Manage Tasks, Projects & Life with Email

Data Smog: Newest Culprit in Brain Drain
By Bridget Murray
American Psychological Association Monitor

"Psychologists are beginning to study the impact that information overload is having on our lives.
Welcome to the jumble—the dizzying information glut of the late 20th century. Information has never been as easy to access—or as distracting. But what is this surge of stimuli doing to our well-being?

According to some psychologists and researchers, the “data smog” that bombards us every day may be making us ill by interfering with our sleep, sabotaging our concentration and undermining our immune systems. David Lewis, PhD, a British psychologist, calls the malady “information fatigue syndrome.”

“Our brains aren’t wired to ‘multitask’ the way our computers are,” says psychologist Larry Rosen, PhD, a human-computer dynamics expert and psychology professor at California State University–Dominguez Hills. “We’re taxing the limits of our human abilities.”

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Crazy Busy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap!
Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD
Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. (Ballantine Books)

CrazyBusy – the modern phenomenon of brain overload – is a national epidemic.

Are you too busy? Are you always running behind? Is your calendar loaded with more than you can possibly accomplish? Is it driving you crazy? You’re not alone. CrazyBusy–the modern phenomenon of brain overload–is a national epidemic. Without intending it or understanding how it happened, we’ve plunged ourselves into a mad rush of activity, expecting our brains to keep track of more than they comfortably or effectively can.

CrazyBusy is not just a by-product of high-speed, globalized modern life–it has become its defining feature. BlackBerries, cell phones, and e-mail 24/7. Longer work days, escalating demands, and higher expectations at home. It all adds up to a state of constant frenzy that is sapping us of creativity, humanity, mental well-being, and the ability to focus on what truly matters.

In fact, as Attention Deficit Disorder expert and bestselling author Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., argues in this groundbreaking book, brain overload has reached the point where our entire society is suffering from culturally induced Attention Deficit Disorder.

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Parsing the Problem

Email has become the universal funnel. Due to its ease and utility, that funnel has become quite filled. The problem is no longer the supply or availability of information. Now the question is… what to do with it?

The missing link: management of tasks flowing through the email stream.

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Email Overload: Exploring Personal Information Management of Email
Steve Whittaker and Candace Sidner
Lotus Development Corp.

"Email is one of the most successful computer applications yet devised. Our empirical data show however, that although email was originally designed as a communications application, it is now being used for additional functions that it was not designed for, such as task management and personal archiving. We call this email overload. We demonstrate that email overload creates problems for personal information management.

“Research has not yet addressed how people organize and manage large amounts of information”

“Email has evolved to a point where it is now used for multiple purposes: document delivery and archiving; work task delegation; and task tracking.”

“Task management requires users to ensure that information relating to current tasks is readily available. This both preserves task context and allows users to determine the progress of ongoing tasks. Task management also involves reminding oneself about when particular tasks or actions have to be executed. How do people do this in email?”

Why do these problems arise? A simple one-touch model of email might assume: incoming messages that are informational, i.e. those not requiring a response, are read, and then either deleted or filed, depending on their relevance.

Our quantitative data show the one touch model is patently incorrect.

“Why is the inbox so full? It turns out that there are two related reasons for this:

(a) the inbox operates as a task manager, where people are reminded of current tasks, and where people can keep information relevant to those tasks accessible

(b) people find it hard to file information to remove it from their inbox, both because filing into folders is difficult and there may also be few benefits to creating folders.

Redesigning email to fit its functions

There are both design and theoretical implications to these results.

Although email was originally designed for asynchronous communication, the application is actually being used for multiple functions. Email therefore needs to be redesigned to support filing and task management as well as asynchronous communication.

We have shown that the inbox is often used as a place for incomplete tasks, unfiled information and ongoing conversations. In all these cases, users preserve working information in the inbox both to keep it available and as a reminder that further actions are required.

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Taskmaster: Recasting Email as Task Management
Victoria Bellerotti, Nicholas Ducheneaut, Mark Howard, Ian Smith
Palo Alto Research Center

“We identified seven specific problems that participants in our studies experience with task management in email:

1. Keeping track of lots of concurrent actions: One’s own to-dos and to-dos one expects from others.

2. Marking things as important or outstanding amongst the less important items.

3. Managing activity extending over time or keeping track of threads of activity and discussions.

4. Managing deadlines and reminders, which may be associated with particular messages or other content.

5. Collating related items (e.g., an extended thread or responses to a survey) and associated files and links.

6. Application switching and window management.

7. Most importantly, getting a task-oriented overview at a glance, rather than scrolling around and inspecting folders.

CONCLUSION

Our research shows that it is possible to significantly and positively affect email users’ experience by embedding task management resources directly in the inbox, where they are most needed. “

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A simple, powerful, universal solution: The Poingo Bounceback Server

The Poingo Bounceback Server simply returns a copy of any email you send, back to you at the time interval you specify.

