Calm Control

The South China Morning Post recently ran a series of my articles in the Job Coach section.

Thanks muchly to the editor for inviting me to contribute to the column!

These articles focus on some popular Team Productivity issues.

Enjoy!

• Mapping Stimulates Creative Processes
• Efficiency is Now Top Priority for Firms
• Don’t Allow Email to Take Over Your Life

So what does it really take to be organised day-to-day? It’s not as much work as you may fear. Once you get your systems set up, it comes down to 3 simple maintenance routines.

You say you don’t have time for maintenance? Think of it like taking care of your teeth. Just a few minutes of brushing and flossing a couple of times a day will keep you on the right track. Occasionally you need to get to the dentist for a deeper cleaning and check-up.

If you don’t look after your teeth regularly, you’ll wind up with pain, decay, and even surgery. If you don’t look after your personal organisation, the results are stress, health problems, missed opportunities, and a breakdown in work/life balance.

To avoid all that, establish these 3 essential organising routines:

PROCESSING

What is it?

A sorting process similar to triage. Your goal is to process and prioritise everything, getting all collection points to empty.

Why do it?

To make sure your time and effort go to the true priorities - not whatever has come in most recently or is shouting the loudest.

What does it look like?

• You look at each email and make a decision about your next action, which you capture on your lists. Then you move the email out of the Inbox.
• You look through that notebook (or piece of paper, maybe?) where you have been scribbling notes all day. You capture ideas and follow-up actions on your lists.
• You look through your in-tray and capture ideas and actions on your lists. Then you discard or file the papers.
• You empty your brain of all the bits and bobs it has been trying to remember for you all day. You write this stuff down somewhere safe.

How often should I do it?

1-3 times a day

How long does it take?

15-30 minutes each time, assuming you have learned how to do it right.

DAILY PLANNING

What is it?

A housekeeping and prioritisation process. Your goal is to reorganise any outstanding tasks from today and build a clear plan for tomorrow.

Why do it?

To ensure your day will be spent in a focused and proactive way, instead of working randomly and reactively.

What does it look like?

• You look at your to-do list from today and decide what to do with any outstanding tasks. Usually you’ll re-schedule them for tomorrow or a later date if tomorrow looks too full.
• You have a look at your scheduled appointments for tomorrow and the amount of time you’ll have to yourself.
• You plan your to-do list for tomorrow - keeping it realistic!

How often should I do it?

Once a day - before the day begins. That means you do it the night before or very early in the morning before checking email for the first time.

How long does it take?

5-10 minutes, assuming you have good lists in place to support this process.

WEEKLY PLANNING

What is it?

A time management process. Your goal is to balance your week between appointments and work blocks to move your projects forward.

Why do it?

To get your priorities scheduled into your week before other people’s requests for your time take over.

What does it look like?

• You look at your to-do list from today and decide what to do with any outstanding tasks. Usually you’ll re-schedule them for a day next week or de-prioritise them if the week looks too full.
• You review your long-range project and idea lists and decide when you’ll take the next action for each.
• You confirm appointments for next week and schedule the necessary work blocks for yourself.
• You plan your to-do list for Monday - keeping it realistic!

How often should I do it?

Once a week - before the week begins. Monday morning is really too late. Most people prefer to do this at some point in the weekend when they’re more relaxed and removed from work pressures (hard to believe, I know - but try it before dismissing the idea). Some folks find Friday afternoon to be a good time for this process.

How long does it take?

20-30 minutes, assuming you have good systems for managing time and projects.

SETTING UP THE SYSTEMS

If you want to learn how to set up your systems for managing lists, email and paper, check out this course or this one.

Here’s a funky remix of the old ‘Shift Happens’ clip - with updated stats on tech and info. Enjoy!

