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Leslie Carothers

Time Management

Does this sound familiar: 118 emails a day, 23 phone messages, 15 customer issues to be resolved-now, vendor visits, advertising schedules to be coordinated and websites to be developed-have I left anything out? I’m sure I have.

Information overload is stressful and is only becoming more so.

How are you coping?

There are only two ways to do it effectively-simplify or organize. This concept was recently presented at AHFA’s annual conference Although, I did not attend the conference, when I heard about the presentation from someone who did, it resonated with me deeply and I thought it would for my readers, too.

For retailers, time management is often the most difficult management challenge to solve as the customer’s needs always take precedence.

How do you do it if you can’t really simplify?

Organize.

Now, being an internet strategist, I have two main suggestions for you:

GMAIL

Sign up for a free GMail account at www.googlemail.com. This will cut down on your spam by at least 75%. Now you won’t have to comb through spam to find the one email that you can’t afford to miss.

GMail is a SPECTACULAR application that will save you, once you learn it, at least an hour a day. It has saved me countless hours since I started using it.

With Gmail, by the way, you can select what email address you want to show the receiver so you DO NOT HAVE TO CHANGE any of your other email addresses-you just “point” your other email addresses towards Gmail. It is extremely simple to do this. Email me and I will explain how if you don’t have the time to do it.)

Here are the three features that have saved me the most time:

1. All emails between you and the person(s) you email are grouped together so you can trace the correspondence fast. No more searching for the email your advertising agency sent you about the ad copy due in two days. Every email that’s gone back and forth about this topic is grouped together. You can expand or collapse them with one click so you can see just the subject lines or read the whole correspondence.

2. You can star the emails that you want to come back to later. Important emails that need your more focused attention are now available to you with one click-no more searching.

3. You can label and colorize all labeled emails in your inbox so you can identify emails from different groups. Customers, for instance, are able to be identified with the word “customer” at the beginning of the subject line and then you can colorize that label green. No more hunting through the thicket of black and white print for that email from the customer who wants to buy 25,000 worth of furniture but needs to know if you can give them a better deal. The color of money now shows you who they are-instantly!

Google Groups.

How often do you need to communicate with different groups of people? Advertisers, sales managers, buyers, website developers, accountants, attorneys, etc.?

With Google Groups, you can set up a free group for each of these stakeholders and all members of that group can post to the group, upload documents to the group, edit documents together, etc. You control who gets invited, who has access, what kind of access they have and much more.

This is an INVALUABLE time saver when you are working on a project with lots of moving pieces and want everyone to be on the same page.

To access, go to www.googlegroups.com and read about it. It is incredibly easy to set up and manage and will save you hours and hours of time.

I have used it in my business very successfully. Working on multiple internet related projects-each with hundreds of moving pieces is not easy. Using Google Groups has helped my actions remain focused and keep my work flow ultra organized. It helps me accomplish much more, much faster and I know it will do the same for you, too.

The hottest topic in the workplace right now is work-life balance and, by utilizing these tools effectively, you can achieve much more of every retailer’s most precious resource-free time.

If you’re coming to the Vegas market, I invite you to share with me in person. I will be in the Retailer Resource Center. Look for The Kaleidoscope Partnership. I’d love to meet and talk to all of my loyal readers and get your feedback on how to make my column even more relevant to your needs.