
E-mail can become burden rather than time-saver
Checking and responding to e-mail is one of the biggest time consumers in the modern office these days. How has one of the most successful leaps in technology and necessary components of the office become such a burden? The system is misused and abused. It is not just spammers causing harm, but also family, friends, co-workers, and sometimes even ourselves. Almost 70 percent of the e-mails sent in September were spam, according to Symantec’s State of Spam monthly report. If you are not using spam filters on your mail server or mail application, you are probably wasting time going through e-mails you do not need. If you are using Outlook, make sure you have the latest updates from Microsoft (http://office,microsoft.com). Whether using a Mac operating system or Windows, select the “Mark as Junk” feature, rather than just deleting junk messages. Those systems continuously learn. As you mark more things as junk, the more the system understands what is junk and filters it out before it gets to your inbox. Family and friends also hamper e-mail productivity. I will be the first to admit I have sent non-business related e-mails, but I do not mass-forward them. Most chain e-mails are as functional as chain letters (and usually about as accurate). Mars will never appear to be the same size as the moon, dialing *77 on your mobile phone will not contact the highway patrol, and, although Bill Gates is giving away his money, it is not going to people who have mastered the art of the forward button. I recommend going to Hoax Slayer (www.hoax-slayer.com) and Urban Legends Reference (www.snopes.com); check the validity of your message before passing it along. Finally, I believe we are our own worst enemy. We do not use e-mails as we should. We work too quickly,