Customer Reviews

Managing Your E-Mail: Thinking Outside the Inbox

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

. . . unless you began using email yesterday. It is a classic example of unhelpful, non-writing. My heart sank when I turned the first page and noticed the font size - about 14 points, with 1.5 line spaces. This is a magazine article, inflated to book-length. On the plus side, you won't need a separate, large print edition. If you want the only useful suggestion in this book, here it is: send less email, and maybe you'll receive less. You'll only reach this pearl of wisdom after enduring over 100 pages of drivel, such as, "The sent folder contains copies of all the email messages you compose and send." Really? Eureka! My life is transformed! The author has managed to fill 185 pages with similar sentences, each of which should be punctuated with "DUH!" If anyone has a good strategy for controlling email - and I don't want to read long stories about hamsters, either - I'll be glad to buy their book.

After reviewing all the choices in this category, I purchased this book because the description promised solutions to e-mail overload. As a busy entrepreneur running a 10-person team from a home office, e-mail is a very big part of my workday. I was looking for solid strategies to help me use this tool more efficiently and effectively. Instead, I got an eye-glazing management analysis, pitifully short on solutions. Directed at managers and employees of large corporations, the book is all but useless for anyone else. The so-called solutions were just short of insulting. A few standout examples: "Don't send unnecessary e-mails"; "Don't read every e-mail you get"; "Pick up the phone instead of sending an e-mail." Ya think? Maybe there really is no solution, but after slogging through 189 b-o-r-i-n-g pages, it would have been nice to come away with ONE solid suggestion that could be implemented. I can't say I got even that.

This excellent short guide to the promise and peril of e-mail reveals some surprising and little-noted facts. Far from creating a paperless office, for example, e-mail has multiplied the paper businesses consume. Along with making communication more convenient, immediate and spontaneous, e-mail has raised false expectations and increased the probability of hard feelings and misunderstandings. If those were the only problems this book spotlights, it would be worthwhile to take it seriously. But author Christina A. Cavanagh additionally offers some frightening examples about the invisible cost of e-mail, measured in terms of employee time and legal risk. The book has a tendency to repetitiveness and prolixity, and many of the recommendations for managing e-mail are familiar. However, We particularly recommends her strong examples, which may convince managers to implement the best practices they may already understand but often ignore.

In Managing Your E-Mail: Thinking Outside the Inbox, Cavanagh offers several suggestions to increase your e-mail suaveness. She begins by explaining the significance of the problem: mismanaged e-mail can cost millions in lost productivity. She also points out how e-mail can cause certain legal problems. She then answers these problems by suggesting solutions for e-mail policy development, inbox management, and better e-mail drafting.

This book is a good read for anyone who uses e-mail in the workplace, especially at large companies and institutions. Everyone will benefit from implementing her suggestions right away. This book is also a must for anyone who is in charge of e-mail policy development. As far as application, there are some really useful suggestions on how to improve your email drafting. You will be able to quickly write more professional e-mails, which will have more impact, and keep your reader's attention. After reading this book, one will also gain a better understanding of technical processes of e-mail.

Cavanagh disappointed me, however, with some of her suggestions about inbox management. She basically suggests deleting everything but the most important e-mail. I am, of course, somewhat over simplifying. But I can say that after implementing her suggestions of inbox management, I found myself out of the loop with some important information. Perhaps these suggestions need to implemented by the whole institution to be effective.

A must read for all email users! This book is full of helpful hints to use this powerful communication tool more effectively and efficiently. The lessons learned and tips offered for every day use are equally relevant in the workplace and at home. This is a well researched and written book that quantifies and explains unproductive practices and how to overcome the many traps and temptations we face every day.

This book will resonate with managers that have known intuitively that this area needs attention but haven't known how to deal with it.

Cavanagh zeros in on the main issue of email. So much of it is a waste of time, and it's often misused. Another reviewer wrote that this book is like a magazine article and I concur. Each page is almost like a single slide of narrative in a slide show, with such large font and generous spacing. But considering the availability of this book used, you're unlikely to have any complaints.

What impressed me the most was that even though this book was written in another time (2003 seems far away now), the issues haven't changed. Email arrives in the inbox at a rate that far exceeds my ability to process. In turn I reply and my sent box goes to the moon too. My fondest hope is that it all gets unceremoniously deleted one day rather than being preserved in the expectation that something useful will be found.

Maybe this book will be useful to anybody trying to discover a method for killing email. That's my hope. Email that self-deletes after being read without a trace would add a qualitative improvement to life. There wouldn't be a giant inbox to wonder about and people would feel a little freer.

I enjoyed this book because it helped me increase my business productivity by redefining my e-mail habits.

Christina Cavanagh outlines the dangers of e-mail, including viruses and lawsuits. She also shows the productivity decreases caused by spam, e-mail ping-pong, and inappropriate use of e-mail as a communication medium.

More than that, she gives practical suggestions on how to increase your productivity using this essential business tool.

This book is a must have tool for companies and individuals who want to conquer the dark side of e-mail by getting control of their e-mail time and managing information overload.

We all complain about the amount of time we spend managing our e-mail but we all agree that email is an essential tool for business. Ms. Cavanagh presents some practical advise and protocols for us to follow that will reduce information overload, manage our time and bring back some old fashioned civility to our business correspondence.

Companies need e-mail policies to protect their assets and employees. Today, more than ever, greater scrutiny is being placed on business practises from regulators and investors. No company can afford the risks associated with sloppy email practises. Ms. Cavanagh presents real life examples of the horrific costs companies have paid for e-mails getting into the wrong hands which should scare any risk manager to advocate for stricter email policies in their business.

This easy to read book gives you the practical tools to begin to take charge of your e-mail in-basket, manage your time and get back your life.