Friday, August 6, 2010
Techie Terms Made Simple: What Is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is simply a term used to describe internet-based applications that are stored and accessed via a web browser instead of a server or computer at your location. Over the last couple of years, there has been a HUGE movement towards companies using “cloud-based” applications because lost data is more easily recovered and remote workers can conveniently access information. As a result, costs for hardware and support are drastically lowered.
One “cloud” application we encourage our clients to consider is
Hosted Exchange. Not only does this give you a tremendous amount of flexibility in accessing your e-mail, but it also lowers the costs of hardware, software, installation, and support DRASTICALLY.
While there are still some fears around hosting critical apps and data off-site, those fears will become a thing of the past as business owners see the bottom-line cost savings of cloud-based computing.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
New Way To Eliminate Computer Hassles & Save Money!
STOP! Don’t Upgrade Your Server Until You Read THIS
A new breakthrough in technology may change the way you think about traditional computer networks. It’s called “Cloud Computing” and could save your business quite a bit of money on software, hardware, upgrades and services. Here’s how it works…
Instead of purchasing hardware and software to be hosted at your office, cloud computing puts your programs and data on a highly secure “super server” (also called a data center) online. These servers have huge amounts of storage space and power that no small business could ever fully utilize. The data center then “rents” a portion of the space, power and software licenses to multiple businesses, giving you top-of- the-line resources at a fraction of the cost. All you need is an Internet connection, and you’re in business.
This is not a new concept and companies like SalesForce, Gmail, Google Apps, Constant Contact, and many other online applications have been offering their services this way for years – and because it’s so much more economical than installing, hosting and supporting a network in-house, the concept is catching on fast. Still skeptical?
Here are nine reasons why this concept is catching on FAST with small to medium business owners, and why you might consider it, too:
1. You have an INSTANT virtual office. Cloud computing allows you or your employees to access and work from any secure PC, laptop or device. If you have employees that travel, are in remote locations or who need or want to work from home, this is an ideal solution.
2. You’ll save hard dollars on software, hardware and support. First, you won’t have to purchase, install or maintain servers or other network equipment. You also won’t need “super computers” to run the software, allowing you to purchase lesser-expensive laptops and PCs. Second, the software will be cheaper, because you are renting it instead of purchasing it. Finally, IT maintenance and support costs will drop because the server is being maintained by the hosting company, not you.
3. Less Down-time and Problems. Software in the cloud runs on extremely fast and reliable systems that include some form of redundancy. What that means is if one server or component stops working, another server or component will instantly take over without you even realizing something happened. Compare that to your own server going down; until you get it fixed, you’re unable to work.
4. Automatic Disaster Recovery. If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it 100 times: make sure you back up your data! When your data is hosted in the cloud, the back-up is done automatically for you. Since your software and data reside on an off-site server in a data center, you already have a way to access it even if you couldn’t get into the office.
5. Less Expensive To Scale Your Network Up Or Down. If you start to run out of space on your local office computer or server, you’ll need to purchase an additional hard drive and pay for the installation. In a cloud computing environment, you just pay for the amount you need and increase your storage plan when necessary. And if you want to scale BACK, you can do that without penalty.
6. Hassle-Free Software. If you’ve ever had to search for software disks, you know what a pain it can be. With cloud computing, all your software is loaded on a server in a data center and then shared over the Internet. There are no software disks to manage, organize or file.
7. Environmentally Friendly. Because resources are shared, cloud computing uses significantly less power. You also won’t have to upgrade your hardware as often, which means fewer PCs, laptops and other components piling up in landfills.
8. No More Expensive Software Upgrades. Networks in the cloud benefit from automatic software upgrades; best of all, they are done FOR you. When a software upgrade is needed, only the server “in the cloud” gets loaded up with the most up-to-date software versions. Then each computer accesses this software via the Internet.
9. Reduced Maintenance. When your software is in the cloud, patches are automatically applied, meaning fewer re-boots and down-time for maintenance. It’s all taken care of for you.
A new breakthrough in technology may change the way you think about traditional computer networks. It’s called “Cloud Computing” and could save your business quite a bit of money on software, hardware, upgrades and services. Here’s how it works…
Instead of purchasing hardware and software to be hosted at your office, cloud computing puts your programs and data on a highly secure “super server” (also called a data center) online. These servers have huge amounts of storage space and power that no small business could ever fully utilize. The data center then “rents” a portion of the space, power and software licenses to multiple businesses, giving you top-of- the-line resources at a fraction of the cost. All you need is an Internet connection, and you’re in business.
