E-mail driving you crazy? Every time you delete one, do five more show up? Are you finding it impossible to answer every e-mail you receive? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re not alone!

Some people are even declaring e-mail bankruptcy — they dump every e-mail in their inbox and start over. If that’s not an option for you, then here are 10 tips to reduce e-mail overload.

1. Get a good spam filter. Even if it saves you just 10 minutes a day, that adds up to over 59 hours a year.

2. Cancel subscriptions to unwanted mailing lists, and opt-out of LEGITIMATE e-zines. But be careful! Trying to opt-out of spam e-mails will only alert the sender that they have a LIVE address. Also, make sure you are careful to check the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” box when purchasing items online.

3. Ask your friends to remove you from joke groups and chain messages. Simply explain your situation and, if they are good friends, they’ll take you out of their message group.

4. Don’t post or publish your personal e-mail on web sites. Spammers will steal it and put it on their lists. Instead, use a contact form.

5. Don’t respond to every e-mail you receive. Yes, it’s okay NOT to respond to some e-mails. If it’s a group e-mail, don’t respond with “okay” or “:)” — it’s not necessary unless the sender is specifically asking you a question or requesting a response.

6. Be succinct. Restrict your messages to a few sentences. If you can’t, pick up the phone or talk in person. This will avoid the back-and-forth of e-mail conversation.

7. Take advantage of subject lines. If possible, put your question in the subject line, or your message. If that’s not possible, make your subject line very descriptive so the recipient knows what your message is about. Here’s another tip; create a set of codes with your coworkers and place them in the subject line to help them process and prioritize messages. For example, use “FYI” for informational messages. Use “AR” for action required and “URG” 1. for urgent messages.

8. Block time to answer your e-mail and fight the temptation to check your e-mail every few minutes. You will save yourself a lot of time and be far more productive.

9. Respond to messages when you open them so you only read them once. If the e-mail requires an action step, schedule the action step and delete it from your inbox.

10. Set time aside in the morning and the evening to process your inbox. Shoot for a completely empty inbox. File messages you need to keep and set reminders for messages that require you to follow up.

Now, here are some tips to keep from adding to the e-mail overload of others…

1. Be courteous when forwarding an e-mail: summarize the thread and why you are sending it at the top of the e-mail.

2. Don’t copy someone on a message unless it is necessary. And explain why you’re copying them. Recipients won’t need to guess your intentions. This means less back and forth messages.

Two of the most common ways of holding “virtual” meetings are teleseminars and webinars. If you haven’t already conducted a teleseminar or webinar to connect with your clients and prospects, chances are that you’ve at least been invited to one.

Both are simply a presentation delivered to folks via a conference line or online meeting which saves you in travel, hotel rooms, gas, and meals. It also saves an incredible amount of time. GoToMeeting.com and GoToWebinar.com (both owned by Citrix) are the big vendors in this space. Another two in the running are Webex.com and the new Acrobat.com

These web-based meeting services do not require expensive equipment or software; you simply download their application right over the web and you instantly have access to web-based tools that enable you to share your screen or PowerPoint with any number of people.

Paul Hartwell, a marketing consultant in Chicago, takes advantage of “old school” thinking.  Following each virtual web meeting, he sends his clients a generous gift certificate to a local restaurant with a note that includes a recap of the meeting and ends with how much he knows the ‘business meal’ will be enjoyed when out with a friend or significant other.

Teleseminars follow the same principle, but are purely phone-based conference calls. The advantage of a teleseminar is that anyone can dial in from any phone; however you lose the ability to show a PowerPoint, poll users, and chat via a Q&A window. If you sell a service that doesn’t need to be demonstrated, a teleseminar will work just fine. I recommend using a company called VoiceText.com out of Austin, Texas.

However, while these precautions will certainly help you avoid problems, they CAN’T do anything if you don’t have a good backup and disaster recovery plan in place.

Are You A Sitting Duck?

We all know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; yet, disaster recovery planning often takes a distant second to the daily deadlines and pressures of running a business.

