Workload Master

This is a picture of my in basket a few days ago. It’s a collection of random small things was my nemesis for a few weeks. It doesn’t look like much but it really bugged me.

What are they? They’re the result of a recent wallet cleaning and attempt to corral loose pieces of floatsum laying around my workspace. The kind of things that are there so long you stop noticing them.

Like a good processor I gathered these things up and put them in my Inbox to be processed. But something happened. I put new mail etc. on top, processed the mail and continued to leave them in the bottom of the basket. “I’ll get to them later” I thought.

Here you have it, a public confession that I broke one of my own cardinal rules. DON’T USE YOUR INBOX AS A STORAGE FACILITY.

But these items were so insignificant to my daily work they hardly seemed worth my time, attention and decision making prowess. So they just sat.

Why did they sit? In analyzing the situation I realized that first I had no place to put them and didn’t feel like using limited space and my even more valuable time deciding what to do with them. I realized that the process of making two decisions about each piece was just too painful (brain hurting as a colleague always says), so I put it off. I was avoiding the pain of making (a very simple) decision. The result was clutter.

This is a very simple example why we accumulate clutter in the first place. Whether its’ just a few stray pieces of paper in our wallets or piles of paper and folders throughout our entire office. Clutter (any clutter) represents un-made or deferred decisions. In fact each time you look at a piece of clutter you actually do make a decision, which is to do nothing. The problem with this is that you are making multiple decisions about something that could have been resolved with only one. It’s a huge waste of mental energy.

The solution is to set aside time to process (and only process) incoming information (mail, e-mail, meeting notes, a pile of loose notes, etc.). Make a decision about each piece before moving to the next. Use the temptation to put it aside as a trigger to first think about why you are deferring your decision, then force yourself to make it. Maybe, like me, you put off the decision because you don’t have a place to put it. If so time for an action item to create some files (or electronic folders) and move on.

If I was sitting with you at your desk this is exactly what we would do with each item in your Inbox. It can create quite a bit of anxiety. If it does, use that feeling as a red flag and dig into your underlying reason for not deciding.

You may be wondering what happed to my little pile of stuff. About half is in the trash. Some things have been added to my Outlook contacts and the rest are in a folder for little used but sometimes needed frequent shopper cards. I feel better now.

It’s the weekend and time to take a few minutes to catch your breath and decide how you’re going to attack next week.

This Cessna Citation is owned by a friend of mine. He wasn’t born rich. He’s from a working class family in a Midwestern suburb just like most of middle America. But he’s one of the most focused people I know. This jet and his ability to fly it are a testament to his ability to set clear goals and remaining focused on them.

You achieve your goals by first having some. If you don’t, read no further. Go to a quite place, set some (more on this in a later post), write them down then come back here.

I’m going to show you a simple weekly planning and review process that will help you reach your goals. It looks almost too easy. But I guarantee you that my friend with the jet and successful other people do this or something similar as a matter of routine.

The reason for this process is that we tend to get lost in the weeds during the turmoil of the work day. So it’s vital to to step back into your personal manager role to remind yourself of your goals, capture any loose ends from the previous week and plan how you’re going to use the following week to get you closer to where you want to be.

Do this every week. Print it out or paste it into a recurring Outlook Task scheduled for late every Friday afternoon:

1. Review Your Goals and related projects one at a time to evaluate status and outcomes. Generate at least one action item for each. Keep your goals in mind as you capture and schedule tasks for the following week. Tasks that drive your goals should be higher priority than those that don’t.
2. Collect Everything (Loose Papers, notes, scraps, bar napkins, sticky notes…everything that needs to be someplace else) and put them into your in basket. Process those items using the 4-Ds (just like incoming e-mail).
3. Process your notes. Review all meeting and miscellaneous notes. Schedule all open action items, things due from others, calendar items, and, project tasks. File any reference material.
4. Review Previous Calendar Data, Daily Task Pads or To-Do Lists for missing action items and create tasks for them in Outlook or your planner. Make sure nothing from previous week is un-captured.
5. Review Upcoming Calendar to capture action items and prepare for upcoming events.
6. Schedule your Priorities! – Block out time to work on high priority activities (do the important things first). Outlook users, use the 5 Work Week Calendar View to facilitate this process.
7. Think. Take some time in a quite place without a phone or computer to kick back and think. Capture any ideas, thoughts or action items.
8. Go enjoy yourself, it’s the weekend after all. You’ll feel better because you’ve dealt with any open issues (they won’t nag you all weekend now) and planned your next week. You’ll be flying your own Citation in no time.

This is the cliff note version, but you get the idea. Make a commitment to doing this every Friday without fail for the next three months. Let me know how it works.

Do you ever feel frustrated or just plain angry at yourself because you spend too much time looking for things (often on you desk)? Do you have the same problem wit your stored e-mail? If so you’re not alone. In fact it’s one of the major pains expressed by my clients. Although computers are very good at finding things, the sheer volume of stored e-mail can make it difficult to find something important quickly.

