So much Email, and so little time!

Wouldn't it be great to be able to filter, sort, file and prioritise your emails in seconds rather than minutes? If you could do that, and then allocate time in your schedule to deal with the important messages, imagine how much more productive you'd be.

On average, 30 minutes a day more productive.

The seven simple steps in this week's TeamTips are all about making your email a productivity tool rather than a chore.

It'll take you less than three minutes to read, and is packed with practical how-to steps you can put to work today.

Or if reading's not quite your thing, you can always listen to the audio version of this article - it's in the format of a short discussion about how to sort out email.

Give me three minutes of your time today, and I'll give you an hour a day.

Where does the time go?

Are there never enough minutes in the day? Or do you try to save time by doing two or three things at once? (Ever looked through your email while on hold on the phone?)

But with better management of priorities, things could be very different. Wouldn't it be great to know that although you were busy, at least you were working on the important things.

The seven simple steps in this week's TeamTips will help you free up an hour a day. It'll take less than three minutes to read, and is packed with practical how-to steps that you should be able to put to work today.

What do the numbers tell you?

In the age of computers, we're often deluged with data. But too often, it's not in a helpful format, and its almost impossible to see patterns that you can draw conclusions from.

When you need to make (or recommend) a decision, you need to be able to 'tell the story'. Fortunately, as the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words".

This week's TeamTips is all about converting data into a picture, using a technique called 'hostograms' With seven easy-to-apply steps that'll take you less than three minutes to read, its packed with practical how-to tips that you should be able to put to work this week.

You can download the Hostograms article, or sign up for other free team leaders articles from the Sevenrings website.

Team Leaders are THE communication link.

In most organisations, there are two types of people. Those who do the work that customers value, and those who do the other stuff that goes on in the company - sales, admin, finance, management, etc. The other 'stuff' is usally needed to make sure that the company remains in business to serve its customers - we're not making any judgements here on the relative value of these two types of people!

Team Leaders are the bridge between the two. Uniquely, they're responsible for both doing the work and the other stuff that goes on.

This week's Team Tips is all about this 'middle man' role. With seven easy-to-apply steps that'll take you less than three minutes to read, its packed with practical how-to tips that you should be able to put to work this week.

You can download the Effective Communications article, or sign up for other free team leaders articles from the Sevenrings website.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by information and data?

There's a simple technique you can use to separate what's important from what's trivial. Its called the Pareto Chart, and although its been around for a long time. its still one of the best tools going to home in on what's important.

This week's Team Tips is all about using Pareto Charts. With seven easy-to-apply steps that'll take you less than three minutes to read, its packed with practical how-to tips that you should be able to put to work this week.

And to make things easier, we've provided an Excel template for Pareto Charts.

You can download the Pareto article, and the Excel Pareto Template, or sign up for other free team leaders articles from the Sevenrings website.

"Continuous Improvement" seems to be another one of those buzz-words.

But at its heart is a simple technique that'll help you collect, try out, and systemise ideas to dramatically improve your teams' results.

This week's TeamTips is all about this method, called PDCA. With seven easy-to-apply stems that'll take you less than three minutes to read, its packed with practical how-to tips that you should be able to put to work this week.

You can download the PDCA article, or sign up for other free team leaders articles from the Sevenrings website.

Making Meetings More Effective

There's a joke that says "meetings are the practical alternative to work". With the average Team Leader attending two meetings a day (half an hour each - five hours a week), its not a very funny joke. Yet too often, people fritter valuable time away in meetings that are almost totally non-productive.

But meetings can be an extremely effective and efficient use of time. They enable rapid communication of important news, for problems to be effectively investigated, and for plans of action to be agreed by all.

This week's TeamTips is all about getting these results, by starting daily briefings in your organisation. It'll take you less than three minutes to read and is packed with practical, how-to tips.

You can download the effective meetings article, or sign up for other free team leaders articles from the Sevenrings website.

Process Mapping - Use Brown Paper, Crayons and Post-Its To Communicate Like Never Before

Getting anunderstanding of where to start making changes is often really hard. Since Team LEaders generally work 'at the sharp end', its frequently a challenge to see the wood for the trees and figure out how to stop the need for fire fighting.

Process mapping is an excellent tool for this initial step. Working with the team (or members from across a slection of teams) enables everyone to have their input. More importantly, it separates the people from the problems, allowing things to be seen for what they really are.

This week's TeamTips is all about getting these results, by starting daily briefings in your organisation. It'll take you less than three minutes to read and is packed with practical, how-to tips.

You can download the process mapping article or sign up for other free team leaders articles from the Sevenrings website.

Issue 1: Team Briefings - THE Secret Weapon For Success

Starting the day with your staff focused on what needs doing means that they'll act as a team. They'll be more productive, make fewer mistakes, and respond faster to unexpected demands from customers. They'll also make a much happier workplace.

It takes less than ten minutes a day to achieve this. And that ten minutes more than pays for itself in terms of the increased productivity it creates.

This week's TeamTips is all about getting these results, by starting daily briefings in your organisation. It'll take you less than three minutes to read and is packed with practical, how-to tips.

You can download the article on team briefings, or sign up for other free team leaders articles from the Sevenrings website.