Working Smart - 3

Search emails in Outlook 2016

Finding that elusive email from someone can become a life and death situation for us in Outlook. Multiple projects, client emails, and a swamped email box with 50+ emails received on a daily basis can be difficult to track. You know the mail was from X with an attachment but several emails over months make it impossible to zero down on the particular email especially if it was sent several months back

This version of Outlook can make your life easier if you are willing to spend some time reading this post. Follow the 9 easy steps below and you can quickly search for that elusive email

1. Open Outlook and go to your Inbox. Click your mouse on the “Search Current mailbox”.

2. The moment you click in the search bar, the cursor will start flashing in anticipation of your search

3. Your tab will change as per the screen above.4

4. Now go to the dropdown box as per the black arrow

5. The dropdown box should display all the fields you could possibly search from

6. Click on the fields you want and they will start stacking up below the search bar as you click on the fields. These will then drop down every time you put your cursor in the search bar - ready to aid you in a search.

7. Typically you would need the subject, cc, To, Attachments(Yes/No) and From.

8. You can also use Body which is quite useful when you want to search by a word in the body of the email.

9. This can be done in your “Sent” folder as well.

Work Smart and Happy Searching!

Also Read:

Working Smart - 1 Finding that Directory

Working Smart - 2 Save your files with a date

Working Smart - 2

Saving your files with a date

On an average, you would be creating and accessing at least 10-12 documents, spreadsheets etc. Soon there would be hundreds if not thousands of documents piling up in your directory with different file names. Accessing it alphabetically may be an option but prefer to name my documents with a yymmdd_filename format which lists the documents in the directory in a nice organised way starting with the most recent ones on the top.

When I create documents in such numbers, I often forget the name of the document which I have created. Sometimes, I don’t access a document for several weeks which removes it from the recent documents list of word and excel. That’s where I end up using the search function in the Windows explorer. Explorer searches all the directories and subdirectories and highlights all the filenames starting with the year and month - if you have been saving all your files starting with the yymmdd prefix.

Work Smart and share your experiences of Working smart.

Working Smart - 1 Find that Directory

Working Smart - 3 Find that email

Working Smart - 2

Saving your files with a date

On an average, you would be creating and accessing at least 10-12 documents, spreadsheets etc. Soon there would be hundreds if not thousands of documents piling up in your directory with different file names. Accessing it alphabetically may be an option but prefer to name my documents with a yymmdd_filename format which lists the documents in the directory in a nice organised way starting with the most recent ones on the top.

When I create documents in such numbers, I often forget the name of the document which I have created. Sometimes, I don’t access a document for several weeks which removes it from the recent documents list of word and excel. That’s where I end up using the search function in the Windows explorer. Explorer searches all the directories and subdirectories and highlights all the filenames starting with the year and month - if you have been saving all your files starting with the yymmdd prefix.

Work Smart and share your experiences of Working smart.

Working Smart - 1 Find that Directory

Working Smart - 3 Find that email

10. Entertain the team with emails written in (im)proper English

Image courtesy rakratchada torsap / Freedigitalphotos.net

As the last post in the series 10 (un)common mistakes to avoid in Project Management, I conclude the series with this post. here are some lines extracted from emails written. The lines have not been modified and I will leave it to the reader to interpret some of the meanings. If this becomes impossible or if you end up doubling in laughter or both, go to the end of the post where I have put in some hints about the lines. I have highlighted the faux pas in bold and italics. Some of them are really priceless nuggets. Have fun

1. … let us give pleasure to the client …
   
2. I don't what you to advice or work on any problem......
   
3. If [Person] what any information from your end or what your input for any …...
   
4. Let's discusses in detail when we come there......
   
5. I thought much , now can a they say the submission is on [day of the week] . All the tender which you see in [Place], they is no fixed date for submission. Anyways we will submit the same on [Date] .
   
6. I don't what you to work on your …....
   
7. How whats the problem …...
   
8. we have haired him has [Designation]. I what him to do that...
   
9. he what's [Place] team to make a ….
   
10. I what this to be done before …..
    
11. they what Engineers full time....
    
12. Please advice , so that we don't what 100 idea in between. I what every one.....
    
13. Please note - Team is busy with Project can waste time in training every day. Let's do it once and close it asap.

Hints

• For the first one read pleasure as pressure
• Read what as want
• Now and how are interchangeable
• they and there are interchangeable

Links to the previous posts
9. Don’t govern by threats
8. Support the team on the Ground
7. Provide Mission Critical information to the Project Team
6. Resource appropriately
5. How to (not) do your budget in five easy steps
4. Read the contract you just signed
3. Don't promise the impossible in a ridiculous timeframe
2. How (not) to win a contract
1. New Business Areas

9. Don’t govern by threats

Image courtesy Stockimages / Freedigitalphotos.net

As a cherry on the cake, complete the circle by threatening employees by a variety of threats and bully them into submission. Completely politicise the working atmosphere by turning each employee against the other and follow through by asking each employee to “report” about the others privately. Although these may be stone age tactics, these are used effectively by managers in dealing with a new and superbly qualified professional team. 

