This year we’re focusing on giving you quick processes to apply to various aspects of getting organised and productive. I call them ‘Quick and Dirty’ because these are basic survival strategies for people who feel buried and aren’t quite ready for all the  ‘best practices.’

So far we’ve looked at email and paper. This month our topic is To-Do lists.

To review – here’s the formula we’re applying to our high-stress, low-on-time organising projects this year:

The Quick and Dirty Organising Process:

1. Get real
2. Get some breathing space
3. Get past the guilt
4. Get new systems
5. Get a new mindset
6. Get support

Quick and Dirty To-D0 Lists

This is a great process that you can walk yourself through anytime you feel overwhelmed, and you will love it. I encourage you to do it as soon as you can!

Step 1: Get Real

You’ve heard this before, and here it is again: There is not enough time in your life for everything you want to do.

You must learn to be selective and let some things go – or let them wait until later.

Step 2: Get some breathing space

Take out several sheets of paper or open a blank Word document, and set a timer for 15 minutes. Get away from other people and the phone, put on some music you like, and relax into this exercise.

Now write down everything in your head and elsewhere (lists? sticky notes? white board?) that you want to do. Big or little, long or short term, personal or professional…get it all written down. Just keep writing until the timer rings. Give yourself room to pause and see what your mind presents to you.

Get past the guilt

You will now be looking at a huge list of obligations, unfulfilled intentions and exciting possibilities.

It doesn’t matter that some are overdue or that you never seem to make progress on others. What matters is that right now you are doing something to address the challenge.

Get new systems

1. Prioritise. Take out 3 highlighters (or highlight /sort electronically) and colour code your list according to these categories:

• Must be done before I go to sleep today
• Should be done this week
• Can wait until next week

For the (many) items that don’t fit the timeframes above, leave them un-highlighted. They are most likely planned projects or just ideas at this point.

2. Systemise. Set up 3 lists in whatever format you want to use: sheets of paper, ring notebook, electronic notes, etc.:

• To Do Today
• To Do This Week
• To Do Next Week
• Other

Write the appropriate tasks on these lists.  Put a red star beside the 3 items on the To Do Today list that matter most. This is where to focus your best energy.

3. Use your lists all day long. Develop the habit of capturing things on these lists and reviewing/reorganising them frequently.

4. Reset your lists weekly. On Friday, Saturday or Sunday, repeat as much of this exercise as you need to in order to feel ready for the week. Remember to look through the ‘Other’ list at this time and see if you want to activate anything on there.

Get a new mindset

Understand that it may be possible to do all these things, but probably not all at once – and not all perfectly. Life is about phases, and success always includes imperfections.

Get support

When you’re ready to take this to the next level, come learn how to finesse this system even further, streamline that ‘Other’ list and make more progress on your goals and projects in our course: Maximise Your Time.

Sound good? Here’s what to do:

• Check out when we’re running the course in Hong Kong next.
• Email us to book a private course for 4-5 friends or colleagues.
• Contact a program coordinator to discuss an in-house training program.
• Not in Hong Kong? Ask about virtual training options all around the world!

Filed under: Tasks, Time Management | No Comments »

We recently did a facilitation session with a group of senior sales managers whose team leader felt they needed to revisit the issues of work-life balance, prioritisation and boundary-setting. One of the most interesting conclusions to come out of the session was a need for a new model for thinking about balance, particularly for parents.

The group commented that what is commonly meant by the ‘life’ side of the work-life balance equation is ‘family,’ specifically time spent with the kids. While several participants felt there was room for improvement here, others stated that their job and their kids were indeed getting enough time; the missing piece was actually ‘self’ time. By this the group meant time for exercise, hobbies, adult relationships, reflection, and so on. Here are some thoughts on how to strike a Work-Life-Self Balance:

Put yourself first – in the day.

For many of us, the only part of our day we can truly control is first thing in the morning. This is the time to schedule exercise, meditation, reading and reflection. Build a ritual around it. We’re big fans of Leo Babauta of Zen Habits fame, and here’s his helpful piece on How to Become an Early Riser.

Plan in small ‘Bio-breaks’ during the day.

Your body and brain naturally cycle in 90-minute intervals called ultredian rhythms, and they will force a change of activity for you, even if you haven’t overtly changed your own activity. For example, when you try to push past 90 minutes in a meeting or on a project your brain will start to wander, and your focus will falter. Your body may start to ache, asking you for a stretch, drink or change of scenery. Take advantage of this natural cycle when planning your work day, and build in little boosts for yourself every 90-minutes or so. Don’t do anything work related during these little breaks. Instead – stand up, have a stretch, take a walk down the hall, make a personal phone call, flip through a magazine, or go get a smoothie. You will then be more productive in the next work session than you would have if you’d pushed straight through. Remember – your brain will take the break regardless of whether you officially give it permission.

