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Subject:Re: In Box Exam Question From:Wendy Phillips <wendy -at- SYNERGEX -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 2 Oct 1997 12:03:18 -0700
On Tuesday, September 30, 1997 5:35 PM, George Williams
[SMTP:williamg -at- MTS -dot- NET] wrote:
> For future reference, does anyone know of an established method of
handling
> inbox correspondence efficiently in a hurry.
>
> Thanks in Advance,
> George Williams
Hi, George--
Here are my suggestions on how to attack this problem.
1. Follow a topic as it is being debated, and then act when it is more or
less settled. It is a great idea to get confirmation from the appropriate
decision maker(s)--you want to be sure that your actions are in line with
his/her "final" directions before committing yourself to a response!
2. Choose a specific time (or "times" each day--depending on the urgency or
volume of your correspondence) to look at all your incoming correspondence
and assignments __all at once__. This way you can review the context as a
whole and
a. (Hopefully) not miss anything.
b. See how a topic/project is evolving and try to anticipate what will be
coming next.
c. Schedule the items into your calendar!
d. And, over time, recognize patterns which you can use to be more
efficient.
(For example, does person A always send out an initial document which
they scrap a day later?
If so, you can probably wait a day before responding to person A--and
then, if the document is stable,
jump in and act on it--but, in the meanwhile, you can finish a reply
to persons B, C, and D instead of
wasting a day working on something for A that is scrapped.)
3. Be prepared for new information to alter your plans. Respond to
correspondence in a flexible manner . (There will always been new
information that may change *everything*.)
I don't know how well this would apply to a test situation, but I wish you
luck in the future!
--Wendy Phillips
wendy -at- synergex -dot- com
P.S. (Also in response to "Corporate writing group structure", we do not
have a documentation manager here. We're placed with our development
teams.)
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