Most of us use the handy "out of office assistant" feature in Outlook when we're traveling, on vacation, or are otherwise, well, out of the office.

But few of us use it when we're in the office. Maybe we should.

We all get way too much email, far more than we can typically handle in a reasonable workday. Some of us use inbox rules to sort through different types of emails, filter through the junk, file newsletters for later reading, etc.

But that still leaves a ton of email send directly to you, where you were either the primary recipient or among a group of recipients.

What if you could instruct Outlook to set response expectations with those sending you email, instantly, and even instruct Outlook to communicate things back to folks on your behalf?

What if Outlook could immediately let your senders know that you typically check email a couple times a day, and that they should call your cell phone if something is particularly urgent and needs an immediate response? Would that help you be less reactive to email each day, and more focused on what really needs to get done? Would it help you filter the "needs your attention right now" messages from the "it can wait until later" messages?

What if Outlook could give your senders something to read, something to learn, while they're waiting for a response from you? What if that was a rotating set of headlines about your business, articles you've recently written or particularly enjoyed, or other content that would help senders learn more about you and your business?

Outlook can do all of that, if you let it.

The latest issue of Realtor Magazine included their annual "30 under 30" list, featuring 30 successful Realtors who are still in their 20's.

This morning I visited each of their Web sites, and sent an email to 23 of these top agents, congratulating them on their success and recognition in the magazine. I was also curious how quickly I would get responses.

In any service business, quick response times should be table stakes, but not all service providers are equally good at it. Some real estate industry studies indicate that as many as 50% of online and email inquiries to real estate agents go unresponded to.

I assumed that some of the nation's top real estate agents would prove otherwise. Three hours after sending those 23 emails, these successful young agents were doing well.

• One very smart agent used an auto-responder to provide an instant response to my email
• Two agents responded within five minutes
• Three others responded within two hours
• One more responded within three hours

That's a 30 percent response rate within three hours. For a group of busy, successful real estate agents who frequently are in the field (and not at their desks), that's a great start.

Declaring Email Bankruptcy: Want to start over? If you're feeling overwhelmed by your inbox, here are some pros and cons.

Give 'em something to talk about: Great article in Fast Company about creating remarkable products and experiences that get your customers talking...

It takes a long time to become an overnight success: But with careful preparation, focus and patience, you can get there.

James Surowiecki on Product Simplicity: Good article in The New Yorker about feature creep, it's hidden cost to businesses, and the value of keeping things simple.

What makes a great marketer?: Jim Kukral asks the question, and readers respond. See what they say, and add your own perspective.

Creating (and sustaining) lasting impressions: Nice job by Ron at Buzzoodle dissecting how to manage the impressions you leave.

In an age when consumers are supplanting traditional media as perhaps our most important marketing channel, many companies are making the wrong decisions on how to reward those same consumers for their support.

Spike from Brains on Fire recently highlighted a campaign by Oakley, the sunglasses maker, in which Oakley asked its loyal customers to give up the names and contact information for their friends, so that Oakley could send them sales brochures. In exchange, Oakley would send everyone a decal. A decal.

Peerflix recently launched an initiative to compel its users to refer the DVD-exchange service to friends. They even offer an easy way to download your entire database of contacts from your email clients, LinkedIn, and more. The reward? Your friend gets a free DVD for signing up. What do you get for opening up your address book? Nada.

Never mind the fact that these companies (and many more) are asking us to betray the privacy of our friends, and give another company permission to market to them on their behalf. That in and of itself is a step not to be taken lightly.

The bigger point is that fewer and fewer companies, in even the most tactical "refer-a-friend" offers, are failing to create clear and compelling value propositions for the referring customer.

Sure, most companies have their rabid evangelists - those who will spread the brand gospel at a moment's notice, oftentimes on their own without being compelled to do so, and purely because they want to. They love your product so much they can't wait to tell others about it.

But for most of us, the key to unlocking the true potential of pass-along marketing is compelling our average customers to tell their friends about us. With those customers, we can't count on their passion for our products. We need to appeal to their vanity, their ego, and even their greed.

Because nearly every one of those customers, when they see our "tell your friends about us" campaigns, are asking a single question - "What's in it for me?"

