1. Optimizing the use of E-mail
The rationale for this lesson is to teach an audience profiecient with the use of techniques based on David Allen´s methodology to manage incoming s flow in order to increase the personal productivity. Total suggested time: minutes.
Desired Instructor prior knowledge requirements:
Have attended to a David Allen´s Seminar “Getting things done”.
Learner´s prior knowledge requirements:
The learner of the intended audience must be able to: create anew memo, send a mail, open and read an incoming mail, create folders into the mail, filing mails in the folders created. Rename and delete folders.
Note: The used is Lotus Notes 4.5 or above
Required Materials:
Projector, Laptop with this presentation, access to , flipchart, markers, hand-outs printed (1 per attendee)
Instructions for the Instructor:
Welcome the audience
Introduce yourself
Distribute handouts to the audience, ask for some volunteers to help you
Communicate the audience thet the activity will last for aprox. 10 minutes
Suggested time: 1/2 minute
Based on David Allen´s Productivity Principles

2. At the end of this activity …
You will be able to:
Enumerate at least 2 David Allen´s principles applied to the use of
Enumerate the 3 main standard folders suggested by David Allen
Apply the David Allen suggested method to improve your personal productivity
Instructions for the Instructor:
Review with the audience what is suppose they will be able to do after the training.
Introduce - for now - the author (David Allen) as a famous speaker and thinker of productivity. He is a management consultant, executive coach and educator. He has developed a creative and effective methodology and tips to increase personal productivity.
Aware the audience that at the end of the activity you will provide them with information about resources to read and know more about.
Suggested time: 1/2 minute

3. Some David Allen´s Principles
Liberate your mind
Process everything that come to you
2-minute rule
Instructions for the Instructor:
Share the following to the audience:
David Allen talk about how sometimes we have static or many issues that are bugging us all the day avoiding we can be concentrated in the taskwe has to solve.
DA uses the karate image “mind like water” as the ideal state (if ypu throw a pebble into a lake, the water won´t over or under react, and liberate your mind give you freedom to process better what to have to work on.
Liberate our mind means put all the stuff into a single repository, could be since a simple notepad to a sophisticated Palm Pilot .
Once you have identified the Stuff you have to process it, it means do something with that.
We will see the options in the next slide.
Finally a really good golden rule DA has suggested is “if the action will take you 2 minutes or less ... Just do it”.
It´s amaizing how many small procastinated things can bug/bother you so much at the end of the day.
Suggested time: 1 minute

4. Allen´s Workflow Diagram
Instructions for the Instructor:
Share the following to the audience:
Even though we won´t explain the whole Allen´s workflow, what I would like to point out is the alternatives of actions when something come to us:
We should need do something (approve, read, buy,etc.) ... One or more than one action
we can delegate,
we can defer it in the time (to a certain day or certain day+certain hour or for some day)
We can do an action (eg. Send a mail) and need to follow what is going on with this
- we even can delete or disregard it
we would like to keep it for future references
What is also applicable to our topic for today ... is that we have an entry point (inbox folder) with info that need to be processed and stored in “recipients” that facilitate us find it in the future or follow up it.
Suggested time: 1minute
Source:
“Getting Things Done” by David Allen
ISBN

5. Applying DA´s principles to mail
Create folders
Process incoming s
Review folders on regular basis
Delete / purge information on a regular basis
Instructions for the Instructor:
Review if everybody in the audience know how to create folders. Clarify anyway that you will show how to do it further in the activity.
Ask to the audience, how do they think the mail processing is done. After the answers has been given clarify if is necessary that process basically consist in read the message, and decide what to do with that. Remember the 2-minute rule
Ask randomly to 2 or 3 persons in audience how often they should think the review and deletion should be performed. Share with the audience that the review will depend on the kind of folder, some of them daily, some weekly, some monthly.
Suggested time: 1 ½ minute

6. Folders suggested by Allen
Waiting for
Action
To read
Instructions for the Instructor:
Share with the audience the following:
WAITING FOR folder
If you delegate a lot of items by WaitingFor folder, will allow you to review easily the topics delegated.
You can use the “send &file” option when you send the mail with Lotus notes or you can send a bcc to yourself and drag it to the folder mentioned above. (if you choose the last option, don´t save the outgoing message to don´t duplicate information).
ACTION folder
-Drag to this folder any mail that need you work with it and that exceedes the 2-minute rule. You will take care of it later
TO READ folder
- If you are trustworthy in using your program as a working reminder tool of what you need to still do or finish, then you might want to get more discreet in some categories of actionable s. Eg.: - Read/Review ...is a good category folder for those s that you've been cc'd on, more than a 2-minute read, that you're pretty sure you don't have to do anything about, you just want to read it FYI. (Good stuff for reading while you're waiting for meetings to start.) TIP: put an before the first word, so the folder will be at the top of the list .. At your fingertips !!
Remind to the audience Hold to the 2-minute rule. [Read and respond, delete, or file s that can be dispatched in 2 minutes or less. (Powerful habit, FYI, and more so as your volume of s grows.)]
Suggested time: 2 minute

7. Instructor Demonstration
Instructions for the Instructor:
Depending of the audience this demonstration is optional. If you decide not to do it hide or delete this slide.
If you decide to perform the demo ...
Demostrate to the audience how to:
create a folder
named “waiting for”
Move an incoming mail to the “waiting for” folder
Show how to use the feature “send & file” of Lotus Notes mail
Note: you will be to switch to the account open and available, and after the demo come back to this presentation.
You can do that using the “Alt+TAB” key combination
Suggested time: 2 minute

8. Recommendations to create other folders …
Short names
Meaningful names
As much as you need
Better more folders than sub-folders
Instructions for the Instructor:
Share with the audience:
In order to help to process the mail, specially for store the “reference materials” we should need create a sufficient archive file folder library within the program, so you can rapidly drag s that you just want to save for future reference into those folders.
Purge them at least yearly to keep them conscious and give you the freedom to keep anything that strikes your fancy. Suggested time: 1/2 minute

9. Questions ? Thoughts ? Personal Experiences to share ?
Instructions for the Instructor:
Ask if any have some thoughts, questions or experiences to share
Write down on the flipchart the following information to know more about David Allen:
His latest book: “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.
Viking Publisher. ISBN
- His website:
Suggested time: 1 minute to share closing information + time as required for questions or comments
Personal Experiences to share ?