How much e-mail do you have in your inbox? My inbox is as clean as a surgical suite in your local hospital. This vacant inbox is neither a slight of hand nor a sign of irresponsibility or lack of motivation. Rather, my ability to clear my inbox at the end of every business day comes from the task management system I began using six months ago. The liberty and sense of accomplishment that I feel on leaving my office at the end of the workday is a positive change in attitude, increasing my work effort and career longevity since I began using this system.

The task management system I use is from the book Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook: The Eight Best Practices of Task and E-Mail Management by Michael Linenberger. The system customizes current Outlook capabilities and maximizes the effectiveness of standard functions found in any Microsoft Office suite.

While I will be covering the method I use, which is specific to Microsoft Outlook, there are other systems available for other e-mail applications, including the “Getting Things Done” approach from David Allen.

Systemic approach

If you can identify yourself in one of Linenberger's disorganized work styles, you might need some help. Symptoms include:

• Working late and feeling like you have far too much work to do.
• Feeling that there is no time in the day to get things done.
• Leaving important tasks uncompleted.
• Focusing only on the work that is right in front of you, and rarely planning tasks in advance.
• Barely reacting to e-mail rather than controlling it.
• Regretting not acting on an e-mail sooner.
• Practicing reactive management, acting only on the emergencies as they arise around you.
• Reacting to visitors, phone calls and immediate needs, but rarely gaining a sense of completion of important tasks.
• Forgetting or misplacing tasks.
• Being reminded of things you promised that are not yet complete.
• Consistently leaving work knowing that something important isn't finished.

I must inject my personal chief officer-specific symptoms:

• Finding that attending endless meetings, typing e-mails, and answering phone calls — although quite exciting and challenging — doesn't have the same impact as delivering a baby, resuscitating a cardiac-arrest victim, extricating a trapped victim, fighting any fire, rescuing victims from special operations emergencies, or even seeing a child wave at you while you are in the fire truck.
• Questioning if the chest pain that you are having is anxiety or cardiac in nature?
• Beginning to question if a “40-hour” position really affords any additional sleep at home, as you wake up at various times of the night and early morning remembering forgotten tasks.
• Remembering fondly that the largest document you had previously authored was your résumé for your last promotional exam, rather than accreditation documents, business plans, budget reports, grant paperwork, annual reports, mission statements, value statements, and strategic plans that all seem to be due in consecutive months.

Most chief officers face the difficulties of task management every day. Many personnel in my organization avoid promoting above the rank of captain to avoid the responsibility of becoming an administrative chief officer and the related difficulties of organizational development and administrative skills.

“In our organization we typically promote an individual, give them their gold badge and a procurement card with an enormous limit, show them where their funding is located in the budget system, and expect them to become an accomplished administrator overnight,” said Glendale, Ariz., Chief Mark Burdick. “This is an injustice to both the organization and to the individual. We must do more to develop our personnel and ensure their success.”

A possible solution

A task management system can help users organize their e-mail and tasks with a systematic approach. Linenberger's system uses eight core task management principles:

1. Track all tasks in the Outlook Tasks System.

2. Use a master task list kept separate from your daily tasks list.

3. Use a simple prioritization system that emphasizes must-do-today tasks.

4. Write only next actions on your daily list.

5. Do daily and weekly planning to keep your task lists up to date.

6. Convert e-mails to tasks.

7. File e-mails using established Outlook categories.

8. Delegate tasks effectively.

Total Workday Control shows the reader how to customize Outlook for its fullest potential. Chapters are systematic and easy to follow. Additionally, the book can be ordered with a companion tutorial disk to assist in the customization; however, use of the companion disk can't replace reading the book. The disk will facilitate, but will not educate you about how the system should be used.

Highs and lows

Although task and e-mail management may be the greatest benefits of using this system, there is another significant benefit. I've been using the system for six months and I have captured every complete task during that time. I've printed hard copies of these tasks that I could present to my supervisor if requested. This will allow my supervisor to appropriately assess, recognize and document my accomplishments. The three captains who report to me are in the process of implementing this system and will be able to provide me with their accomplishments during their annual performance review period.

Categorizing e-mails with this system also can provide huge dividends. Recently I was able to retrieve two e-mails that settled a misunderstanding with a vendor. Without categorization and archiving, I would have been unable to provide documentation that supported my claim.

The challenges I faced with this system involved my municipality's Information Technology department. The first barrier that I had to overcome with our it department involved archiving e-mail messages. Our system doesn't allow e-mail archiving and has a limit on the amount of memory that any single user can possess. This barrier was easily overcome by purchasing a $100 dollar external hard drive.

I recently transferred from special operations to the training division, and our team is preparing to open a 40-acre regional public-safety training center in two months. I am not overly concerned because I have a task management system in place that will assist me through most any dilemma. Do you feel the same way? If not, manage your e-mail before it manages you.

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Chris DeChant is the training division chief for the Glendale (Ariz.) Fire Department, where he has served for 11 years. He holds associate's degrees in fire science and advanced emergency medical technology, a bachelor's degree in public safety administration, and a master's degree in educational leadership. DeChant can be contacted at cdechant@glendaleaz.com.

Total Workday Control is available at www.workdaycontrol.com.