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

Praise for The Hamster Revolution

Simple but powerful. This is life-changing stuff.

Chris Granger, Vice President, Team Business Development, National Basketball
Association

Our daily barrage of email not only consumes our time and energy but fills up our in-boxes with someone elses priorities. These simple tools will allow you to reclaim your life.

Betsy Myers, Executive Director, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard University

A must-read for every employee I supervise. Youll love it!

Richard L. Andersen, CFE, Executive Vice President, San Diego Padres

Great stuff! This book delivers simple and practical email management protocols.

Paul Roithmayr, Director, Organization Development & Training, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation

A clever way to add fifteen days to your year.

Joe DiDonato, President, ESource Corporation

A powerful new strategy for email efficiency and etiquette.

Lamonte Thomas, Vice President of Sales and Customer Relations, Cigna

These email practices will change the way you work.

Matt Koch, Director, Productivity & Knowledge Management, Capital One

A home run! Find time for what matters most. For example, taking your family to the ballpark!

Rick Mears, Vice President, Guest Services, San Francisco Giants

Cut through email clutter and take control of your life!

Lisa Lelas, author of Simple Steps: 10 Weeks to Getting Control of Your Life

A refreshing and humorous approach to reducing email overload. We use the insights every day.

Steve Stone, CEO, Infoflows

Simple and profound! Im having my whole team read it.

Mike Gugerty, Scientist, Matzinger-Keegan Inc.

Put an end to needless emails and missing files.

Sam Biegelsen, Business Development Executive, Jeppesen, a Boeing Company

Easy to implement and powerful in results.

Robert Cross, Assistant Professor of Management, University of Virginia and author of The Hidden Power of Social Networks

Quick, easy, and fun to readan effective antidote to the bulging, time-draining e-mailbox.

Carol Metzker, coauthor of Appreciative Intelligence

Using the techniques outlined in this book, we achieved significant productivity improvements, including a reduction of time spent on email averaging eight days per year per colleague.

Nic Oatridge, Global Head of IT, Fortune 200 Pharmaceutical Company

How is it possible that no one has written this book until now? This amazing guide will help you get off the email wheel!

Ruben Rodriguez, Senior Business Partner, Healthcare Industry

Chock-full of ideas to address one of the biggest issues facing knowledge workers todayinformation overload.

Cindy Domanowski, Vice President, Sales Training and Leadership Development, Major Accounts, ADP, Inc.

This step-by-step guide will free you from e-grip forever.

Garry Ridge, President and CEO, WD-40 Company

Original and witty. There may be other books on email but this is the standout.

Irene Sitbon, Executive Search Consultant, Bridge Partners, LLC

Amazing! Email used efficiently is an incredible tool. This book certainly opened my eyes!

Michael A. Serchia, Director of Human Resources, International Coffee & Tea

The Hamster Revolution

How to Manage Your Email Before it Manages You

Mike Song Vicki Halsey Tim Burress

The Hamster Revolution

Copyright 2007, 2008 by Mike Song, Vicki Halsey, Tim Burress
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650
San Francisco, California 94104-2916
Tel: (415) 288-0260, Fax: (415) 362-2512
www.bkconnection.com

Ordering information for print editions
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the Berrett-Koehler address above.
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Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data are available from the Library of Congress.

First Edition
Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-437-5
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-573-0
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-575-4
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60509-902-6

2010-3

Producer: Tolman Creek Design LLC, Copy Editor: Patricia Brewer,
Proof Reader: Ginny Munroe, Indexer: Shan Young. Cover design: Richard
Adelson. Cover illustration: Larry Corby. Other hamster drawings: Adam Raita.

The productivity of knowledge work still abysmally low will become the economic challenge of the knowledge society. On it will depend the competitive position of every single country, every single industry, and every single institution within society.

Peter Drucker

Every generation needs a new revolution.

Thomas Jefferson

For Kristin Song, Richard Halsey, and Daphne Burress
Thanks for believing.

Every once in awhile, the business world teeters off balance. This usually happens when events converge to create an absurd situation or incongruity. Invariably, an incongruity is a big opportunity. In the 1980s, the incongruity was that managers lacked a simple system for managing people. When the rubber met the road, most lacked the people skills needed to maximize performance. Along came The One Minute Manager and suddenly millions of professionals had a book that simplified the management of people. Twenty years later, Im thrilled that it continues to help managers manage and leaders lead.

In the 1990s, the