For example, if you send, copy, or blind copy your email to 1d@poingo.com, that email will return to you in one day (1d). It works also for weekly and monthly intervals (1w@poingo.com and 1m@poingo.com, for example). Intervals up to 1 year are supported.


Address, copy, or bcc (blind copy) your email to interval@poingo.com
Your email will bounce back to you at that interval
This example shows an interval of 10 days (10d)

Users are essentially entering their email into a virtual tickler system with only a couple of keystrokes. This enables the user to easily manage hundreds of business or personal transactions, programming each for customized follow-ups, completely within their workflow, with negligible additional work.

The Poingo Bounceback Server allows the user complete control over the customization of each follow-up program.

Users find their “bounced-back” emails in their inbox the morning of the day it was requested, allowing them to stay current with all tasks requiring action on that day, whether days, weeks or months later. When they execute the desired follow-up, they often elect to send a copy again to the Bounceback Server for continued tracking.


Daily reminders in your inbox.

This deceptively simple idea has the potential for viral growth.

We envision a time in the very near future when “tickling an email” will be as meaningful as “Googling” a topic.

“Hey, I really need to remember to call about that. I will ”tickle” it for 2 weeks from now.”

This is not a pipedream. Hundreds of fanatical users now stay on top of their game with iTickleMe Email Tickler System.

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History

In early 2004, I was a classic power emailer, trying to manage millions of dollars of construction with a hodgepodge of separate applications and paper systems. The increased centrality of email to almost all business processes became increasingly apparent. I dreamed of a system that would integrate custom-interval follow-up within his email system.

Repeated searches turned up no viable solutions. I brainstormed the idea with son Matt (now an electrical engineer), then hired a developer and built the system. It has been online and working reliably since April 2004.

Fulfilling Needs

Email Overload: By providing a safe, reliable place to store future task-related emails, iTickleMe Email Tickler System allows users to remove them from cluttering their mailbox until they are needed. Users have an additional choice when a new email comes in. In addition to deleting, responding or filing, they can now “iTickleMe”.

Task Management: Most work tasks are eventually discussed in an email. When such emails are incoming, they can simply be “Poingo-ed” for future action. Or users can request action from others in an outgoing email and copy iTickleMe. Workers can also generate new emails with to-do items and send them only to the Bounceback Server for later action. This is essentially a self-addressed reminder.

High Efficiency:

Bounceback Server users can create a follow-up reminder in as little as one keystroke. How?

User enters frequently used intervals in his address book; let’s say 2w@poingo.com. If his email system auto completes the addressee, user need only type “2”, and the rest of the address will appear. You can’t get more efficient than that!

Brain Overload: The original email is the carrier for the follow-up reminder, so the original message content is 100% preserved. Seamless continuation of the project easy. No need to refer to other documents to get “up to speed”.

Open the reminder email and the original information appears. Continue where you left off. Very easy on tired, overloaded minds.


Try it free.

Email: Domination, Fatal Weaknesses and a Solution

Consider the following:

· In 2003, the annual flow of e-mails worldwide was 667,585 terabytes. (UC Berkeley's School of Management, How Much Information)

· Email volume in the United States is projected to nearly double from 1.5 trillion in 2003, to 2.7 trillion in 2007 (eMarketer)

· US Workers receive an average of 56 e-mail messages per day. (The Microsoft Office Personal Productivity Challenge, March 2005)

"The Internet has gone from novelty to utility for many Americans," says Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "They are beginning to take it for granted, but they can't imagine life without it."

Excerpts (with permission) from the groundbreaking “Email at Work Survey”, by the Pew Internet & American Life Project:

“Email stands out as a time saver: In this study, an overwhelming number of work emailers, 86%, report that email saves them time. “

“Almost two thirds of work emailers (63%) found email to be the most effective means for making arrangements and appointments… an instant advantage in national or global companies for keeping far-flung employees in the loop… a godsend for last-minute round-ups or heads-ups.”

“Workers have seen in email a wonderful tool and have
stretched its uses well beyond its humble beginnings, although with sometimes clumsy results. The software industry, taking cues from users, has adapted the email software to meet user needs in a more elegant manner.

The inevitable impact of this revolution will be to lighten email load, moving some correspondence out of inboxes, either onto the Web or into associated applications.”

Power Emailers

"We got a sense from our data and from our interviews that there is a small group of work emailers who are different from all the rest.
We identified a group we call “power emailers’ – those who handle the highest volumes of email (typically more than 30 and often more than 50 messages a day). The power emailers represent about 20% of all work emailers."

