The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You

Relates the story of Harold, an HR Director, who has fallen victim to the dreaded clutches of info-glut and finds himself paralyzed and unable to move forward because of the deluge of electronic data and e-mail that he must fight daily. Harold meets the info-coach who recognizes his ailment and teaches him lessons about managing e-mail.

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Written in parable form, the work relates the story of Harold, an HR Director, who has fallen victim to the dreaded clutches of info-glut and finds himself paralyzed and unable to move forward because of the deluge of electronic data and e-mail that he must fight daily. In a Kafka-esque twist, after such repetitive but fruitless exertion, he actually turns into a hamster running on a hamster wheel, though he's too busy to even notice. Harold meets the info-coach who recognizes his ailment and teaches him a few effective lessons about managing e-mail - key to which is developing higher quality while getting rid of unwanted excess.The infocoach introduces the COTA system to Harold, which shows him an innovative way of storing all e-mail and electronic media into four main categories: Clients; Output; Teams; and, Administrative. Using this system Harold is able to control his e-mail communications and documents again, and turns back from a hamster into a human being. There is also the story of the groundbreaking Capital One study based on feedback and input from 2,000 Capital One employees who attended a workshop by the authors.
A 60-day post-training survey found e-mail quality to have improved by 52 percent while e-mail volume decreased by 21 percent. Capital One estimates that the participants saved an astounding 13 days per year because of this. All in all, the book provides a large amount of fun, but poignant information that can be used to reorganize email procedure into an efficient, and effective endeavor.