Over the past few weeks and months, I have come across individuals much young than I (I’m 42 at the time of this blog) who have difficulty either making the time to effectively manage their email or have almost completely ignored it completely. Similarly, some have mismanaged their voicemail to the point that it becomes full and unable to accept additional voicemails, making reaching them next to impossible. Now, I’m not talking about just buddies of mine who either ignorant, lazy or complacent. I’m talking about people in my life who have very “powerful” (okay, they’re not presidents of foreign countries but leaders in their respective fields of service) who, in spite of their busyness, need to be and should be reachable. Hey, am I the only one out there who has experienced this problem?
Unfortunately, I have had friends in the past that I have had to just “cut off” because they were unreachable and didn’t see or feel the need to change their email and voicemail management in such a way to achieve reachability. Unfortunately (?), I value these people in my life too much to do so with them. And it is to them I dedicate this blog.
EMAIL
In order to successfully maintain email, one must, first and foremost, have at least a basic knowledge of their systems, whether it be MS Outlook, Yahoo, Excite, AOL, Hotmail, or (my favorite) GMail. In doing so, look for the system’s options where filters and blocking can be programmed. This one initial thing can be the most crucial action to help fuel your success in the battle of email maintenance and should help to exclude unnecessary email from your Inbox.
The next step is to have a basic knowledge of your Address Book. Many times, you will have a familiarity with your friends’ email addresses enabling you to distinguish the familiar with the unfamiliar. Hotmail and AOL accounts have an option where a user can choose to only receive emails from those included in their Address Book. A general rule of thumb: If you don’t recognize the sender’s address, don’t waste valuable time opening and reading the message! Besides, most Deleted and Trash folders won’t automatically empty for thirty (30) days, giving you plenty of time to retrieve a mistakenly deleted message.
Another step is READING, not skimming, your email messages. In Corporate America, email has become an extremely important communication tool. It can also be effective between friends. I don’t know how many times I have included pertinent information within an email, only to have the recipient haphazardly disregard the message’s contents and mistakes ensued. MOST OF THE TIME, if the message is important, details will be simple to read and understand.
Finally, there’s the maintenance of past emails. With many email systems (like MS Outlook and GMail, folders can be set up where messages can either be programmed to automatically dropped into instead of the Inbox or placed there for storage. For those systems without a folder archive system, simply delete those messages which are over 30-60 days old (or whatever time frame you choose!). Advise: Messages containing attachments tend to use a lot of memory, so Save As those attachments onto your hard drive instead!
VOICEMAIL
Fortunately, voicemail is a lot easier to maintain because many systems only have a limited amount of space or automatically delete within a certain length of time! To keep your voicemail from getting full to the point of not receiving messages, I have found that once I have returned the missed call, I can delete the message! This has been an excellent system for me, which keeps my voicemail vacant and plenty of room for future calls.
Of course, if you need any technical assistance (that's for those in the Dallas area), give me a call!
A peek into my mind, to hear the thoughts of a 40-something single male as he walks this planet called Earth.
John M. Kirton II
DISCLAIMER: This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own solely and not those of The Village Church, her ministers, pastors, administrators, staff, covenant members, regular attenders or visitors; my parents; my alma mater, Dallas Christian College, her administration, faculty, Board, alumni, or students, past, present and future; or my employer and fellow employees.
My Story
- John M. Kirton II
- I attended public school for two years and private school for the remainder of my education. After graduation, I attended Bible college in Dallas, Texas, for four and one-half years consecutively. Unfortunately, I failed a class and was unable to graduate with my class but God enabled me to re-take the course and I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Bible and minors in Youth Ministry and Biblical Languages in 1994. After failing the aforementioned course, I had continued attending a church but began to falter in my faith. It was during my second year after my Bible college years that I was introduced to the International Churches of Christ (ICOC), where I became a member and was involved for twelve years. It was not until my twelfth year that, after much prayer from my parents and closest friends, Greg Faure and Wayne Stiles, I became convinced that the ICOC was a religious sect. In June, 2000, I left the ICOC and became a covenant member of The Village Church in Highland Village, TX, in April, 2004.