This is not a new concept and companies like SalesForce, Gmail, Google Apps, Constant Contact, and many other online applications have been offering their services this way for years – and because it’s so much more economical than installing, hosting and supporting a network in-house, the concept is catching on fast. Still skeptical?
Here are nine reasons why this concept is catching on FAST with small to medium business owners, and why you might consider it, too:
1. You have an INSTANT virtual office. Cloud computing allows you or your employees to access and work from any secure PC, laptop or device. If you have employees that travel, are in remote locations or who need or want to work from home, this is an ideal solution.
2. You’ll save hard dollars on software, hardware and support. First, you won’t have to purchase, install or maintain servers or other network equipment. You also won’t need “super computers” to run the software, allowing you to purchase lesser-expensive laptops and PCs. Second, the software will be cheaper, because you are renting it instead of purchasing it. Finally, IT maintenance and support costs will drop because the server is being maintained by the hosting company, not you.
3. Less Down-time and Problems. Software in the cloud runs on extremely fast and reliable systems that include some form of redundancy. What that means is if one server or component stops working, another server or component will instantly take over without you even realizing something happened. Compare that to your own server going down; until you get it fixed, you’re unable to work.
4. Automatic Disaster Recovery. If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it 100 times: make sure you back up your data! When your data is hosted in the cloud, the back-up is done automatically for you. Since your software and data reside on an off-site server in a data center, you already have a way to access it even if you couldn’t get into the office.
5. Less Expensive To Scale Your Network Up Or Down. If you start to run out of space on your local office computer or server, you’ll need to purchase an additional hard drive and pay for the installation. In a cloud computing environment, you just pay for the amount you need and increase your storage plan when necessary. And if you want to scale BACK, you can do that without penalty.
6. Hassle-Free Software. If you’ve ever had to search for software disks, you know what a pain it can be. With cloud computing, all your software is loaded on a server in a data center and then shared over the Internet. There are no software disks to manage, organize or file.
7. Environmentally Friendly. Because resources are shared, cloud computing uses significantly less power. You also won’t have to upgrade your hardware as often, which means fewer PCs, laptops and other components piling up in landfills.
8. No More Expensive Software Upgrades. Networks in the cloud benefit from automatic software upgrades; best of all, they are done FOR you. When a software upgrade is needed, only the server “in the cloud” gets loaded up with the most up-to-date software versions. Then each computer accesses this software via the Internet.
9. Reduced Maintenance. When your software is in the cloud, patches are automatically applied, meaning fewer re-boots and down-time for maintenance. It’s all taken care of for you.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Top 4 Threats Attacking Your Network And What To Do About Them
Top 4 Threats Attacking Your Network
And What To Do About Them
#1 Overconfidence
User overconfidence in security products is the top threat to your network. Failure to “practice safe software” results in nuisance attacks like porn storms (unstoppable rapid fire pornographic pop-ups) and more subtle keyloggers that steal passwords. Surveys promising free stuff, result in theft of information like your mother’s maiden name, high school, etc. used to answer common security questions leading to theft of otherwise secure data. Think before you click!
#2 Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites like Facebook are exploding in popularity. Threats range from malware (eg. viruses, worms, spyware) to scammers trying to steal your identity, information and money. Many businesses and government agencies are using these sites to communicate with clients and constituents, so simply blocking access is no longer reasonable. Defending your company while allowing employee access requires social network education for your employees and the enforcement of strong acceptable use policies. We can help you develop a policy, then monitor compliance using a Unified Threat Management device that controls and reports on network access.
#3 Attacks On Mobile Devices
Everyone is going mobile these days not just the “road warriors.” Once limited to laptop computers, mobile network devices now include PDAs, handheld computers and smart phones, with new appliances appearing in the stores every month. Mobile devices often contain sensitive data yet they are easily lost or stolen. Be sure to password protect and encrypt data on all mobile devices whenever possible. Include mobile devices in your acceptable use policy.