That means that most businesses, including your own, may end up offline and without your data after a simple lightening storm.

Don’t think that could ever happen to you? Consider this: “data-erasing disasters” can also take the form of office fires and broken water pipes, not just earthquakes, floods and tornadoes. If a fire started in your building, the parts that weren’t burned beyond recovery would probably be destroyed by the firemen’s efforts. But even more common is software corruption, hardware failures and human error!

Disaster Recovery Questions You Need To Answer

A disaster recovery plan doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming or expensive. Start by asking yourself the following questions…

1. Do you back up your company’s data daily to both an onsite and offsite location?
2. Are you absolutely certain that your backup copy is valid, complete and not corrupt? How do you know for sure?
3. If disaster strikes, HOW would you get your data back, and how long would it take? In many cases it takes days and often weeks; what would you do during that period of time?
4. Do you have copies of all the software licenses and discs in a safe location that could be accessed in the event of having to rebuild your server?
5. Would you and your employees have a way to access your network remotely if you couldn’t get to the office?
6. Do you store important passwords in a secure place that company officers can access if you are unavailable?
7. Do you have a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) device in place to keep your network and other critical data operations running during a power outage?

This is NOT a complete list, but it is a good start to get you thinking in the right direction.

As a matter of fact most people underestimate the effect of working in an ‘intentional environment’ where everything present supports your current effort. Barbara Hemphill, an ‘organizing consultant,’ estimates that 80% of the documents and items we keep never get used.

All of this stuff piles up and leads to procrastination. If you get rid of the clutter, you can think more clearly and have the time to be more creative. Most people work best with a completely clear work space, but are bombarded with paperwork, proposals, notes, hardware, disks, and other items piled high by the day’s end. Being organized requires a daily ritual of sorting and stowing your pile of stuff every day.

Not only will this improve your productivity, but it will polish your professional image. The last thing you want a client to see on your desk is clutter and chaos because it will give them the impression you are out of control and incompetent. So how can you clean up your act and start being more organized? Professional organizer, Greg Vetter, of Vetter Productivity offers these tips:

• Keep A Clear Desk – Only keep bare essentials on the desk and stow, file, or throw away everything else.
• Use Technology – Use tech gadgets to make life easier (i.e. PDA, label printer for organization, business card scanner, tablet PC, etc.)
• Keep An Electronic Calendar – Don’t keep an extra paper one on your desk; train yourself to go “paperless” and you’ll not only be less cluttered, but you’ll help save the environment!
• Document Imaging – Scan important documents and shred the paper; you’ll find files faster, save on desk and storage space, and never have to worry about losing a paper document to mishandling, fire, flood, etc.
• Purge Reference Files – Create reference files to support your work; just make sure you purge these files annually around the holidays.

Here’s how… On the Tools menu, click Options.  Then click the Mail Format tab.  Then click the Signatures button.  Click the New… button and give your signature a name when prompted and click Next.  Type the text you would like to have appear at the end of each email in the box and click Finished.  That’s all there is to it.  Be sure the name of the signature you just created appears in the box titled Signature For New Messages: and Signature For Replies and Forwards: and click the OK button.  You can test the signature by creating a new email message.  The signature you created should automatically appear at the end of your email message.

Once you have successfully created this basic e-mail signature, you can experiment with adding company logos, color and custom fonts to the signature.  For more MS Office features, go to office.microsoft.com.  For more on email disclaimers, go to emaildisclaimers.

Here is a template for a disclaimer message.   Be sure to have your lawyer approve your disclaimer prior to use.

DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message and any attachments are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information which is proprietary, privileged, confidential or otherwise legally exempt from disclosure.  If you are not the named addressee, you are not authorized to read, print, retain, copy or disseminate this message or any part of it.  If you have received this message in error, please notify [Your Name] at [Your Company] immediately (by replying to this message or by sending an email to [Your Email] or by calling [Your Phone Number]) and permanently delete this message and any attachments.  Thank you.