Getting Good at Email

This email thing has really caught on. Whether or not it’s a regular part of your life now, it will become so at the latest when you begin college. And for something people spend so much time doing, most people are pretty bad at email.

“How can someone be bad at email?” you ask.

Let’s imagine someone who’s bad at making a bowl of cereal. So this person puts a bowl on the counter and takes out a box of cereal. They open the box and take one Cheerio and put it in the bowl. Then a second Cheerio. Then a third. 15 minutes later, they’re ready for the milk. They open the milk carton and carefully pour it into a teaspoon and then dump the teaspoon into the bowl. Then a second teaspoon, and then a third and fourth. Finally, 30 minutes after getting started, they’re ready to eat! (Thank goodness they didn’t want to add in any sugar.)

Now, if you were watching this person make a bowl of cereal, what would you say?

You’d go crazy. You’d want to pull your hair out. “Why would anyone ever be that incredibly inefficient?!” you’d think.

Well that’s me when I watch most people use email. Getting quick and efficient at using email can help you stay organized and save you a ton of time. Here are some tips to help you pour the email cereal:

Get on Gmail
In my experience (and I used Yahoo for four years), Gmail is far and away the best. If you use Yahoo, or AOL, or Hotmail, or whatever—give Gmail a try. Sign up for a free account, and if you agree that it’s superior to whatever you’ve been using, send one email to your contacts and tell them that you have a new email address, and just like that, you’re switched.

Keyboard Shortcuts
Once you’re on Gmail, go straight into Settings and turn “Keyboard Shortcuts” on. Then, once you refresh the page, you’ll be ready to use them. Start by pressing Shift + / to bring up a list of all the keyboard shortcuts Gmail offers (or check them out here). Beyond the obvious time-savers like C to compose a new message, R to reply, F to forward, etc., there are dozens more, all of which are useful. Also, to send a message, simply press Tab to highlight the Send key, and then Enter to send your message. Trust me—once you get used to these, you will never go back to clicking around Gmail with your mouse.

Archiving
In Gmail, there are two ways to maintain your inbox: 1) The old fashion way—let your messages pile up into the thousands, creating a never-ending inbox, or 2) The modern way—"archive" emails you’re done with, keeping your inbox clean and only containing messages you still need to read or answer. I can say with absolute conviction that the modern way is superior. The key is that archived messages haven’t gone anywhere—they’re sitting in the “All Mail” folder on the left, and you can either go to that folder or use the search feature to find an archived message at any time. Just type the name of someone on that email and maybe a word from the email or another recipient, and the archived message will be right in front of you again. Meanwhile, your inbox is clean and only contains messages you need to attend to, allowing your inbox to serve as your email “to-do” list.

You can bring in your own systems on top of this—you can “keep as new” messages you need to deal with more urgently, or tag them with a star, etc. Whatever works best for you.

(When I go through my emails, I simply press either k or ]. k leaves the message in my inbox and moves one to the next one, ] archives the message and moves to the next one. For me, it’s one or the other, unless it’s r to reply to the message.)

Labels
Labels can help you stay organized. Rather than putting an email in a “folder,” Gmail lets you tag emails with one or more labels that you create. Then when you click that label on the left side of the screen, every message you’ve tagged with that label is sitting there. For example, I created a label called “Flights” in my Gmail. When I book a flight online, I receive an email with the flight details. Since I know I’m going to need that email in a couple months—but I don’t want it to stay in my inbox that whole time and create clutter—I slap the “Flights” label on it (keyboard shortcut: when I’m in the message I press L to bring up the "choose a label" field and then type the first couple letters of “FLIGHTS” and press Enter and voila). Then, a couple months later when I need the email, I just go to the flights label and there it is.

Filters
If you’re a beginner, worry about the above items for now—but for the more advanced user, filters are the way to tell Gmail what you want it to do with messages. For example, if I get a weekly newsletter that I might want to read here and there, but I don’t want to be bothered with it popping into my inbox each week—I can create a filter that tells Gmail: “When a message comes in from the sender of this newsletter, apply a “newsletter” label to it and archive it before it even reaches my inbox.” So now I’ll never see another one of these newsletters in my inbox, but when I click on the “newsletter” label on the left, all of the newsletters will be sitting there. Cool, right? You can create filters in Settings.

Labs
Finally, once you get good at Gmail, head to Settings and go to the Labs tab. There you will find over a hundred little cool features that you may or may not want to activate in your Gmail. One of my favorites is “Undo Send,” which allows me to take back a sent message for 10 seconds after sending it—comes in surprisingly handy. Check them out.

Themes
While you’re in Settings, head to the Themes tab and make your Gmail page more interesting. My favorite is Tea House, which allows you to check out the daily life of a delightful little fox who lives at the bottom of your screen.

