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The email signature provides a few essential things:
– Your name, how you would like to be called.
– The name of your employer
– Your title
Mainly how someone can contact you.

This provides the same basic information that one would find on a business card.

Why not take this and make it more effective and usable.
An email signature should contain the above items including:
– One contact number
– One email address
– Url
– Tag Line
– Your mailing address (on the fence about this)

A few items I think can be dropped from your signature:
– Every phone number that has your name on the voicemail. I want to have one number that I can use to call you. While if I really need to speak with you I will call around, but if I you are in sales and I can not locate you, I am going to the next name. With tech like Google Voice, no need to have multiple contacts, make it simple. One phone number.

– Graphic versions of your contact information. I am not talking about a nice html touch, but the entire signature in one big graphic.
I feel this is the biggest no-no when it comes to an email signature. If I think that I am going to want to add you to my contact list or add information about you to a follow up list, the graphic forces me to re-type all of your informaiton. If this is going to be for sales and I enter your information wrong, no sale for you. Allow your customer to quickly copy your information from your email and paste it into a contact file or contact management system.

Keep the signature simple yet effective:
(NAME)
(JOB TITLE), (DEPARTMENT)
(COMPANY NAME)
(PHONE) (FAX)

I have created a template folder that contains the following folders. In each of the folders I have template word/excel and ppt files.

I find that the P XX in the front of the project stages keeps the plan moving forward. Closing one section and moving towards the next.

My template folder looks like this:
_Budget – Contains any budget numbers, emails, etc.
_Documentation – This is anything prior to the discovery meeting that would help.
_Meetings – Contains notes from all meetings related to the projects.
P 01 – Discovery – Items relating the the outline of the project.
P 02 – Requirements – The main requirements / project request form location.
P 03 – Production – Any files relating to the creation of the project.
P 04 – testing – Test cases, user feedback, etc.
P 05 – Implementation – Mainly the lessons learned, directions to the major team supporting the project.

In the root of the folder I have 3 files.
– Action Plan.doc Outline of the day-to-day actions of the project.
– Project Snap Shot.doc – This is maintained during the project as a quick outline of the project status.
– Project File – This will contain all of the dates and tasks for the project. Mainly for the PM.

This is a quick outline of my project folder structure.

Let me quickly explain.

Looking at my email in box sometimes, ok almost all of the time, made my mind race and blood pressure rise. I would scan the first couple of emails and be reminded of meetings I need to attend, meetings I should have attended and also thing that need to get done…yesterday. I start to panic…and the day just started.

I found a better way that works for me, and might help you out. Every morning I take my in box to zero and here is how I do it.

As I scan my emails I move them into one of the 4 emails folders.

• Done – Any email that was a follow up and requires no further action.
• Todo – Something that requires an action.
• Follow up – I either drag an email to this folder or when sending an email, that requires follow up, I will bcc myself on the email. I have a rule in my email clients to move all bcc emails, from me, to this folder.
• Info – This could be announcement a date change to a meeting or something that I would like to find fast. I normally go to this folder and move older items to the done folder.

That is it, so simple it is crazy.

When I am scanning my email and moving them to the correct action folder there are 2 more things that I do:

• Take action on emails that take less than 2 minutes to complete.
• Delegate, before moving to the todo folder and bcc’ing myself for follow up.

It feels great to move something to the "done" folder.

I do want to point out these practices came from ideas I found in the GTD book and from the 43 folders blog.

• The most secure passwords are 15 characters or longer.
• Documenting your password is not necessarily a bad thing.
• Random passwords aren’t necessarily more secure.
• You can read more suggestions at, click here. 

When picking a password, do not use any of the following. Click here.

Now I wait.

While I can call them, they have my number, product i am interested in, etc. It would be a lot quicker than me calling into a company and transferred around to finally leave a message in a voice mail.

The word on follow up, is have a process.
For me I have a follow up folder in my email, blackberry and also a hanging folder at my desk. These are set up so that I can capture the follow up in the moment. If I am given a document I place it in the folder. If I need to call someone, I place a task in my blackberry and if I have a task for work, it is either in my to-do or follow up folders. I check these tickler files each week to see what i can do or if i need to defer them till a later date.

I have found these simple collection areas to be very helpful.