Tip 207. Your e-mail is getting tired of all the abuse.

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Are you optimally utilizing e-mail? Take the following quiz to find out. Answer with a Y or N.

• Open an e-mail, take a quick look at it and then leave it in your Inbox.
• Continuously check your e-mail throughout the day. (If I check every few minutes, I will never miss anything urgent. Nor will I ever get any work done)
• Continuously scroll up and down in your Inbox to see what you need to work on next.
• Never (completely) empty your e-mail Inbox.
• Use Search to find everything.
• Have too many folders in Outlook. (150 isn’t too many, is it?)
• Immediately reply to all incoming e-mails. (Perish the thought of someone calling you for an emergency)
• Keep e-mails in your Inbox to remind you of what you need to work on.
• E-mail yourself to remind yourself of a task you want to do, or don’t, and then try to remember what you need to do.
• Set up a Rule for certain e-mails to go to a folder and then never look at the folder.
• Have e-mails lined up in a list (the Off View in your Reading Pane) when viewing Inbox e-mails. Worse, have the Off View and Message Preview on at the same time.
• Have your e-mails interrupt you upon their arrival. (This saves you from any serious critical thinking time)
• Leave an e-mail in your Inbox so you don’t forget about it for a phone call or appointment. (There just couldn’t be a Calendar somewhere in Outlook)
• Assign a date to work on a task before it is due, and then move it to the Calendar.
• Store files all over your computer with no standardized information storage system. (Time to be creative)
• Don’t batch similar types of activities in a folder and do them at the same time.
• Not able to find files in five seconds. (Without your old friend the Search button)
• Have both paper and electronic duplicate files. (The more files the merrier)
• Smartphone is not synched up with your other technology.
• Use different systems on your Smartphone than the ones on your computer.