International organisations world over recognise bullying to be detrimental to the work process. Some of the signs of bullying are :

• Micromanagement at all stages of the work process hamper the flow of the work and indirectly question the integrity of the employees. This effectively reduces an experienced employee to a rookie who needs to ask for instructions at every stage
• Intruding privacy with phone calls at odd hours and clear threats to answer emails received on hand held devices within minutes of receiving them. Not answering phone calls or emails would lead to a “dressing down” in front of other employees – another clear bullying tactic.
• Displaying intimidating behaviour about specific employees in front of other employees in their absence by threatening to fire them – incessantly and constantly.
• Constantly deflecting requests for personal time off which is contractually due to the employee thereby traumatising employees.

To top it all, none of these “rules” are available in the company rule book or available from the Human Resource department.  The employee has little or no choice but to fall in line with the bullying tactics of the boss. The employee can

• Establish ground rules and areas to allow the “micromanagement” to slowly metamorphose to a stage where it becomes redundant or even stupid
• Gradually and firmly, establish the limits of office time and private family time.
• For the intimidating behaviour, the employees could unite against such behaviour and stand up to the bully. After all, one can’t “fire” the team all at once.
• For the requests of leave, if it is clearly due and official, the employees should stand up for their rights. Eventually, the bully will back down.

In the tenth and concluding post, look forward to an entertaining piece on email writing. Links to the previous posts are below

8. Support the team on the Ground
7. Provide Mission Critical information to the Project Team
6. Resource appropriately
5. How to (not) do your budget in five easy steps
4. Read the contract you just signed
3. Don't promise the impossible in a ridiculous timeframe
2. How (not) to win a contract
1. New Business Areas

8. Support the team on the Ground

Image courtesy:  africa / Freedigitalphotos.net

Mistakes happen. Sometimes several of them at once or in a sequence. The team on the ground, under most circumstances at least has the strong support from the core team which is experienced and has encountered many such difficult project situations. Not So.
The core team is busy with other projects or is simply interested in churning out the monthly invoices to protect the bottom lines and manage salaries of the team. Support and advice in the form of a conference call can become difficult to organise.  In strictly hierchical firms, independent decisions by project teams are vigourously controlled where the project delivery becomes a risk.
Looking back at such situations, one could:

• Draw up clear protocols for raising project related issues all the way to the top of the hierarchy of the firm. Even top management including owners should remain accessible for project related issues. The access can of course be controlled and monitored so as to involve them in only crucial issues.
• Regular contact with the project team in forms of conference calls or meetings.
• If meetings or calls do not become possible, regular reports should be scrutinised and advice given for crucial, unanswered issues

In the next post, I shall be discussing the ninth point in the series – Don’t govern by threats.
Links to the previous posts
7. Provide Mission Critical information to the Project Team
6. Resource appropriately
5. How to (not) do your budget in five easy steps
4. Read the contract you just signed
3. Don't promise the impossible in a ridiculous timeframe
2. How (not) to win a contract
1. New Business Areas

7. Provide Mission critical information to the project team

Image courtesy Stuart Miles / Freedigitalphotos.net

After all the mistakes listed so far, an employee would definitely expect to start the project with all the critical and important information necessary for the project. Not likely. The team who has put together the project does not deem it necessary that the Project delivery team has all the critical information required for the timely delivery of the project. This is often due to lack of trust while passing on the information and mistaking the delivery team to be a an adversary rather than an important part of the project delivery process. When members of the team come from several different cultures, countries and time zones this often becomes a major problem to the delivery of the project.
Important milestones in the contracts are missed consistently because of this lack of communication. This affects the overall project delivery and in some serious cases this has led to the entire contract being terminated and the teams of the stakeholders entering into arbitration. This is a messy, time consuming affair which can be avoided.
Simply put,

• Communicate with your team about the key milestones of the projects
• Ensure that the team is “on the same page” and everyone is not following their own agendas.
• Communication protocols should be clearly established especially when teams from various nationalities, cultures, educational backgrounds and disparity of ages is coming together to deliver the projects in countries of the Middle East or Africa. This becomes critical when people are working across several time zones at once.

In the next post you can look forward to Support your team on the Ground.
Links to previous posts
6. Resource appropriately
5. How to (not) do your budget in five easy steps
4. Read the contract you just signed
3. Don't promise the impossible in a ridiculous timeframe
2. How (not) to win a contract
1. New Business Areas

4. Read the Contract you just signed

Sounds strange? Impossible? Three out of four times? Chances are that the contract that you have been handed over to execute has not been read by the person who signed it.  

Unbelievable as it may sound pressures of time, lack of appropriate resources and a desire to grab the contract often lead to these situations. In the contract that has been signed for you to execute has all the deliverables in the world that the client could think of. Not to mention the ridiculous time frame in which to execute them. It would be an unfortunate situation if you have such a situation to deal with. Disastrous if this is the fourth in the series of mistakes that have happened and you happen to inherit the consequences.