Establish defined working hours, and stick to them.

Decide – and communicate to your team – when you will and will not be responding to email and calls. When you’re at home, don’t turn on the computer. Scan handheld email for emergencies if you must, but don’t respond unless the company is going to shut down without your immediate intervention. When you’re at work, don’t attend to personal issues. Keep the two separate, and deal with each in turn, efficiently and effectively. Harvard has proven yet again that this ‘work less/get more done’ approach actually makes you MORE productive than the always-on lifestyle you may be living now.

Get organised.

Get better systems in place at work and at home so less time is spent on the tedious, repetitive aspects of each. Streamline, simplify, cut back, create templates and share the load. Figure out how to do everything faster and better, with less time invested. This frees up more time for everyone to focus on the top professional and personal priorities. I really should mention that we can help you with all this – just get in touch!

Love what you do.

Make sure you’re doing work you love, so it doesn’t feel like such a slog. For help with this, turn to our friends Angela and Carole at Loving Your Work.

Get some help.

Get a life coach and/or personal trainer to help you develop the habits you know will make your life better. It makes all the difference in the world to have someone keeping you accountable and pointing out the progress you’re making. We recommend Ana Scherer of NRG Coaching and Andrew Cox of Innate Fitness. Andrew’s the guy who taught us about those ultredian rhythms!

Filed under: Time Management, Work/Life Balance | No Comments »

Filed under: Productive Routines, Productivity Polls, Tasks, Time Management | No Comments »

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.

Filed under: Flow, Productive Routines, Tasks, Time Management | 1 Comment »

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.

Filed under: Business Organising, Focus, HR Buzz, Productive Routines, Time Management | No Comments »

Do you treat your email inbox as rolling, never-ending To-Do list?

We call this behaviour Inbox Surfing: skimming emails at the top of the Inbox repeatedly to decide what to work on next.

Inbox Surfers typically dip into the inbox to pull something off the top that seems fun, fast or has is suddenly become important. While they’re working on the latest arrival, more emails land in the inbox and important messages sink to the bottom of the bunch.

This keeps happening every day, and we tell ourselves that one weekend we’ll come into the office to sort through it ALL once and for all… but for most people, Later Never Comes. In the meantime, important tasks slip through the cracks, and we develop a scattered, inefficient approach to our daily work.

Intuitively many of us know that we could handle this better, but we wonder, “Does it really matter?” Well, only if you value your time and your sanity! Let’s look at what this way of working is costing you, some better approaches you can implement today, and the payoff you’ll enjoy when you make the change.

The Cost of Inbox Surfing

Inbox surfing costs you precious time and risks you dropping balls – for others and for yourself.

In a 2007 study, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average, 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, such as writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming email. They strayed off to reply to other messages or browse web sites.

Don’t underestimate the power of creating email-free zones in your day. Consider this:

A 2004 study conducted by the University of London reported that both interruptions and the consequent task-switching caused by email take a heavy toll on workers, who tend to spend an average of only three minutes working on any one activity before switching to the others. The cost of this multi-tasking, trying to juggle new messages with existing work is, over a day, equivalent to the loss of a night’s sleep.

So our productivity and our mental capacity are impaired by this behaviour. I don’t know about you, but I want to have as much brain power as I can!

Simple Changes You Can Make Today

1. Each time you open your email, set a goal to remove as many messages from the inbox as possible. This doesn’t mean you’re going to do all the work first; it means you’ll shift your mindset from ‘doing email’ to ‘sorting email.’

2. Set up 5 folders in your email system:

• Do Today
• Do This Week
• Review on Friday
• Watching and Waiting
• Done

3. When you need to take action on an email, ask yourself 2 questions:

• What is the next action I need to take on this?
• When will I take that action?

4. If you want to do the task Today or This Week, move the email to the right folder. If the task can wait until next week or later, move it to the Review on Friday folder.

5. If you need to hold something because the next action is someone else’s, move the email to the Watching and Waiting folder.

6. If you don’t need to take action but want to keep the email, file it as you normally would or move it to the Done folder.

7. After you’ve sorted your email in this way, shift your attention to the To Do Today folder and starting working your way through it according to your priorities.

8. Finish each day with a review of what’s left in Do Today and Do This Week, and rearrange in preparation for the next day.

9. Find some time each Friday to look at the Review on Friday folder and plan time to work on those tasks the next week. Schedule time in your calendar for these actions. Also look at the Watching and Waiting folder to see if you need to nudge anyone to move things forward.

10. Repeat the steps above as frequently as you can, and watch the emails in your inbox disappear!

You can get a lot fancier than this if you want to power up your method of managing Tasks, but in the absence of anything else, why not give the approach above a try?

