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

Written in parable form, the work relates the story of Harold, an HR Director, who has fallen victim to thedreaded clutches of info-glut and finds himself paralyzed and unable to move forward because of the delugeof electronic data and e-mail he must fight daily. In a Kafka-esque twist, after such repetitive but fruitlessexertion, 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 aboutmanaging e-mail - key to which is developing higher quality while getting rid of unwanted excess. The infocoachintroduces the COTA system to Harold, which shows him an innovative way of storing all e-mail andelectronic media into four main categories:1. Clients2. Output3. Teams4. AdministrativeUsing this system Harold is able to control his e-mail communications and documents again, and turns backfrom a hamster into a human being.There is also the story of the groundbreaking Capital One study based on feedback and input from 2,000Capital One employees who attended a workshop by the authors. A 60-day post-training survey found e-mailquality to have improved by 52% while e-mail volume decreased by 21%. Capital One estimates that theparticipants 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 reorganizeemail procedure into an efficient, and effective endeavor.