Some lessons you could learn would be (Pardon me for stating the obvious)

• Read the contract (before signing it of course!) and iron out the kinks. Both parties entering into the contract have an unsaid right to review the contract before it gets to the signing stage.
• It does a lot of good to your company’s professional reputation if you suggest a few changes which may have been missed out inadvertently.
• Save on “fan cleaning” costs at  later.

The next in the series is about getting your budgets right.

Links to the posts in this series

3. Don't promise the impossible in a ridiculous time frame

2. How (not) to win a contract

1. New Business Areas

3. Don’t promise the impossible in a ridiculous time frame

Image courtesy chokphoto / Freedigitalphotos.net

The third post in the series 10 (un)common mistakes to in Project Management. Promising the impossible in a ridiculous time frame. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Or a month or even a year. Recently the new Doha airport has also opened after a year’s delay. At the time of signing the contract for the project, Business development teams promise the impossible leaving the delivery team to struggle with the difficult schedule.
Bear with me and imagine a scenario wherein a less developed place, isolated from the developed world where even the most basic building material - cement is imported. Prices of commodities are normally three times the world average cost. Skilled labour is not available.  The topography does not favour you either. Steep gradients and a richly undulating landscape with more than 100 inches of rainfall annually. Residents of the place build a house over several years with very rudimentary techniques and methods. The largest building contractor does not build more than a few dozen residential units in a year. In this kind of a scenario would you sign a contract to deliver 1500 building units designed by architects sitting 6000 km away with the best of modern materials and amenities in less than a year? If you answered yes then I’d like to hear from you.
Valuable lessons to learn from such uncommon incidents :

• Acquaint yourselves with the ground realities of a place for which you are going to sign the contract.
• It does not hurt to disagree with the client regarding aggressive (read impossible) time lines. In fact, he should be given correct professional advice at the right time.
• The time frames are not aggressive by themselves alone, they become a constraint when other circumstances are ignored.

I will be posting about a fourth uncommon mistake "Read your contract".
Links to previous posts in this series
2. How (not) to win a contract
1. New Business Areas

2. How (not) to win a contract

The second part in the series of “10 (un)common mistakes to avoid in Project Management”, is How (not) to win a Contract
The pressure to grow multifold, to get more revenue into the kitty prompts companies and business development executives to resort to "unconventional" means to procure projects.Most of us have encountered various unconventional methods used by the go getters of organisations who spare no effort in winning a project for the company.  During the initial stages of bidding for the project this often comes under the guise of agents who can "help" you to get a project. As a Business development executive this is an easy solution but you have only postponed the problem and successfully invited disaster for your Project Delivery team. Not to mention the strain it will create between you and the client as you start the project on the back foot because the client has the upper hand in this relationship. Not the best way to deliver a project. Other problems include a huge dent in your revenue as the agent is going to take away a huge chunk.
Valuable lessons to learn from such uncommon incidents :

• As a professional entity, disallow such practices at the highest levels as they are a surefire way to invite disaster. One project acquired in this fashion will wipe out the reputation earned from all your past projects. The industry in which you work is a small group and word travels fast.
• Emphasise on traditional values like honesty, integrity and hard work above all else – though they might sound archaic and old fashioned in today’s fast paced world.

"Don’t promise the impossible in a ridiculous time frame" is the third in the series. Read about the previous post here.
1. New Business Areas

10 (un)common mistakes to avoid in Project Management

Ten avoidable issues. Very basic, Simple and based on plain common sense but uncommon to find.

New Business areas

 Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Success in one region or a particular discipline does not mean you can duplicate your success using the same formula in unknown regions and cultures. If you are an ace at managing and designing residential developments in the Middle east, does not automatically translate to a successful design of an airport project in a different culture and geographical region (and continent) like say South America. In the competitive world, such ventures give the age old adage "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" a completely new meaning.
Perhaps pressure to grow into new areas pushes companies to venture into such new business areas.
Valuable lessons to learn from such uncommon incidents :

• Employ professionals who have extensive experience in the new areas and business verticals that the company wishes to venture into. Needless to say, these professionals should be trusted and groomed into the company culture.
• Recognise the differences in cultures and geographies which play a large role for new companies entering new geographies and business verticals.
• Recognise the fact that new geographies and business verticals have a gestational period and would take time to yield results and profits
• Recognise the fact that successful strategies and formulae of a hugely successful region and business vertical do not translate to the same success in other regions and cultures.

In the next post I will be posting about How (not) to win a contract 

Other posts in this series

9. Don’t govern by threats
8. Support the team on the Ground
7. Provide Mission Critical information to the Project Team
6. Resource appropriately
5. How to (not) do your budget in five easy steps
4. Read the contract you just signed
3. Don't promise the impossible in a ridiculous timeframe

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