The SlideDeck is available here
Written Materials
Below are some useful resources for learning to process email efficiently. These materials are applicable to our live CLE programs, as well as our online program entitled Email Efficiency TIps & Professionalism (accredited for Louisiana CLE credit, including Professionalism credit)
1. Recommended reading
- Writing That Works, Ken Roman and Joel Raphaelson explain how to communicate effectively in today’s business world, which includes: Email, Powerpoint presentations, memos, proposals, and resumes.
- 100 Email Hacks – great list of useful productivity tips from Sanebox. Their service is a great way to gain better control over your inbox (Ernie Svenson rates it 5 stars with a sparkler on top).
- Seth Godin’s Email Checklist – includes 36 points, such as #14 Could I do this note better with a phone call? #21 Could this email be shorter? and #34 Is there a long legal disclaimer at the bottom of my email? Why?
- We Have to Fix Email, David Pogue – author of NY Times tech column who begins by lamenting that there are 1,944 unread messages in his personal account. He makes the following observation that lawyers should at least think about: “that confidentiality disclaimer has never wound up protecting a company from whatever it’s supposed to protect them from. When your actual e-mail message is only a fraction as long as your legal disclaimer, you look like an idiot.”
- Some Thoughts [by a VC] on Email After Dealing with 500 Emails, Fred Wilson.
- Declaring Email Bankruptcy, Online article that discusses some of the high-profile tech-savvy folks who’ve declared “email bankruptcy.”
- The Four Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferris. The author has some interesting ideas for getting more work done without being drawn into inefficient social interactions. If you like provocative ideas you might like this book; otherwise, avoid it.
- 10 Steps to Become An Email Ninja, by Leo Babuta (on Tim Ferris’s blog)
- A Day With an Email Scammer, David Pogue article that gives a behind the scenes look at email scammers, but with a funny twist.
- How to find Email messages in Microsoft Outlook. Three really good tips for folks who use Outlook.
2. Some interesting statistics
- WhiteHouse Email was down 23% of time during Obama’s first 40 days in office, Computerworld article
- Number of worldwide email accounts is expected to increase from 3.3 billion accounts in 2012 to over 4.3 billion by year-end 2016.
- In 2008 Google put online its 1 millionth server. Google provides free email to 425 million users. Wired Magazine article (very interesting read!)
3. Recommended Services, Software & Plugins
- Google Apps for Business – for $50/yr for each user you can have top tier email with your own domain, and guaranteed uptime of 99.9999% Why would anyone want to run their own email server when Google can deliver better service for a much lower cost. You can try it free for 30 days without even providing a credit card number.
- Hover.com – best place to get domain names for use with email and/or websites. Prices are not rock bottom, but the customer service is absolutely the best in the business. Domain names are about $15/year.
- Rapportive – plugin that delivers information about the person who has emailed you, such as their picture (from LinkedIn or Facebook) and their most recent tweets.
- XOBNI – similar to Rapportive but works with Microsoft’s Outlook email program. Also works with other email programs such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
- SaneBox – works with Gmail and Microsoft Outlook to pull out non-human emails (e.g. confirmation emails, or non-essential notices)
- Boomerang – amazing plug-in for Gmail that does three things: (1) allows sending emails at a later time/date; (2) allows emails in your inbox to be “boomeranged” out of the inbox to be returned at a later time and date that you specify; and (3) allows emails you send that you need to monitor for responsiveness to be returned if no response comes back in a time that you specify.
- WriteThatName – service that automatically pulls contact information for people you correspond with, and then adds it to your contacts automatically. Works with Gmail only. Mind-bogglingly useful, and reliable.
- Copy2Contact – works sort of like WriteThatName (above) but for users of Microsoft Outlook.
4. E-Discovery materials (since it usually involves email)
- Craig Ball’s website – the premier expert on E-Discovery. Craig was a very successful trial attorney, but now lectures and consults on E-discovery and Computer forensics. An outstanding speaker, and prolific writer on the subject of electronic discovery.
- The EDNA Challenge – Craig’s PDF article on how to do E-Discovery in a small case. Located on his website, but not easily found unless you google “Craig Ball Edna Challenge.”
- Craig Ball’s weblog – also has an email newsletter worth subscribing to.
- Email in E-Discovery – great PDF article by Craig Ball
- Tom O’Connor’s weblog – Great information, but not frequently updated.
- Bow-Tie Law Blog – Josh Gilliland’s excellent weblog on E-Discovery
- Ralph Losey’s weblog – another luminary in the E-Discovery world.
- Michael Arkfeld’s weblog – another exceptional speaker and writer on electronic discovery issues.