Good luck! This stuff may take some getting used to, but you’ll thank me one day (reminds me when my private SAT tutors said the same thing). For more on Gmail, check out the Gmail blog.

Raise Your Hand: So 2011

I have no qualms asking questions, so it probably doesn't surprise you that I am also an avid fan of Wikipedia, the dictionary, and the classic "Google search."

Unlike most, one of my favorite arenas for asking questions is in the restaurant. Since it's not so typical to preface an order with "I have a question..." some might say I've got quite a lot of moxie to "raise my hand."

However, I find that I learn some of the most interesting things from the simple act of asking anyone, my teacher, my SAT tutor, my mentors. The other day, I got my notion confirmed by a pastry chef that Boston Cream Pie is indeed not a pie, per se, but a sponge cake. Who knew!

Subsequently, a majority of my adult friends would probably be surprised to know that as a child, I was not the kid who easily raised my hand in class . Looking back, I believe I was afraid to ask a question because I was embarrassed and thought everyone else would think I was stupid. I have the sense (probably due to the uncomfortable looks I get when I inquire about the method to make, say, bacon foam)- that I am/was not alone in this assumption.

Recently, I read Aristotle’s quote “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know” – and it made me wonder: all those years I kept my hand at my side for fear of being called “dumb” – maybe, just maybe - I was wrong?

Being an adult, I took my quandary to the streets and asked a few of my teacher friends for their perspective on the classroom dynamic as it pertains to hand-raising.

A pal who is a 7th grade math teacher says that he has never had a “dumb” question come from a student raising their hand in class. In fact, “the types of problems that students ask the most questions about out loud are usually the ones every student in that class ends up acing on the exam.”

Coincidence? Hardly.

Taking the matter to an 11th grade English teacher, I was informed that her daily lesson plan includes a 5 minute “question and answer” block right before the end of class. Initially, she had her students vote on how they wanted to use the time: to do homework, to study for other classes, or to “clarify” what they had gone over that day via peer-generated questions.

Impressively, each of her six periods voted to use the time to ask her questions as a group – instead of through personal email or individually, after class. She claims that group "Q & A" allows everyone to benefit from her answers – and not-so-surprisingly, the classes that ask the most questions per day tend to have the highest class average on exams and essays in comparison to the classes that use the time for study or other homework.

It would appear that Aristotle was on to something. So, if you pledge to do anything this semester, promise to seek an answer when you are curious, and if you are feeling bold – ask a question out loud for the rest of us.

Senioritis

Symptoms: These include laziness, excessive apathy, chronic tardiness, occasional absences, and an overwhelming urge to slack off.

Causes: The onset of senioritis can happen as soon as you send off your college applications. But symptoms often don’t become apparent until that big envelope arrives in the mail and the suspense of the college application process is over. With your acceptance letter in hand, it seems your hard work as a high school student is done, and all of your SAT prep is behind you. So you begin to let loose, and before you know it, you’re in a slump. Hello, senioritis!

Complications: Ignoring the symptoms can have serious consequences. College acceptances are often contingent on a student’s continued academic success, and a drop in grades due to senioritis won’t be overlooked by the admissions officers reviewing your year-end transcript. Every year, colleges rescind their offers of admission to those who haven’t maintained their grades or have fallen short in some other way. (Final grades were cited by 69% of colleges that revoked admission offers in 2007; disciplinary problems accounted for 25%, says the National Association for College Admission Counseling.) Additional complications associated with senioritis include being put on academic probation and receiving less financial assistance in college.

The Cure: If you thought I was going to say graduation, think again. You’ll need to combat senioritis long before then to avoid jeopardizing your future. My advice: nip it in the bud. If you feel your motivation waning, just remind yourself of how close you are to the finish line. You’ve been running this high school marathon for years, and now is not the time to slow down. So fight the temptations brought on by senioritis, and keep your eye on the prize. Before you know it, you’ll be done with high school, and only then will the race truly be over.

A Tutor's Guide: How to Get the Most Out of Your Session

Feel Good about Yourself

By deciding to have a SAT tutoring session, you've already taken a conscious step toward self-improvement. So feel good about yourself. Confidence doesn't guarantee success, but it always helps.

Visualize Your Goals

Think carefully about what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it. Write down your goals, tell your friends, and hold yourself accountable. Don't be afraid to aim high, but remember that major triumphs are built on small victories.

Come Prepared

Organization is critical. No one’s perfect, but starting homework without a plan is like walking into a rainstorm without an umbrella. Work with your tutor to keep track of all assignments and establish a clear, step-by-step plan to get them done.

Communicate

The key to any successful relationship is communication. Make sure you share your goals with your tutor, and know that every tutoring session is a safe environment to share concerns and ask for help.

Thank you Alex M. (one of our fabulous L.A. tutors!) for contributing this week’s blog post!