The Profile: Power Emailers

"Demographically, power emailers belong to the workforce elite. The majority (59%) are college educated or beyond. They are high earners; over half of them (52%) live in households that earn at least $75,000 per year, including a third (32%) of all power emailers who live in households earning at least $100,000 per year. Two thirds (66%) of power emailers work as professionals, managers, or executives.”

Trouble in Paradise
All is not completely rosy in the fast-paced world of email. Work emailers are increasingly bombarded by spam, multiple copies of conversation threads and sheer volume of emails. A sampling of the email-related pain workers are feeling:

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Coping with Email Overload
David Ludlow, Network IT Week

“Statistics say that 33 per cent of email is useless, 66 per cent of companies have a spam problem, 52 per cent of users waste hours each year dealing with their email, and 29 per cent of cat owners are more likely to get junk mail. The analyst reports say it all. But how do they tell us? Through email.”

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CNN: E-mails 'hurt IQ more than pot'
Email Overload Makes You Stupid

"Research from King's College London University has found "the IQ of those who tried to juggle messages and work fell by 10 points -- the equivalent to missing a whole night's sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana."

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Parsing the Problem

Email has become the universal funnel. Due to its ease and utility, that funnel has become quite filled. The problem is no longer the supply or availability of information. Now the question is… what to do with it?

Spam filters and “white lists” do an adequate job of rejecting unwanted email. Email software can identify and link conversational threads, helping to organize a cluttered inbox. Email software with text search capability allows users to find needles in a haystack of communications.

The missing link: Task Management

A simple, powerful, universal solution: The Poingo Bounceback Server

The Poingo Bounceback Server simply returns any email you send, back to you at the time interval you specify.

For example, if you send, copy, or blind copy your email to 1d@poingo.com, that email will return to you in one day (1d). It works also for weekly and monthly intervals (1w@poingo.com and 1m@poingo.com, for example). Intervals up to 1 year are supported.

Address, copy, or bcc (blind copy) your email to interval@poingo.com. Your email will bounce back to you at that interval.
This example shows an interval of 10 days (10d)

Virtual Tickler System
Users who add this additional addressee to their email are essentially entering their email into a virtual tickler system with only a couple of keystrokes. This enables the user to easily manage hundreds of business or personal transactions, programming each for customized follow-ups, completely within their workflow, with negligible additional work.

Each business transaction stream has a life of its own. A sales initiative might require a two-week follow-up with another one month later. Tracking shipments might require weekly follow-ups. Marketing tasks might require tracking daily.

The Poingo Bounceback Server allows the user complete control over the customization of each follow-up program.

Important Tasks Come to You Daily
Users find their “bounced-back” emails in their inbox the morning of the day it was requested, allowing them to stay current with all tasks requiring action at that particular time, whether days, weeks or months later. When they execute the desired follow-up, they often elect to send a copy again to the Bounceback Server for continued tracking.

Daily reminders in your inbox.

This deceptively simple idea has the potential for viral, inexpensive growth. We envision a time in the very near future when “Poingoing an email” will be as meaningful as “Googling” a topic.

“Hey, I really need to remember to call about that. I will ”Poingo” it for 2 weeks from now.”

This is not a pipedream. At Builders Architectural, a $20 million construction company located in Deerfield, IL the Bounceback Server has been in use for almost two years and has handled thousands of bouncebacks. Users are fanatical. Once they get into the habit, they rely heavily on it on a daily basis.

Fulfilling Needs

Email Overload: By providing a safe, reliable place to store future task-related emails, the Bounceback Server allows users to remove them from cluttering their mailbox until they are needed. Users have an additional choice when a new email comes in. In addition to deleting, responding or filing, they can now “Poingo”.

Task Management: Most work tasks are eventually discussed in an email. When such emails are incoming, they can simply be “Poingo-ed” for future action. Or users can request action from others in an outgoing email and copy the Bounceback Server. Workers can also generate new emails with to-do items and send them only to the Bounceback Server for later action. This is essentially a self-addressed reminder.

High Efficiency: Other task management systems involve adding tasks into a separate software application, and many keystrokes are required to create a task for follow-up. Bounceback Server users can create a follow-up reminder in as little as one keystroke.

How to create a follow-up with one keystroke? User enters frequently used intervals in his address book; let’s say 2w@poingo.com. If his email system auto completes the addressee, user need only type “2”, and the rest of the address will appear. You can’t get more efficient than that!

Brain Overload: Since the original email is the carrier for future the follow-up reminder, the original message content is 100% preserved, making seamless continuation of the project easy. The user does not need to refer to other documents to get “up to speed”. He opens the reminder email, and the original information appears. This clean functionality is very easy on tired, overloaded minds.

Try it free.

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An investment group is now forming to evolve the Bounceback Server into a large-scale operation. To learn more, contact Mark at support@itickleme.com.

