Speed Reading Course

Although email is an essential business tool, it can also turn out to be a real productivity killer.

One survey showed that most of us spend more than a quarter of our working day responding to emails.

So we can free up a lot of time by following these seven tips on managing email effectively.

1. Stop checking your email every few minutes

The sense of speed and immediacy makes most of us want to react as soon as an email arrives. But the old-fashioned daily mail delivery was actually much more efficient. That way you can plan your time more effectively and focus on priorities.

So the first step in getting control over your email is to stop checking it every few minutes and start checking it twice a day. That means logging out of your email account at all other times. And if you have a notification alert that tells you each time an email arrives ‘ you need to switch it off.

2. Set strict time limits on the time you spend checking emails

If you decide in advance how long you are going to spend dealing with emails, it stops you wasting time on the less important ones.

It encourages you to act on the ones that need attention rather than following an interesting link, reading jokes, or following pointless discussions. And we are generally more efficient when we concentrate on one type of task at a time.

For most people, a limit of about 15 minutes at a time is probably appropriate. Yes that is 15 minutes twice a day ‘ which may not seem much. But you’ll be surprised at how disciplined you can become.

3. Use separate email accounts for different purposes.

It’s often worth considering having different email accounts for different purposes. For example keep business and personal separate. And have one business account for important contacts and another for newsletter subscriptions and mailing lists. You can then check the less urgent one less often.

4. Scan first to decide what’s important

Your email account doesn’t know which items are most important so it serves them to you in the order they arrive. Many people are tempted to deal with them in that order too.

Deal with your email in the way you would read a newspaper. Look at the subject line and the name of the sender first. That lets you concentrate your time and attention on the most important emails.

5. Apply a one-touch approach

The best way to remain on top of your email is to handle it quickly and decide whether to do it, delegate it or delete it rather than spending too much time thinking about it.

6. Use technology to make email management easier

Email has time-saving technology built in but few of us make full use of it. For example:

- create an easy-to-follow filing process using folders and sub-folders.

- use the search function to find old emails.

- set up ‘rules’ to apply specific actions to messages that fit these rules.

- set up autoresponders to avoid having to respond to every email manually.

7. Create standard replies to common inquiries

You can create templates or standard wordings that you can re-use by simple cut-and paste rather than creating the same message multiple times.

So remember that email can be a productivity killer or it can play a vital role in building your business and making your day more productive. It’s up to you to decide which you prefer!

About the Author:

Robert Greenshields is a marketing success coach who helps business owners and professionals who are frustrated that they’re working too many hours for too little reward. Sign up for his free tips on earning more and working less at MindPower Marketing

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – 7 Ways to Avoid Being an Email Slave

#26 – Me Reading Jokes

Jokes $6.48 Abe and his friend Sol are out for a walk together in a part of town they haven’t been in before. Passing a Christian church, they notice a curious sign in front that says "$1,000 to anyone who will convert." "I wonder what that’s about," says Abe. "I think I’ll go in and have a look. I’ll be back in a minute; just wait for me."Sol sits on the sidewalk bench and waits patiently for nearly half an hour. Finally, Abe reappears."Well," asks Sol, "what are they up to? Who are they trying to convert? Why do they care? Did you get the $1,000?"Indignantly Abe replies, "Money. That’s all you people care about."Ted Cohen thinks that’s not a bad joke. But he also doesn’t think it’s an easy joke. For a listener or reader to laugh at Abe’s conversion, a complicated set of conditions must be met. First, a listener has to recognize that Abe and Sol are Jewish names. Second, that listener has to be familiar with the widespread idea that Jews are more interested in money than anything else. And finally, the listener needs to know this information in advance of the joke, and without anyone telling him or her. Jokes, in short, are complicated transactions in which communities are forged, intimacy is offered, and otherwise offensive stereotypes and cliches lose their sting—at least sometimes.Jokes is a book of jokes and a book about them. Cohen loves a good laugh, but as a philosopher, he is also interested in how jokes work, why they work, and when they don’t. The delight at the end of a joke is the result of a complex set of conditions and processes, and Cohen takes us through these conditions in a philosophical exploration of humor. He considers questions of audience, selection of joke topics, the ethnic character of jokes, and their morality, all with plenty of examples that will make you either chuckle or wince. Jokes: more humorous than other philosophy books, more philosophical than other humor books."Befitting its subject, this study of jokes is . . . light, funny, and thought-provoking. . . . [T]he method fits the material, allowing the author to pepper the book with a diversity of jokes without flattening their humor as a steamroller theory might. Such a book is only as good as its jokes, and most of his are good. . . . [E]ntertainment and ideas in one gossamer package."—Kirkus Reviews"One of the many triumphs of Ted Cohen’s Jokes-apart from the not incidental fact that the jokes are so good that he doesn’t bother to compete with them-is that it never tries to sound more profound than the jokes it tells. . . . [H]e makes you feel he is doing an unusual kind of philosophy. As though he has managed to turn J. L. Austin into one of the Marx Brothers. . . . Reading Jokes makes you feel that being genial is the most profound thing we ever do-which is something jokes also make us feel-and that doing philosophy is as natural as being amused."—Adam Phillips, Londo…

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Internet Jokes $24.98 Toward the end of 1997 I embarked upon a journey to compile as many jokes as I could. I decided to name the book Internet Jokes due to the origin of most of the jokes. If you have access to the web or e-mail I’m sure you too have received many jokes at one time or another. I was receiving so many jokes via e-mail that I decided to categorize each joke and put them in a book. The jokes that follow are not all "G" rated folks. Then again they are all not "R" rated jokes either. If you are easily offended, this book may not be for you. Mostly everything in this book (99%) came to me via e-mail. You will find many interesting pieces of information, (whether reliable or not is yet to be known), amusing tidbits and a wealth of laughter. I gave credit to the originator of the contents whenever feasible. I tried to be as tasteful as humanely possible and not include any jokes that would be too offensive or were in poor taste. I certainly hope you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed compiling it for your reading delight. jkl

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Speed-Reading for Violin $11.93 This speed-reading book employs the standard techniques of language speed-reading, converted to music reading. The key ingredients are mental focus, physical eye focus, and quick fingers. The virtuoso, or the elementary player, can benefit from practicing

Speed-Reading for Viola $11.93 This speed-reading book employs the standard techniques of language speed-reading, converted to music reading. The key ingredients are mental focus, physical eye focus and quick fingers. The virtuoso, or the elementary player, can benefit from practicing

777 Great Clean Jokes $3.99 Only Barbour can pack 777 great clean jokes into a single book! Here`s a sparkling new collection of unsullied humor, ideal for any age and situation. Following in the footsteps of other best-selling Barbour joke books-such as Noah`s Favorite Animal Jokes, The World`s Greatest Collection of Church Jokes, and Knock, Knock, Who`s There?-the entries in 777 Great Clean Jokes are categorized by topic and promise hours of fun and laughter for personal reading, church activities, and speech or sermon preparation.