Email Survival Skills: Survival Tips Compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2010 & 2013 (2015)

Email is Sturdy Footwear for Your Business Day

After picking the right backpack for your outdoor adventure, the next purchase should be sturdy footwear. You need a pair of shoes that are strong, durable, and broken in – not brand new.

When we were first married, my husband and I went on a one day hike in the Uinta Mountains. Being concerned about my gear, he purchased a sturdy pair of shoes for me to wear. The shoes were wonderful, but they were not broken in. Soon I had blisters, and walking barefoot was a relief. After wearing the shoes around the house and getting them to mold to my feet, they were perfect for future hikes.

Even though we may not like to admit it, email is the basic tool for business communication. When it comes to dispensing information, it is like sturdy footwear in your survival kit.

While you might groan when you see messages flooding your inbox, let’s recount the benefits that email has provided corporate America. Before email communication, in order to ask a simple question or request vacation time, you had to schedule a few minutes with your manager. Important documents had to be mailed overnight (costing time and money) to clients or other branch offices.

Some projects had specifications that were continually changing. In some cases, documents were not ready to be shipped by the overnight-mail deadline either. If this was the case, the documents had to be faxed. Since fax machines lacked the laser technology that is so prevalent today, this meant administrative personnel had to re-type the information from the fax, format it, and then submit it. In today’s world, all we would need to do is open an email and attach the document. While we all know that email technology was not present in the 1970s, many times we forget that this technology was just beginning to catch on in the early 1990s.

The mail and fax process was time consuming and expensive, but corporations had no alternative until email came into the picture. Now an office can email an attachment, which usually requires no additional formatting or typing. Employees can focus on other tasks, rather than rework. Someone can send an important presentation to a client within a few minutes’ time rather than overnight.

When it comes to email survival techniques, email represents sturdy and reliable footwear for your business. It saves every person in the company precious time.

Fill Your Mind, Just like You Fill the Backpack

Once you have purchased the right backpack and found sturdy shoes that your feet love, you work to fill the backpack with just the right supplies you personally prefer to help you survive as you experience your hike.

In a similar manner, opening your daily email is an adventure, and you need to fill the backpack in your mind with survival tools and techniques; starting with first aid supplies.