#4 Cloud Computing
“The Cloud,” in its most simple form, involves using the Internet to access and store your data. When you access email using a web browser, you are working in “the cloud.” Using the cloud for automated off site backup is rapidly gaining popularity and is just the beginning. Companies like Microsoft, IBM and Google envision the day when we will use inexpensive terminals instead of computers to run programs and access data located somewhere on the Internet. You need to be sure that any data you store and access across the Internet is secure not just where it is stored, but during the trip to and from the Internet.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Network threats... and what to do about them
Top 4 Threats Attacking Your Network... And What To Do About Them
#1 Overconfidence
User overconfidence in security products is the top threat to your network. Failure to “practice safe software” results in nuisance attacks like porn storms (unstoppable rapid fire pornographic pop-ups) and more subtle keyloggers that steal passwords. Surveys promising free stuff, result in theft of information like your mother’s maiden name, high school, etc. used to answer common security questions leading to theft of otherwise secure data. Think before you click!
#2 Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites like Facebook are exploding in popularity. Threats range from malware (eg. viruses, worms, spyware) to scammers trying to steal your identity, information and money. Many businesses and government agencies are using these sites to communicate with clients and constituents, so simply blocking access is no longer reasonable. Defending your company while allowing employee access requires social network education for your employees and the enforcement of strong acceptable use policies. We can help you develop a policy, then monitor compliance using a Unified Threat Management device that controls and reports on network access.
#3 Attacks On Mobile Devices
Everyone is going mobile these days, not just the “road warriors.” Once limited to laptop computers, mobile network devices now include PDAs, handheld computers and smart phones, with new appliances appearing in the stores every month. Mobile devices often contain sensitive data yet they are easily lost or stolen. Be sure to password protect and encrypt data on all mobile devices whenever possible. Include mobile devices in your acceptable use policy.
#4 Cloud Computing
“The Cloud,” in its most simple form, involves using the Internet to access and store your data. When you access email using a web browser, you are working in “the cloud.” Using the cloud for automated off site backup is rapidly gaining popularity and is just the beginning. Companies like Microsoft, IBM and Google envision the day when we will use inexpensive terminals instead of computers to run programs and access data located somewhere on the Internet. You need to be sure that any data you store and access across the Internet is secure not just where it is stored, but during the trip to and from the Internet.
#1 Overconfidence
User overconfidence in security products is the top threat to your network. Failure to “practice safe software” results in nuisance attacks like porn storms (unstoppable rapid fire pornographic pop-ups) and more subtle keyloggers that steal passwords. Surveys promising free stuff, result in theft of information like your mother’s maiden name, high school, etc. used to answer common security questions leading to theft of otherwise secure data. Think before you click!
#2 Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites like Facebook are exploding in popularity. Threats range from malware (eg. viruses, worms, spyware) to scammers trying to steal your identity, information and money. Many businesses and government agencies are using these sites to communicate with clients and constituents, so simply blocking access is no longer reasonable. Defending your company while allowing employee access requires social network education for your employees and the enforcement of strong acceptable use policies. We can help you develop a policy, then monitor compliance using a Unified Threat Management device that controls and reports on network access.
#3 Attacks On Mobile Devices
Everyone is going mobile these days, not just the “road warriors.” Once limited to laptop computers, mobile network devices now include PDAs, handheld computers and smart phones, with new appliances appearing in the stores every month. Mobile devices often contain sensitive data yet they are easily lost or stolen. Be sure to password protect and encrypt data on all mobile devices whenever possible. Include mobile devices in your acceptable use policy.
#4 Cloud Computing
“The Cloud,” in its most simple form, involves using the Internet to access and store your data. When you access email using a web browser, you are working in “the cloud.” Using the cloud for automated off site backup is rapidly gaining popularity and is just the beginning. Companies like Microsoft, IBM and Google envision the day when we will use inexpensive terminals instead of computers to run programs and access data located somewhere on the Internet. You need to be sure that any data you store and access across the Internet is secure not just where it is stored, but during the trip to and from the Internet.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Three Scariest Threats to Small Business Networks
The 3 Scariest Threats To Small Business Networks
While spam, pop-ups, and hackers are a real threat to any small business network, there are three security measures that you should be focusing on FIRST before you do anything else...
Worry About E-mail Attachments, Not Spam
Sure, spam is annoying and wastes your time, but the REAL danger with spam is in the attachments. Viruses and worms are malicious programs that are spread primarily through cleverly disguised attachments to messages that trick you (or your employees) into opening them.
Another huge threat is phishing e-mails that trick the user by appearing to be legitimate e-mails from your bank, eBay, or other password-protected entity.
Here are two things you must have in place to avoid this nightmare:
Keep your anti-virus up to date and enabled. Okay, this sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s not uncommon for an employee to disable their anti-virus software unbeknownst to you. Which brings us to...
