e-mail Insanity!!

It's been a longtime between posts, I've got heaps of ideas for articles and not enough time to get them on here. So to get me started here is a very brief and simple point.

Over the last couple of months I've been observing a number of people from graduates through to Senior executives on $300k a year using their e-mail. Very few, if any (besides the people I coach) really have a clear take on the mail application they use and how to get the most from it.

Even worse than not knowing how to use the e-mail as a tool is allowing the application to drive your life. I've even seen one senior executive submit themselves to the good old "You've Got Mail" pop-up. Now I know I receive 60-100 e-mails a day and cannot imagine how disruptive a pop-up such as this could be.

With that example in mind, here are a few simple tips that you could consider to help you with your mail:

1. Turn the Pop-up OFF!! - It may have been fun for Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, it definitely isn't fun when you're trying to focus. (Take the above example 100 e-mails / 8 hours = 12.5 interruptions an hour, or an average of an interruption every 4.8 Minutes - INSANE)

2. Use Mail Rules - this is a great way to unclutter your inbox. I in-fact use mail rules for a number of things - from archiving mail newsletters, allocating tasks to a un-categorised action list through to deleting mails. Learn how your mail application does this. (In-fact - if you've subscribed to something and haven't read the last five e-mails, I'd suggest you could un-subscribe)

3. 4 D's - This is a GTD tip from David Allen at davidco.com. Basically when processing e-mail remember there are only 4 things you can do: Do, Delete, Defer or Delegate, amazingly every single one of these D's should result in the e-mail exiting the inbox.

4. Work to get your e-mail above the fold - that is, actively work to get all of your e-mail in the inbox onto one screen and keep it there. Even better go for "InBox Zero" as told by Merlin Mann of 43 Folders in a recent google Tech Talk.

5. Develop an e-mail checking habit - That is, try and discipline yourself to check your e-mail during your working day as minimally as possible. I normally do this morning, mid day and finally at the end of the day. Trust me - if the building is burning down, the printer jammed or any other urgent matter - They're not going to e-mail you. (In fact people e-mailing an urgent matter in reality are not treating the issue at hand seriously, skulking or being political)

6. Use Filters - Some of you are now (especially those workers with 1000 plus e-mails in their inbox) are thinking I'm full of it, and how could they possibly get above the fold. Learn how to use the filters on your mail application. You can filter by date, subject, sender, attachments, comments, if you're in the too field, share the to field, the cc field, the list goes on and on. Learn your app, use the filters and apply the 4 D's to sort your mail out.

There are dozens more tips and tricks floating around from coloring e-mails through to flagging, tagging and who knows what else. But I'm not going to keep going, this was/is meant to be a short post. You can go learn these yourself.

As a parting comment though, seriously, mail is one of the main applications you use on a daily basis, shouldn't you know how to use it? The benefits of doing this as a busy knowledge worker are phenomenal, even if it is the simple benefit of feeling in control, or even a small sense of achievement.

Cheers

Andrew

InBox Zero

Is your e-mail plagued by an InBox out of control?

It appears that e-mail assumed to be the predominant method of communication in todays corporate workplace. In fact it has become so bad you could start to argue that e-mail is now becoming ineffective. People in fact are starting to walk away throwing their hands in the air.

Merlin Mann of 43Folders has a massive amount of material on this issue with some tremendous and practical suggestions. You can get these at http://www.43folders.com/izero/
The google presentation which is his latest addition is well worth a watch.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=973149761529535925&hl=en

Some of these points have helped me achieve "InBox Zero"

Cheers

Andrew

Getting Things Done!! I’m a Convert!

I promised a review of David Allen's book "How to get things done: the art of stress-free productivity" (GTD). Now I have to admit I haven't really finished yet. I have approximately 50 pages to go. My perspective though is it is quite a brilliant book, and if I can keep up the discipline required to maintain the approaches proposed it will make a drastic difference to my life.

It's not brilliant in a literary kind of way. It isn't brilliant in an aesthetic sort of way. It is brilliant in the ease with which David presents a solution to a common problem most people have in today’s environment. Quit simply put this problem relates to how to get things done in an environment where information comes at you from all directions and in all shapes and forms.

The initial premise that David explores is the nature of our work today, how it has changed from a task driven environment to one of knowledge work. He quotes Peter Drucker "In knowledge work the task is not given; it has to be determined". I’ve been espousing this difference for some time, but naturally it has taken Drucker’s wisdom delivered via this book to give me a good way of stating it.

It is this principal and what he subsequently does with it that makes this book an absolute asset for today’s managers. Old school time and task management isn't really written off entirely, just that it really isn't directly applicable for today’s environment. Definitely these techniques still have some great ideas and principles; it is just that David builds on them superbly.

So as you can see from my rant above I am quite impressed. One reason for this is that my inbox on my mail client (at work and home) is at zero and has been for weeks. I've completed 133+ tasks in the last ten working days. My team is benefiting from this as I am more present when talking with them, and my wife, LOVES IT!! I have less on my mind and am more present for her on a day to day basis.

As I have pointed out I haven’t completed the book – so how is it that I can rave about it so much. This is because of a very simple outcome I have finally achieved from reading this book. That is the idea of contextualising my tasks. By grouping or categorising tasks into a context relative to your life you can better manage and close off on an item at the appropriate time.

I know it’s surprisingly simple, and you’re probably doing it already. It is the way in which David presents this concept and the process that you go through to achieve this ‘Nirvana’. GTD clarifies the point that we humans can really only manage a number of things internally at anyone time, and it is this small buffer or retention that causes most of us our stress.

Advice guiding you to recognise the need to develop a personal process, and then go through the activity of building and complying with the process is all part of the learning. The tools and catch-all’s that you create become quite a central point to ‘Getting Things Done’.

All of this has lead me to correctly establish my own process, and trusted catch-all’s. I am not entirely happy with how it all works. My partner still picks me up on some things I forget but I am getting better.

Second to this I am already starting to talk to people around me in regards to GTD and will start to toy with introducing this as one of my coaching tools going forward. I can already see it’s applicability in my workplace and coaching sessions I already run.

To close out my very first attempt at a book review I better tell you about my perspective. In a nutshell, a good read, very applicable and most definitely one of the best task/time management books I have come across over the last couple of years.

If you'd like to learn more here are some of the sites I have been gathering information from:

43 Folders: Pretty good site all-round. Merlin Mann the author of this site is in fact one of the reasons I started to hear about and eventually plugged into 'GTD'. his article Getting Started with 'GTD' is a good read.

Of course there is also the official David Allen Site. I've not been around this site to much so far, of course it is on my list of to do's.

And finally - a combination of the two Merlin Mann & David Allen got together for a brief podcast series on 'GTD'. It's worth a listen, I'm going back for a second time round.

You could also click on the link in the top right of this page and buy the book through Amazon.

I Hope you have found this article of interest.

Cheers

Andrew