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by Jared Goralnick
I’m frequently asked if I prefer Gmail or Outlook Exchange, but I happily use both. Today I posted a thorough comparison on Lifehacker, but the following is how and why I use both.
Not only will this explain how I use Gmail and Outlook, but it’ll describe a fair amount of my workflow with email and social media.
by Jared Goralnick
If you can do it in two minutes or less then just get it out of the way. This is at the center of most approaches to dealing with tasks and emails. In the next 45 seconds I want to remind you of its power.
When you read your new email do you read all the messages once and then go back through them? I do it, too, sometimes—but it’s the death of getting things done. So here’s a reminder…
by Jared Goralnick
Above you’ll find a video from Jonny’s Partay, where I was interviewed on Wednesday, July 9 at 9pm.
There’s a bit of talk about AwayFind, some news about DC, and of course much of what I’ve been up to. From lifehacks to batching email to mobility and travel, hopefully this’ll keep you entertained.
by Jared Goralnick
A couple years ago most people stopped emailing chain letters and jokes. The people I’d fallen out of touch with never sent job listings. But now social networking has brought us a whole new generation of spam.
A word to the wise: just because I accept your friend invitation doesn’t mean that you should bug me with junk you’d never have emailed. Networks may make it easier to message people, but please show a little restraint.
by Jared Goralnick
The only thing that bothers me more than unprofessional email is the junk that people write in them when they’re reaching out to me. So I’m going to address how to write a professional email to someone you have little or no relationship with.
Those who follow half these rules will get a prompt personal response from me–and they’ve always worked for me. So read on, give it a shot, and maybe you’ll land that new client/job/hottie you’ve had your eye on.
by Jared Goralnick
The following is a short video that explains why I created AwayFind (and touches on how to batch your email). I delivered this as a presentation to the School of Blogging Conference in Chicago (under the parameters of 20 slides presented in 5 minutes). I hope you’ll enjoy this, and will participate in the private beta. Feel free to skip to 0:42 for the meat of the presentation…
by Jared Goralnick
Most people don’t own their email’s domain (i.e., the part after the @ symbol). Many exclusively use an email address that was provided to them by their internet service provider or place of employment.
This is a wake up call: don’t wait any longer to own and control your email. Here are some scenarios that may fit you, and how to fix things.
by Jared Goralnick
A pet peeve of mine is receiving unprofessional email–but I realize there’s no easy way to learn the subtleties. I’m not talking about email content, but how you format and configure it. This stuff is visible to your recipients and easy to fix. If you’re not familiar with this, then that’s the point–I hope you’ll read on to improve how your email reflects upon you.
Next week I’ll tackle the much harder topic of the email content, but for now…
by Jared Goralnick
I recently switched applications for my personal email, and have since been on a filtering rampage to improve the quality of the stuff that makes it to my inbox. My motivation was a change in email tools, but after just a couple weeks of creating filters (taking a grand total of 15 minutes over that time), my inbox is much better than before. Now’s your chance to do the same thing. I’m going to talk first about Gmail and then about Outlook–the principles are the same, and the result is a lot of saved time and easier focus.
When you get lots of email, it can be daunting to make it through it all. But you don’t need to act on a lot of that email, or at least not right now. Much of that email just clutters your inbox, distracts your attention, and takes time from your day. I’m not referring to spam–that’s a whole different topic (best solved through server-based solutions like Gmail, Postini, or MX Logic). I’m referring to newsletters, shipment notifications, friend requests, event invitations–anything that you might want to look at, but that you most likely can wait a few days for. Read on for how to keep this from your inbox…
by Jared Goralnick
A big thank you to Frank Gruber of SomewhatFrank.com for posting a video interview of me, which you can find below, discussing the difficulties of staying focused at work with so much email, and how AwayFind can help. This video came at a time when the blogs are aflame with discussions of email management –I address some of the challenges of processing email below.
In his post, which you should check out, Frank describes the AwayFind product, and references an article that’s been getting a lot of attention–Michael Arrington (of TechCrunch) discusses getting too much email.
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Is there any doubt that email is a serious timesuck? I've built a small web tool that helps you to get the heck away from email—so that you can do real work on the job, or vacation in peace. If you like what I write about here, I think you'll enjoy AwayFind.
I manage SET Consulting, a small tech company near Washington DC that focuses on productivity training, design, and development (particularly in Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint). I'm open to consulting and speaking opportunities related to business, email, and social media productivity.
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