I spoke at a breakfast for Human Resources leaders last month, and we asked what was on their minds these days. Here’s what they said:

• Managing people’s expectations
• Dealing with increased levels of fear and anxiety
• Managing morale in the face of the media hype, especially for financial institutions
• Improving internal communication skills
• Keeping people motivated when they don’t know whether they’ll be around next week
• A new internal focus - ‘Back to Basics’
• Relying on internal expertise rather than external consultants
• Getting managers to lead and be decisive
• Noticing that employees are very self-focused
• Working to build confidence in leadership

My topic was Helping Your Team Accomplish More With Less.

I’ve prepared a 1-page summary which is ideal for team leaders looking for practical ways to help their people today.

Please download your copy here.

This article reminds me of that essay we had to write when we were kids: “How I Spent my Spring Vacation” by Kristin Lowe.

There are 4 extra bodies in the house this week, and they all want to be wherever I am, drawing me into whatever they’re doing. I am genuinely interested, but I keep wondering, “Does anybody else see the computer in front of me, or the phone I’m holding up to my ear?”

Our clients are all working this week - kicking off 2nd Quarter with much more optimism than Q1 - so nothing is slowing down on the work front. I could go into the office, but I sort of like staying in my jammies all day with everyone else.

Here’s how I’m staying focused in the midst of piano practice, Play-doh, PBJ sandwiches and paint being applied to the walls of the study where I (try to) work:

1. Hard stuff first - Whatever requires the most intense concentration is the first task of the day, before kids and clients start looking for me.
2. Clear priorities - I start my day with a gorgeously organised RTM task list - and I don’t go to bed until it’s ready for tomorrow.
3. One thing at a time - I write on a piece of paper next to me the ONE thing I am working on right now. I cross it off when I’m done. Under these circumstances it seems to take a superhuman effort to stay focused on one thing at a time, but by day’s end, the list of completed items is nice and long.
4. Batching tasks - Processing email, making calls, writing proposals, replying to email…these are all distinctly separate chunks of the day, interspersed with family stuff like cleaning the guinea pig cage, getting dinner together and watching a movie. There’s a rhythm to it; my brain likes the variety.
5. Change of scenery - I move my laptop around the house whenever I switch activities. Depending on what I’m working on and how deeply I need to concentrate, I might sit at my desk, on the sofa, or on the balcony.
6. White noise - If I sit at the kitchen island, the rain on the window drowns out the noise of the playdates and renovations. When the rain stops, sometimes I put in headphones and listen to recorded ambient noise: the sounds of a waterfall, ocean waves, or a thunderstorm. (By the way, this is a great trick for when you have to work in a coffee shop or airport lounge).
7. Support - My husband is on holiday too, and he’s great about throwing the kids in the car and making errands feel like a special outing. This is when I can call people without letting on I’m at home. I guess now my secret’s out.

Is it a picture of perfect familial and entrepreneurial bliss? Nah - I’ve shouted at everyone plenty of times…but this is what I wanted, right? Freedom, fulfillment and family. It works - as long as I stay focused!

How do you stay focused in the midst of distractions when you’re working from home?  How about in an open-plan office?

Skype in the palm of my hand - perfect. I’m so jazzed about this. Free Skype-to-Skype calls and handheld instant messages from any Wi-Fi zone…somebody pinch me, please. I remember trying to do something like this through the web browser on my old Treo once when I was waiting for a bus. It was an expensive - and unsuccessful - experiment.

My amazing virtual assistant told me the other day she doesn’t have SMS on her phone. What?!

She has every application known to modern man on her computer, but I can’t send her a message when I’m not at my desk? I just didn’t get it. I’ve always thought she lived on Planet Earth where we ALL have SMS…but then again, we’ve never actually met. She says she’s somewhere in Canada, eh.

I realised our entire working relationship for the past 18 months has been through Skype, so I only bug her when I’m sitting at my computer. Now she can run, but she can’t hide…

There are a few things many of us do all day, every day. They include:

• Reading and Writing
• Meeting/Talking with Others
• Managing Email
• Shuffling/Searching for Information
• Planning and Executing Projects

If you were to get faster at doing any of these things, what would you be able to focus on with the extra time? What’s that worth to you?

