spent messing about with e-mail, it's time to get serious about con- quering your inbox. The presenters offered up the 4 Ds for taming the beast. • delete it; • do it; • delegate it; and • defer it. DELEGATE IT If you don't have to do a task, then pass it along to someone else as soon as you get the e-mail. But you should always remember to follow up and make sure the task has been completed. Schorr moves dele- gated e-mails to his task bar in Outlook and sets up an automatic re- minder to check on it on a certain date. Drucker prefers to simply drag and drop the e-mail into her Out- look calendar on the day to fol- low up. Microsoft Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager can provide oodles of information in one place. The aim is to never have more than four or five e-mails in your inbox at any time. Let's take a look at each. DELETE IT This is a big one. "Be ruthless," says Drucker. If you don't use it, why get it? DEFER IT Flag anything that will take more than two minutes (in which case, you should have already done it!). These e-mails can be filed in sub-folders and like the delegated tasks have reminders set up to make sure any actions are taken. Drucker warns you should Unsubscribe from all those lists that you either file away and don't read or send directly to the trash. You don't need to keep every message that you've ever been sent. Quite often, says Schorr, you can delete many e-mails in the same thread as the later ones will have all the earlier correspon- dence included in the body. Others that can be instantly deleted may include: anything that has only been copied to you; or anything that does not express- ly ask you to do something. But, Drucker warns, do be only set reminders for important things because too many alarms can "just get annoying." Not everyone works the same you, like myself, have an inbox that runneth over, some organiza- tional gurus suggest archiving ev- erything in your inbox and start from scratch going forward. Other tidbits that can help get way. Some people don't like to have a lot of sub-folders and can work with just a couple and oth- ers need to store them in a more extensive set of sub-folders, say for each client or matter that you are working on. If it all seems daunting because your e-mail under control include making sure the subject line re- flects the contents of the message. keep your own sanity, be more productive overall, and not be shackled to your inbox, Drucker says train your clients not to ex- pect an instant response. If you start answering e-mails at midnight, clients will expect you to always be available at mid- night. Set parameters. If you are working on a timely matter, you must be available. But generally, that's not the case, and clients will come to accept it. Says Schorr: "have a system, whatever works for you." But most of all, in order to LT Sometimes the con- versation changes mid- stream. When that happens, change the subject line so when you're exercising the 4 Ds, you don't run into problems. You can also auto-format incoming messages so different correspondents are reflected in different colour bars. Rules also help to automatically process e-mail, particularly in the case of e-mail lists or discussion groups. PAGE 15 OBA SPECIAL EVENT Blue Jays Game Fundraiser for Jays Care careful when hitting the delete key that you don't throw away anything relating to client com- munication that may possibly be needed. File it, rather. Apparently, says Schorr, some do so much in one program, Schorr recommends cutting down the number of times per day that you check your e-mail. "Do you have to monitor e- mail 24/7?" he asks. Drucker says she has a trans- actional practice and most of the time she manages by only check- ing her e-mail four or five times a day. Although she does admit that at "other times, when neces- sary, I am on it all the time. "You have to be disciplined on The OBA invites you out to the ball game… Join us Wednesday June 3rd to watch the Blue Jays vs. the Angels. This event is a fundraiser for the Jays Care Foundation and your ticket includes an OBA pre-game private reception at the Hard Rock Café in the Rogers Centre. people delete things but never empty their trash, essentially turning the deleted items folder into a storage area. "If it's not trash, don't trash it," he says. it, otherwise you spend all your time online," she says. DO IT If it takes less than two minutes — do it! If you can't do it right away, put it in a draft file but make sure you get to it. Some e-mails may require no action from you but may be worth keeping for future reference. You should file these straight away rather than leaving them in your inbox to fester. Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 Time: 5:30 p.m. Hard Rock Café (Rogers Centre) Reception 7:07 p.m. - Blue Jays vs Los Angeles Angels Game Begins Location: Rogers Centre, One Blue Jays Way, Toronto, ON Price: $ 50 / ticket for members (members may bring one guest at member price) $ 60 / ticket for non-members $ 35 / ticket for children – all tickets in the 200 level For more information see www.oba.org/bluejays or call 416-869-1047 OBA_LT_May4_09.indd 1 4/29/09 10:35:50 AM www.lawtimesnews.com

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