Email: can't live without it, but damn! Spam and spam filters, the huge volume of email. There is the temptation to declare email bankruptcy. And I have seven email addresses I check regularly.

I'm still learning how to do email right. I'm guilty of the occasional gruff and cranky message, the unneeded extra message, being misunderstood, including too many people, or including too few. I've done the awkward and embarrassing thing of accidentally including the thread below a message and sending it to the wrong person.

So I was interested when somebody suggested three things to think about before you send that email. I'm borrowing this from another context — a speech — but it seems to fit.

1. Is it true?

A simple enough test. Of course if we get picky or technical, you don't always know, but come on, you really do. Truth is hard to figure in philosophy, not so much in business email. 

 2. Is it beneficial?

Will sending this email do any good for you, your business, your colleague, or anybody? Does it serve business objectives?

3. Is it Timely?

Timing makes a big difference. Is it too late for any action or result? Is it too early?

I've started watching now, and not all the emails I get, and not all the emails I send, meet this 3-point test.

I was going to suggest a fourth test — is it kind? — but that's a bit much in this context. Still, at least I mentioned it. And the thought brings up an interesting addition: the list doesn't include the problem of making people mad, or hurting their feelings, or making business enemies. What do you think: if it's true, beneficial, and timely, but is going to make somebody either very mad or very sad, do you send it anyhow?

In the beginning, multitasking seems like the way to go. It’s very satisfying to have your email open, manage IM, take a call, and have your presentation you’re working on and a memo or document too, and — why not? — a spreadsheet open as well, working on your projections. Boy, am I getting a lot of things done. I love it. The magic of technology.

And then there’s the driving time. Years ago it was listening to the radio while driving, nice music or conversation (talk shows), pass the time, but pay attention to the road. That kind of multitasking never bothered me.  Then, through the magic of technology again, we get cellphones. These days it seems like a third of the drivers I see (it’s not illegal in Oregon) have one arm dedicated to holding the phone in their ear.

The New York Times, however, recently cited research that confirms what I (and the states of New York and California and I don’t know how many others) suspect: that I can’t drive as well when I’m on the phone. And neither can you. Here’s the reference: Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don’t Read This in Traffic:

Several research reports, both recently published and not yet published, provide evidence of the limits of multitasking. The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car.

These experts have some basic advice. Check e-mail messages once an hour, at most. Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions — most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows — hamper performance. Driving while talking on a cellphone, even with a hands-free headset, is a bad idea.

I’m guilty. I confess. Have you been on the phone lately, talking to me, and I seemed not all there? I probably wasn’t all there, because I was also reacting to instant messenger, maybe reading email, maybe working on a presentation as well. And sometimes my cellphone rings too, while I’m on the office phone.

Is that insulting to you, the listener. Yes, actually, and I apologize.

I’ve done it while driving too. A couple of years ago I was waiting at a red light, dialed the phone, and instinctively let up on the brake exactly as I pressed the send button. Thankfully, I caught it in time, nothing happened but it scared me, reminded me that this is sort of crazy. I can walk and chew gum at the same time, yes; and I can drive and talk to you at the same time too, when you’re in the car with me. But can I drive and talk to you on the phone as well? Not sure.

I guess it’s not just coincidence that I’m starting to see people writing about how you need to do only one thing at a time as a tool for productivity. Read your emails just a couple times a day, and focus on one task at a time. Suddenly, or so it seems, doing just one thing at a time is, ironically, a way to be more productive.

Take, for example, this post by Tim Ferriss quoting at length JoshWaitzkin. Or perhaps this one, subtitled work simpler and saner, on Zen Habits. It’s enough to have us all give pause — except that we can’t, because we’re too busy.

If the best part of your presentation is in the beginning when you thank the conference organizers, then ignore this post.

And if you’re one of those last-minute types (like me, I’m afraid), almost late to the room and the session, still reworking your slides until it’s time to go, well then, this idea won’t help you with that either.

For those who do manage to prepare some things ahead of time, Seth Godin’s post this morning, Saying thanks in a conference presentation, offers a good idea, relatively easy to implement, for those boring first five minutes of the presentation when you thank everybody who did everything for the conference:

Prepare for the talk by taking pictures of each person. If they’re shy, you can even do photographs in groups of two or three. Good photos, clever photos, funny photos… photos that are interesting are best.

Then, create a new presentation. Put each photo on its own slide, preferably with a well designed ID below it (it should be on a black box, with a nice sans serif font reversed out. Like you see on cable TV news.)

String one after the other. Build a dissolve transition between each one. Program it to put up a new slide every two seconds–don’t go too slow!–and to loop the presentation.

Ten minutes before you’re due to start, while everyone is finding their seats, run the presentation. It’ll cycle 5 or 10 times before you start speaking. When you get up, start your presentation and just dive into the meaty stuff.

I think that’s really cool, but now I’ll have to watch myself for the procrastination factor even more than normal. This neat trick is not one I can do at the last minute.

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