Let’s say there’s been a massive traffic accident on a highway near you. Within minutes, the emergency room reception area of the nearest major hospital is packed with over 100 victims, all in varying states of need, all expecting to receive near-immediate attention. The emergency room nurses spring into action.

Question: What’s the first thing they do?

Answer: They apply a process called triage.

Definition: Triage is the sorting of, and allocation of, treatment to patients, especially battle and disaster victims, according to a proven system of priorities designed to maximise the number of survivors.

Application: What’s this got to do with email? It’s a near-perfect metaphor, actually. Read on to see how a triage approach to managing your inbox will add hours to your week and minimise email stress.

The word triage comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate, sort, sift or select. The triage process used by emergency room staffers is designed to simplify decision making. A colour-coded tag is used to identify the next actions to be taken as follows:

Black:  Deceased/Expectant

Patients are so severely injured that they will die of their injuries, possibly in hours or days; they should be taken to a holding area and given painkillers as required to reduce suffering.

Red:  Immediate/Life Threatening

Patients require immediate surgery or other life-saving intervention, and have first priority for surgical teams or transport to advanced facilities; they “cannot wait” but are likely to survive with immediate treatment.

Yellow:  Delayed/ Observation

Patients’ condition is stable for the moment but requires watching by trained persons and frequent re-triage, will need hospital care (and would receive immediate priority care under “normal” circumstances).

Green:  Minor/Wait

Patients will require a doctor’s care in several hours or days but not immediately, may wait for a number of hours or be told to go home and come back the next day.

White:  Dismiss/Walking Wounded

Patients have minor injuries; first aid and home care are sufficient, a doctor’s care is not required.

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Now, once our triage team has finished with the sorting, what do they do next? They turn their attention toward treating the highest priority cases.  They can do this with greater peace of mind and focus because they know every case has been reviewed and prioritised. To avoid random and reactive treatment - and potentially losing sight of true priorities - they’ve first concentrated on completing an efficient and focused sorting process before getting down to work.

EMAIL TRIAGE

So, to make this work for your email a couple of things are needed:

1. An understanding of the difference between sorting email and working on the stuff that’s in the email. Anything in between is highly inefficient, even if you like to call it ‘multi-tasking.’
2. A commitment to sort (a.k.a. ‘process’) your entire inbox down to empty on a regular basis. The goal of this exercise is to make a decision about every email and ‘tag it’ - literally if that’s your thing, or or file it for follow-up, or make a task out of it, or grab what’s useful from it, or get rid of it. This is a different activity from actually doing all the work required by some of the emails. You’ll do that next - or later - or never…per your decision.

(Skeptics, take note - this ‘extra step’ of processing will actually save you time, contrary to your fears. See here and here and here for more on this.)

To triage your email well, your brain may also need to get better at:

• being selective about deserves your time and attention
• being decisive about how and when you will follow through on things (or not)

Imagine, then, a triage system for your emails:

• Black: Dead or Done - Junk or stuff I’m finished with (delete or file as Done)
• Red: Do Immediately - Do or Die - as soon as I’m finished with the triage
• Yellow: Do Soon - Take care of this Today or This Week (file for follow-up or schedule a task accordingly)
• Green:  Can Wait - Throw into Next Week or Later (file for review on Friday/Monday or monthly)
• White: Info Only - Grab what I need from this (idea, information, link, phone number, etc.) - and then the email will be Black

Cautionary note to organising junkies:

Am I suggesting you create an elaborate colour-coding scheme for your emails? Please…no! It’s a metaphor.

Ready to move beyond the figurative?

Read this for how to set up some follow-up email files that work for lots of folks. Or take our course to learn how to do all this really well in Outlook, using your Calendar and Tasks better. Non-Outlook users, try Remember the Milk. When you’re ready to get good and truly sorted, check out this course to learn how to triage everything - not just email - using our FAST Formula.

One more thing - pop over to our Productivity Poll and tell us how many emails are in your inbox right now. The fun bit? You can see what everybody else said. It will either make you feel great or give you a good giggle. Both are nice.