Train employees on what they are (and aren’t) permitted to do with the company’s computer, e-mail, Internet access, etc. One thing that should be on the list is that they should NEVER open suspicious attachments or respond to phishing e-mails. We highly recommend creating an AUP (acceptable use policy) to teach your staff what NOT to do.
Put monitoring software in place to not only maintain the health of employees’ desktops, but also to automatically “police” employees from accidentally (or intentionally) visiting a phishing web site, downloading a virus, or visiting questionable web sites and content online.
Fear Downloads Before Pop-Ups
***Did you know that most computers and networks get infected with viruses because the user actually invited the threat in by downloading a file (screen saver, music file, PDF document, pictures, etc.).?***
Again, this comes down to training the staff on what they can and cannot do with your computer network, but the best way to avoid this from happening is to remove the temptation by installing monitoring software that will prevent employees from downloading unsavory items to YOUR network. We also recommend installing and maintaining a good firewall, which will block Internet traffic to and from dangerous sites.
Lose Sleep Over Backups Before Hackers
You are more likely to lose data from hardware failure, accidental deletion (human error), flood, fire, natural disaster or software corruption than a hacker. Sure, you should do everything to keep hackers out of your network, but not backing up your data to a remote location is crazy. At a minimum, you should have an on-site AND off-site copy of your data, and you should be testing your data back-ups regularly to make sure your data CAN be restored in the event of an emergency.
What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You
Since we are on the subject of protecting your network, can I talk straight? 99% of the business owners I work with wait FAR too long to have us check and update their computer network’s health and security. Because they are not performing regular maintenance, almost every single network we review is completely overlooking these 3 security risks!
At some point, disaster will strike and they find themselves in a real mess with a network that is completely down (that’s when they call us in a panic). By then, the damage is done and it often costs thousands of dollars to restore their network back to normal. Even then, it’s not uncommon for them to permanently lose irreplaceable accounting, client, and business data – not to mention hours of down-time.
What saddens me even more is the fact that almost every one of these costly disasters could have easily been prevented if someone had checked their network’s security and health to remove these threats on a regular basis. Which brings me to the reason I’m writing you today…
No More Excuses!
Call Groff NetWorks now -- 518.320.8906 -- to have us:
-Check your backup to see if it’s working properly and accurately.
-Verify that you have the most up-to-date security patches installed properly; miss one critical update and you’re a “sitting duck.”
-Diagnose slow, unstable PCs.
-Perform a quick network “tune-up” to make programs and files load faster.
Why Should You Care About This?
Because your computer network is the core of running your business. Try to imagine what it would be like if you walked into your office one day to discover all of your data was lost or corrupt. That’s why this check-up and regular maintenance is so important.
REMEMBER: Keeping your network safe is a moving target; the security updates you installed today may be rendered useless tomorrow because new threats are emerging daily.
There are numerous system checks and updates that should be done on a daily basis to ensure maximum speed, performance, and security. Ignore them and your system will get progressively slower, unstable, and susceptible to viruses, spyware, and hackers.
When you say “Yes!” to our Network Health Check, you are in no way obligated to do or buy anything, and you have our promise to NOT lay on the heavy sales pressure.
Here’s What You Need To Do Now: Call my office at 518.320.8906. After we receive your request, we’ll schedule a convenient time for one of our technicians to come onsite and conduct a complete health check of your network. When we’re done, we’ll give you a comprehensive, easy-to-read report that will show any problems, threats, or vulnerable areas that need to be addressed.
If we discover a problem, we’ll also provide you with a recommended action plan and fixed-fee quote on what it will cost for us to resolve it and continue to maintain your network. No hidden fees, no bait and switch.
Should you decide to hire us to do the repair (you’re under no obligation), we’ll get to work on it immediately. If we find out everything is safe and secure, you’ll breathe a big sigh of relief knowing the true state of your network’s health and security—and then we’ll show you the fastest and easiest way to make sure it stays that way.
While spam, pop-ups, and hackers are a real threat to any small business network, there are three security measures that you should be focusing on FIRST before you do anything else...
Worry About E-mail Attachments, Not Spam
Sure, spam is annoying and wastes your time, but the REAL danger with spam is in the attachments. Viruses and worms are malicious programs that are spread primarily through cleverly disguised attachments to messages that trick you (or your employees) into opening them.
Another huge threat is phishing e-mails that trick the user by appearing to be legitimate e-mails from your bank, eBay, or other password-protected entity.