This is further exacerbated when you have a large quantity of Outlook folders. The more places you have to put things the more places you have to look. If you have 50 folders (and I’ve seen people with hundreds) you may have to physically look in five or six related places to find something. You have a computer, let it do the work for a change.

Here’s what you do:

Use a bare minimum of Outlook folders. Ideally have just one folder called “Completed E-mail” or something similar (please don’t store your old e-mail in your Inbox). If you must have more try to limit them to four or five. If you already have multiple folders, keep them for now and crate a new one for your completed e-mail. I started doing this a few years ago out of sheer laziness. I created on folder titled “Customer Communications” and dragged all “processed” e-mails from customers (that I wanted to keep) into it. I thought that later I’d go back and create sub folders for each customer. I never did. Didn’t have to.

When you need to find something in your folder you have two options; sort or search.

To sort your list simply click the appropriate column heading. The first time you click a heading the list will be sorted in ascending order, the next time descending and so on. You can sort by From, Subject or Date.

If your needs are more robust you can search within the folder. Type whatever text you want to find in the Look For box and click Find Now. By using the Options on the far right you can either search just the subject or the entire message. For really heavy lifting the Options box includes the Advanced Find tool that can really narrow it down. Also you have the ability to save a search as a pseudo folder if you do this search a lot.

I used Outlook 2003 as my example above. Outlook 2007 works exaclty the same when you sort. The search tool looks a little different. In the far right hand corner just above the e-mail messages is a small box that says Search (folder name). Just type your text in that box and Outlook will do work. The little down arrow to the right contains your search options.

Time for an apology. Earlier this week I said that I’d do a “How-to” about managing stored e-mails using Outlook categories. This requires creating a custom e-mail view. It’s something I often do in a few minutes at peoples’ desks. When I sat down to write it out I realized that it required a lengthy explanation with multiple screen shots which would take hours. Realizing that the vast majority of my readers probably wouldn’t take the time to do this I decided to hold off. If you were really counting on this please contact me directly.

Does this look like one of your file drawers? How about your Outlook folders about the same? Because your Outlook folders are electronic it doesn’t mean they’re neat and tidy. Here’s the key. If you’re spending more than two or three minutes searching through your Outlook folders each time you need something, then it’s time to re-think how you’re using them.

One of the biggest frustrations my clients face is that they’re “always looking for things”. It is a major time waster.

If you’ve attended on of our basic Outlook workshops then you know we teach you how to create and use folders to store e-mail after it’s processed. When I do one-on-one coaching I find the people who struggle the most with finding things (and even front-end e-mail processing) are those with lots of folders (sometimes even dozens).

By having too many folders you increase the number of places where things are not. Too many folders often causes paralysis when deciding where to file something. I see it all the time while coaching. “where do I put this…if I put it there I might forget…how about this folder…no I might forget it’s there to” yada yada yada. I’m thinking of putting a heart rate monitor on coaching clients to watch their anxiety levels.

Here are a few simple tips to keep your Outlook folders under control:

1. Use a few a few very broad categories. For example have one folder called “Customers” as opposed to one folder for each customer. Don’t forget, Outlook can sort that folder several different ways so why impose tight restrictions when the computer can find and sort in seconds. Use that power.
2. Use only one folder for processed mail. “What’s that”, you ask, “didn’t you initially teach me to create multiple folders?” Yes I did, but there are other ways depending upon how you work. The important thing is to get old e-mail out of the Inbox (one of our basic principles). You can create one folder called “Completed E-mail” and drag everything you want to keep into it after its processed.
3. Use Outlook categories instead of (or in combination with) folders. Applying a category (or categories) to each message you store gives you the ability to find and group it much faster. Just like your folders (and paper filing system) keep your categories broad.
4. Use Outlook’s views, sorting, Search Folders and Show in Groups functions. Computers are great at finding things (especially when we give a little thought before storing them) and showing the results to us in multiple ways. Take advantage of this power to save time for you. I’ll also discuss this in more detail in a future post.

Filling is an art in itself. For more reading on this subject I highly recommend The Organized Executive by Stephanie Winston. I read it back in the 1980s (it’s been updated several times since) and it made a huge impact on how I managed my work. It’s a classic in the area of time management and is just as relevant today as it was then.

Photo by Howard R. Hollem, October 1942

Earlier this week I gave you a list of principles to help you take control of your e-mail. Now I’ll get into some specifics. You may remember that I said to process your e-mail at specific times each day. I won’t get into the theory behind that now, just do it.

When you do sit down to do the processing it’s time to switch gears. You are now going to be the shipping/receiving clerk of your little knowledge factory. In a manufacturing or warehousing environment the shipping clerk has a very specific role. They receive new material (using a defined process) and send it to it’s proper place. That has to be your frame of mind in processing your new e-mail. It’s a very suble but important change in attitude. Keep this in mind.