If we don't adequately address and answer that question up front, our "tell-a-friend" campaigns are dead out of the gate.

This morning's New York Times offered a fascinating story about a leaked brand positioning report for Wal-Mart, written last fall by its former ad agency and leaked to the Times by a union group.

The story itself is a great read, but even more fascinating is a flip through the positioning report itself. Although this report was prepared by an agency fighting to retain the business they've held for more than 30 years (Wal-Mart eventually chose to take their agency-of-record business elsewhere), it's worth a quick read to see not only how a company the size of Wal-Mart thinks about its current and future brand, but also the methodology it uses.

Lots of great learnings here for companies big and small.

I expect the blogosphere will ruminate much more on this report, with people like John Moore at BrandAutopsy leading the way.

You've spent days, maybe weeks, working on a new idea, a new pet project, a presentation to your boss. You've thought about this challenge from 16 different angles, and have covered all of your bases.

Then, 15 minutes into your presentation, your boss offers a perspective you hadn't thought of. It's smart. No, it's brilliant. Why didn't you think of that?

Does this mean your boss is smarter than you? Because she just came up with a better idea in 15 minutes, after you'd been thinking about it for weeks?

No, your boss isn't smarter. Just ignorant. Really.

Your boss, at least in this instance, is benefiting from a fresh perspective. And you're benefiting from her collective perspective and worldview, thinking about your challenge in a brand-new way.

Just because others don't have the depth of perspective you have on a particular subject, doesn't mean they won't provide the best idea of the bunch.

Brilliance is often born of ignorance.

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It gets you off on the right track, sets your metabolism in motion, and helps you maintain balance throughout your day.

How you start your workday is really no different. Stuart R. Levine, author of Cut to the Chase, a great new book about creating more efficiency in your work life, suggests that every professional start their day with 20 minutes of preparation for the day ahead.

You can do this the night before if you wish, or at home over a cup of coffee before the kids wake up. But even if you wait until you're settled in your office for the day, Stuart suggests the following steps before you check your email and voicemail:

Define your top priority for the day - the one you would sacrifice all others to achieve - to help focus your energy.

Update your "to do" list. Allot time for everything you need to accomplish, including time to prepare for meetings and other conversations.

Review your calendar. Determine the purpose of every meeting and appointment. if you don't have one yet, think of one. If you can't determine one, cancel.

Consider whom you'll see in meetings or other events throughout the day. Jot down any issues you need to address with them.

Glance at your schedule for the remainder of the week and month to make sure you're still focused on the right things.

Now you can check your email and voicemail, and start the day.

Check out the full book here.

Lew Platt, the late chairman and CEO for Hewlett Packard, once said:

"If only we knew what we know at HP."

Many organizations make significant investments to train their employees, but little in knowledge sharing.

No matter how big or small your organization is, there's likely plenty of best practices and insider knowledge falling through the cracks - information that others in your organization could benefit from.

What are you doing to make sure your employees are sharing information with each other? What technology or other tools do you need to facilitate this? What organizational changes could you make (short and long-term) to better facilitate sure knowledge sharing?

The differences between marketing, PR, advertising and brand: Nicely summarized in four photos. (thanks Steve for the link)

10 benefits of rising early: This fights against my DNA, but the benefits are worth the effort.

Don't buy "forever" stamps: Postage rates are increasing slower than inflation, as Slate smartly points out.

DIY PR: Smart advice from a smart dude. Smart agencies will adjust accordingly (if they want to survive).

Microsoft Surface: Multi-user collaboration on a table-top interface. Check it out. This is worth watching.

Recharge AA batteries on your computer: That's right. Plug these babies into any available USB outlet, and get another five hours of battery life.

BL Ochman smartly makes the connection between reducing your "online" time, and actually increasing your productivity.

Think this can't possibly be true? Start with baby steps:

- Go an entire one-hour meeting without looking at your Blackberry
- Wake up at your usual time, and don't check email until you're physically sitting in your office chair (at work)
- Leave work tonight, and don't check email until tomorrow

During each of these three times, you'll probably still think about work. But those thoughts will be a bit more focused, unencumbered by whatever distracting email you've just read.