>It's rather the other 100-150+ emails we receive a day that have to be
>sifted through, determined whether they require action, taking the action,
>and filing the message. At 30 seconds each that's more than an hour a day,
>and I submit that many of you have to spend more time than that to file some
>of them properly because they have multiple attachments, deal with multiple
>topics, are in response to multiple message threads, etc. 

I consider myself to be in a rather typical business situation when it comes
to e-mail volume, and did a bit of tracking over the last 3 days.  Now mind
you, this was a Friday through Sunday, so it may not reflect a typical
business week, but I intend to continue the count for the week and see where
it goes.

Here's the data:

From Listservs subscribed to:                37 messages*   
From Vendor/Other Subscriptions:             46 messages*
Unsolicited Junk (not caught by filter):     12 messages*     
Unsolicited Junk (caught by filter):         45 messages*
Personal e-mail:                             12 messages*
Business e-mail, non-record:                 27 messages** 
Business e-mail, record requiring action:    43 messages** 

Total:                                       222 messages
Of the total, number for immediate disposal: 152 messages*

Messages with 180 day max retention:          32 messages 15%
Messages with CY+2yr retention:               11 messages 5%
Messages with CY+up to 7yr retention:          6 messages 2.5%
Messages with CY+ over 25yr retention:        21 messages 10%

Total:                                        70 messages**
                           
It will be interesting to see how this tracks through the week.


>It's not that email is to be treated differently per se, but rather that
>email and some of the other technologies expose the inherent lack of
>scalability associated with some of the more traditional practices. This is
>not to denigrate those practices, nor the principles they are based on.
>Email should be managed according to content. But a casual user at these
>volumes is hard-pressed to differentiate "work" vs. "non-work" without
>email consuming the entire day.

So, I'm not what would qualify as a 'casual user' likely, but all the same,
the decisions on most of this 'stuff' was pretty simple. 

If it comes from outside the wall and it's not related to the work I do for
my organization, then it isn't a business e-mail and it's not a record, and
I don't need to keep it.  (152 of 222 messages- 68%)  

If it's business related, from inside OR outside the wall, and it MAY BE A
record, then I need to make a decision on it. (70 of 222 messages- 32%)

If it doesn't require an action on my behalf, or doesn't provide me business
direction, then it's a 'transitory record' (based on the definition in the
organization RM Policy). (32 of 70 messages- 46%)

The balance give/provide direction, document a decision, satisfy a
requirement, or otherwise meet the definition of a record and require a
decision about how to classify them and how long to retain them. (38 of 70
messages- 54%)

Of those 38 messages, 21 (55%) could have been caught by a "role and rule
based retention filter".  That left 17 that needed direct action.

17 of 222, not too bad.  Not sure how much time it would take if there was a
two tier pull down menu available- Stage 1 record or non record; Stage 2
choose retention period for record.

Larry

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