Here are two things you must have in place to avoid this nightmare:
Keep your anti-virus up to date and enabled. Okay, this sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s not uncommon for an employee to disable their anti-virus software unbeknownst to you. Which brings us to...
Train employees on what they are (and aren’t) permitted to do with the company’s computer, e-mail, Internet access, etc. One thing that should be on the list is that they should NEVER open suspicious attachments or respond to phishing e-mails. We highly recommend creating an AUP (acceptable use policy) to teach your staff what NOT to do.
Put monitoring software in place to not only maintain the health of employees’ desktops, but also to automatically “police” employees from accidentally (or intentionally) visiting a phishing web site, downloading a virus, or visiting questionable web sites and content online.
Fear Downloads Before Pop-Ups
***Did you know that most computers and networks get infected with viruses because the user actually invited the threat in by downloading a file (screen saver, music file, PDF document, pictures, etc.).?***
Again, this comes down to training the staff on what they can and cannot do with your computer network, but the best way to avoid this from happening is to remove the temptation by installing monitoring software that will prevent employees from downloading unsavory items to YOUR network. We also recommend installing and maintaining a good firewall, which will block Internet traffic to and from dangerous sites.
Lose Sleep Over Backups Before Hackers
You are more likely to lose data from hardware failure, accidental deletion (human error), flood, fire, natural disaster or software corruption than a hacker. Sure, you should do everything to keep hackers out of your network, but not backing up your data to a remote location is crazy. At a minimum, you should have an on-site AND off-site copy of your data, and you should be testing your data back-ups regularly to make sure your data CAN be restored in the event of an emergency.
What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You
Since we are on the subject of protecting your network, can I talk straight? 99% of the business owners I work with wait FAR too long to have us check and update their computer network’s health and security. Because they are not performing regular maintenance, almost every single network we review is completely overlooking these 3 security risks!
At some point, disaster will strike and they find themselves in a real mess with a network that is completely down (that’s when they call us in a panic). By then, the damage is done and it often costs thousands of dollars to restore their network back to normal. Even then, it’s not uncommon for them to permanently lose irreplaceable accounting, client, and business data – not to mention hours of down-time.
What saddens me even more is the fact that almost every one of these costly disasters could have easily been prevented if someone had checked their network’s security and health to remove these threats on a regular basis. Which brings me to the reason I’m writing you today…
No More Excuses!
Call Groff NetWorks now -- 518.320.8906 -- to have us:
-Check your backup to see if it’s working properly and accurately.
-Verify that you have the most up-to-date security patches installed properly; miss one critical update and you’re a “sitting duck.”
-Diagnose slow, unstable PCs.
-Perform a quick network “tune-up” to make programs and files load faster.
Why Should You Care About This?
Because your computer network is the core of running your business. Try to imagine what it would be like if you walked into your office one day to discover all of your data was lost or corrupt. That’s why this check-up and regular maintenance is so important.
REMEMBER: Keeping your network safe is a moving target; the security updates you installed today may be rendered useless tomorrow because new threats are emerging daily.
There are numerous system checks and updates that should be done on a daily basis to ensure maximum speed, performance, and security. Ignore them and your system will get progressively slower, unstable, and susceptible to viruses, spyware, and hackers.
When you say “Yes!” to our Network Health Check, you are in no way obligated to do or buy anything, and you have our promise to NOT lay on the heavy sales pressure.
Here’s What You Need To Do Now: Call my office at 518.320.8906. After we receive your request, we’ll schedule a convenient time for one of our technicians to come onsite and conduct a complete health check of your network. When we’re done, we’ll give you a comprehensive, easy-to-read report that will show any problems, threats, or vulnerable areas that need to be addressed.
If we discover a problem, we’ll also provide you with a recommended action plan and fixed-fee quote on what it will cost for us to resolve it and continue to maintain your network. No hidden fees, no bait and switch.
Should you decide to hire us to do the repair (you’re under no obligation), we’ll get to work on it immediately. If we find out everything is safe and secure, you’ll breathe a big sigh of relief knowing the true state of your network’s health and security—and then we’ll show you the fastest and easiest way to make sure it stays that way.
10 Easy Ways To Eliminate E-mail Overload
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 or 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 e-mail on web sites. Spammers will steal it and put it on their lists.
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 co-workers 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” 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.
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 or 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 e-mail on web sites. Spammers will steal it and put it on their lists.
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 co-workers 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” 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.
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