The process is simple, deceivingly simple. It’s called the 4-D Process (somebody else made this up long ago but I like it and it works). You must consciously apply this to each and every message in you Inbox. Here it is:

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It’s amazing what you notice on vacation when your brain is otherwise engaged. Our last night of vacation last week was spent in a resort hotel operated by a major chain. We splurged by using a ton of points to stay in this luxury spa for our final night. Luck was with us because we were assigned to the concierge area (unlike the usual points award rooms next to the ice machines and party rooms… but I’m not complaining).

It was Friday night and we were pleased to learn that there was a wine tasting in the concierge lounge. When I dropped in to grab some wine I walked in with a gentleman carrying his laptop. He said to nobody in particular that he had to stop in to “do some e-mail” word that are like fingernails on a blackboard to me. But I was on vacation so I grabbed by wine and moved on.

Later that evening I popped in again to check out the complimentary deserts. There he still was furiously “doing e-mail” like there was no tomorrow…on Friday night…in vacationland. Oh well that’s his problem. I was off the clock and not ready to work with anxious e-mail guy.

Guess what, next morning as we stopped by for our complimentary free breakfast (I’m never one to pass up anything complimentary) there was anxious e-mail guy again. I just had to take a peek at his Outlook Inbox, and sure enough had well over 1,500 messages many unopened. Unfortunately see this all the time

E-mail anxiety is one of the major reasons companies and individuals hire me. It comes at us constantly at an ever increasing pace and is not going away. It should be nor more than an electronic version of mail, but it’s turned into a continuous interruption for so many people. Don’t become anxious e-mail guy and ruin your vacation. Apply the principles below to take control of your Inbox:

1. End every day with an empty Inbox (well at least no more that a screen full)
2. To get a fresh start move all old messages (no older that a week old) to a separate folder. Schedule time every day to process your old messages (see the 4-D process explained in item 4) until they are cleaned up.
3. Process your e-mail at specific times no more than three or four times per day. Tell your co-workers about your schedule to set expectations.
4. Use a repeatable process to work through all messages from top to bottom. I suggest the simple 4-D formula. Do it now. Decide to do it later (convert to a task to get it out of your Inbox), Delegate it or Delete it.
5. Drag and drop e-mails to convert them to tasks or appointments when appropriate (get them out of your Inbox).
6. Don’t use your Inbox as a task list. It’s a shipping and receiving dock not a long term storage facility.
7. Eliminate distracting “You’ve Got Mail” bells or alarms. Also turn off the Desktop Alert in Outlook that appears in the lower right hand corner of your screen when a new message arrives.
8. Change your default Outlook view to Calendar (by default it’s set to Inbox). Then only go to your Inbox when it’s time to process E-mail (see number 3). Looking at your Inbox all day diverts your focus from your real work to reading mail…a major distraction. When you have to create a new message either use the New drop down box in the upper left hand corner of all Outlook views choose Mail Message or just use the keyboard shortcut key CTL+SHIFT+M to create a message from anywhere within Outlook.

A word of warning. Don’t use these productivity principles to spend more time working. Use them to free up more time for yourself and your family.

What do you do to tame the e-mail beast? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the Comments below.

So much wine…

Originally uploaded by __JD__

The blog was a little quiet last week because I was traveling in NoCal (Northern California) enjoying the Mendocino Coast and later wine country. Although I try to practice what I preach and live a balanced life (you know take some time for yourself) my wife really keeps me honest on vacation.

While in Sonoma County, I couldn’t help noticing the winery signs at every intersection. They pointed in all directions indicating the myriad of choices…it was all good. We could wander happily from place to place with no plan enjoying the serendipity of no plan. At times it became stressful because there were too many choices and we were afraid of missing out on something good.

The signs pointing in multiple directions made me think about what the workday is like for most people. At any moment they can choose among an almost unlimited number of actions. Some good, many not so good. This is great on vacation but wandering willy nilly through the workday usually results in doing whatever comes first or squeaks the loudest. You may be “busy” but not accomplishing much. The result is usually more fires, a longer workday, high stress and failure to reach your goals.

Have you ever found yourself feeling anxious because you don’t know what to do next (although you have hundreds of things that could be done)? Constantly thinking “about” your work when you’re in the middle of it, usually means you haven’t taken the time to plan. I know everybody hates to plan, but it’s really a matter of switching “modes” for a few minutes each day.

Michael Gerber in his classic book The E-Myth, talks about how we work in different modes. Most of the time we are in what he refers to as “technician” mode (you may have heard me use the term“worker bee”). This is when you are going about the day to day duties of your job…whether you’re on the telephone selling, writing software or performing brain surgery…it doesn’t matter. But sometimes you need to step out of that worker bee mode (we’ll use my term) and become a manager…of yourself. This is the time when you step back to think “about” your work…or the work the worker bee should be doing.

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