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5 Screen Display Tweaks for Tired Eyes

Shackled to computers, as many of us are, we endure hours when bright backlit images drill through our eyes. No wonder that, at day's end when we unplug from the electro-trance and gaze dully at objects in three dimensions, we wonder who we are and where we have been.

But today we will not address the loss of moorings and identity through the virtual porthole - no, not today. Today we will get down-and-dirty practical and learn ways to make our screen displays more eye-friendly and balanced.

In the great tradition of ignoring users of Mac and other OSs, part of this lesson relates only to Windows XP. Mac users probably already have this information handed to them on a platter, while we Windows sufferers need help because our routes to better display are multiple and disjointed, as you can see below.

Download pdf of this chart

Many Paths to Enlightenment

Screen display can be adjusted using these 5 tweaks:

* Environment (true for anyone)
* Your monitor settings (any operating system)
* Your browser settings (any operating system)
* Control Panel-Display (Windows XP) and
* Control Panel-Accessibility Options (Windows XP)

Tweak Your Environment

Ambient lighting conditions affect your screen-reading experience. Try to eliminate reflections on the screen, and balance the room lighting harmoniously with the screen lighting. Eyes work harder when they must continually adjust between bright and dark, as well as close and far.

Think of your lighting in three categories: computer screen, ambient lighting, and task lighting. If you spend most of your day looking at the screen, adjust the ambient lighting so that it feels slightly less than the screen brightness. If you also have a task area (most of us do), brighten that area.

Also, adjust the distance from your screen to your eyes. You might find that your screen is "in your face" or too far away.

Tweak Your Monitor

Most monitors have buttons on the front panel. Play with them and see what happens. You will see either buttons for each function, or a menu button. Press it to see menu choices. Use up/down buttons to view the choices, then a "select" button (or the menu button), to select the menu choice. Then use the up/down buttons again to adjust the menu choice.

Due to the zillions of monitors out there, I cannot offer a golden bullet for all except for this: Pay careful attention to the brightness and contrast settings. Eye strain can come from screens which are too bright or too dim. Adjust these settings until your eyes feel comfortable. Repeat this every few days until your eyes send you a thank-you note.

Tweak Your Browser

While online, you can adjust font size for easier reading. In Windows Explorer, at the top of the screen, select View/Text Size from the menu. Then select the size you want.

In Mozilla Firefox, simply hold the Control key, while pressing either the Plus (+) or Minus (-) keys. The font size will adjust accordingly.

Press Control+ in Mozilla Firefox, and the text enlarges.
Do it again and the text enlarges further.

Tweak With Control Panel-Display

The Control Panel is accessed through the Start Menu in Windows. Two selections within the Control Panel affect screen display: "Display" and "Accessibility Options".We will start with the Display option.


Select "Display" from the list.

Control Panel - Appearance Tab

Click on the "Appearance" tab. Under "Font Size", you can select the size text appears on your screen: normal, large and extra large. If you feel that you are squinting to read, select a larger font size.


Normal Font is the default.

But you might like this better.

Or even this.


Control Panel Settings Tab

Under the "Settings" tab, look at "Screen Resolution". This is the number of dots (pixels) your monitor displays on the screen, width first. A resolution of 1024 x 768 means your screen image is actually composed of 1024 dots running horizontally and 768 rows of those dots running from top to bottom. That's 786,432 dots you are seeing on your screen.

NOTE: Since your screen shows less that one million pixels, shooting high resolution photos for web display is overkill. If you shoot a 3.1 mega(million)pixel photo and display it fully on your screen, it will load and send (vial email) slower, and the screen presentation will be artificially dumbed down to what is able to be displayed. This can reduce image quality. Select a resolution on your camera appropriate for the intended use of the picture.

When you use a higher resolution, you are jamming more dots, and also more information on your screen. Often your computer will sense the video card and monitor type you are using, and will self-select a screen resolution for you. You can change this. Slide the selector left or right, click "Apply" and view the result in different applications, including your browser.

You may find that you enjoy more information on the screen, but the text is too small. If so, go back and select a larger font under the "Appearance" tab.

Changing screen settings is interactive. As you work your way through the options, you may need to tweak previous settings you made, including environmental settings such as screen distance.

Advanced settings provide more choices.

This is a variation of screen resolution adjustment. Try it, you might like it.

Tweak Accessibility Options

Get back to the Control Panel and select "Accessibility Options".

Here you can choose to set your display for high contrast. If you check the box, you will have further choices.

This screen allows you to select display schemes which will come into effect when high contrast display is selected, either as a default or in response to hotkeys.

This is an example of a high contrast display.

Tweak and prosper!

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Download pdf of this article

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Mark Meshulam offers
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