When managers reduced their own e-mails, their employees sent fewer messages too.Erdal Bayhan/Getty Images/iStockphoto
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To reduce e-mail, start at the top. Consultants Chris Brown and Andrew Killick and academic Karen Renaud taught a top management team to cut their outgoing e-mails by actions such as limiting recipients and not forwarding messages. E-mails from their employees, with no such training, dropped by 64 per cent. Harvard Business Review
Start something and succeed
As the popular saying goes: "If you don't start, you can't fail." But if you're using that maxim to stall on something, entrepreneur Seth Godin counters: "If you don't start, you will fail." Seth's Blog
Cross-train your leader's brain
Athletes use cross-training to offer their bodies some respite and build complementary muscle groups. Executive Karin Hurt recommends the same for leaders, learning new practices by taking a brief sabbatical from their typical activities. Instead of running a meeting, for example, try being secretary and take notes for the group. Let's Grow Leaders
Clarify to keep projects in check
To prevent scope creep on projects, when clients keep asking for "one more thing," consultant Vickie Sullivan recommends clarifying each request, communicating the impact, and then offering options without having to renegotiate the contract, such as curtailing some aspects of the project to allow the new issue to be explored. RainToday.com
Track your time on Facebook
Think you may be spending more time on Facebook at work (or at home) than you should? TimeRabbit is a handy, free download that keeps a record of how much time you spend on it daily, weekly and monthly. AddictiveTips.com
Harvey Schachter is a Battersea, Ont.-based writer specializing in management issues. He writes Monday Morning Manager and management book reviews for the print edition of Report on Business and an online work-life column Balance. E-mail Harvey Schachter
Harvey Schachter