The Payoff for Working Differently

How will this help you? Let me count the ways…

1. You’ll have a clear picture of what you need to do on any given day.
2. You’ll have peace of mind that you have not let any important work get buried in the inbox.
3. You’ll visit the inbox less frequently, and with a greater sense of purpose.
4. You’ll think about each message really well the first time you receive it – instead of re-re-re-rereading messages every time you skim subject lines.
5. You’ll become more decisive and action-focused.
6. You’ll be carving out time for tasks that require deep, longer stretches of concentration.
7. You’ll achieve more of your goals and cross more things off your list!
8. You’ll stop interrupting your workflow to check email all day every day.
9. You’ll increase your ability to focus.
10. You’ll gain a sense of control in today’s chaotic workplace.

Ah…sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s yours for the taking.

Filed under: Email, Productive Routines, Time Management | 1 Comment »

We all know we’re expected to manage loads more information and communication that our parents and grandparents had to in their careers, but what we don’t seem to be grasping fully is the fact that we simply cannot do it all – even if we’re great with technology.

We keep trying to do ‘Everything ASAP’…and it’s just not working. The consequences of treating all incoming information and communication as equally important and urgent are dire; we’re more stressed and working longer hours than any generation before us.

The root causes are threefold:

1. We are so busy trying to keep up/keep moving that we lose sight of our big-picture goals.
2. We don’t establish parameters around what is truly deserving of our limited time and attention.
3. Many of us naturally tend toward a random and reactive workstyle, so we are woefully inefficient – even if we are indeed very busy!

Is this true for you? Let’s look at a few behavioural indicators of people who suffer from the ‘Everything ASAP’ problem.

Working at the Pace of Panic

Do you spend a good deal of time rushing to complete a meeting agenda, project or product just before the deadline? Do you feel a sense of pressure to follow-up immediately on most phone calls and emails?

Ask yourself:

• Do I allow for enough hours each week to work on longer-range projects slowly and steadily? …or is most of my time spent on day-to-day tasks?
• Have I managed the expectations of my clients, colleagues and bosses, or have I created a rod for my own back by being hyper-responsive?

“Worked all day, got nothing done…”

Do you feel that your days can become a black hole of endless activity, but very little productivity?

Ask yourself:

• Do I work systematically, allocating some time for attending to incoming communication and other time for high-value tasks and projects?
• Do I start each day with a few clearly-defined, reasonable goals?

“Hey – Have you got a sec?”

Are you an open-door type person who can’t get any of your own work done until everyone else has gone home for the day?

Ask yourself:

• Could I make myself fully available at certain times during the day and request private time to focus at others? When would those times be, ideally?
• How could I communicate about this sensitively and effectively with my team?
• What signal could I use to let others know that I am needing time to concentrate without interruption?
• Could we try my idea for a week or two and see what works and what will need to be tweaked a bit?

Overwhelmed and Paralysed

Do you ever look at your email Inbox or paper In-tray and just freeze up?

Ask yourself:

• Could I spend a few minutes on sorting rather than working, to get some peace of mind and a clear picture of what’s in there?
• Could I close my email program and/or work someplace else today in order to complete my important work without becoming distracted or depressed by the sight of all that email or those piles?

Perpetual Projects

Are you frustrated by projects that are never finished?

Ask yourself:

• Can I work on one project at a time rather than try to chip away at several simultaneously?
• Do I have a clear (and simple) project plan written down someplace?
• Is my plan broken down into small steps?
• Have I established a (realistic) target timeframe for completing each step?
• Can I dedicate a weekly block of time to this project?

Did you spot any trends in the problems and solutions here? That’s right – to solve the ‘Everything ASAP’ Problem you’ve got to change your workstyle to one that is more proactive and focused. You’ll also need to give people around you a heads-up that things will be changing for the better, even if they don’t understand it at first.

Pick your poison and try some of the suggestions above. Stick with it – bearing in mind that your reward is less stress and more free time!

Filed under: Focus, Info-Overload, Productive Routines, Time Management, Work/Life Balance | 1 Comment »

If we all worked alone, it would be a cinch to focus, get our work done and get on with living. The tricky bit is that most of us work in teams, coordinate projects and activities for groups or depend on others for information and support. This means there’s a lot of communication happening all day, every day.

With each email, SMS, chat, voice message or note left on our desk there is an expectation that we will respond ASAP. The volume – coupled with the presumption that we will follow through immediately – is the primary source of stress for info-overloaded employees today.

In a landmark study published in 2007 by Intel, the authors state, “The problem isn’t the abundance of accessible information. It’s the queued streams of pushed information; that is, the accumulation of messages governed by the expectation that the worker process them all.”

We need to get smarter about how we handle this. Let’s look at some strategies for resetting our rhythms and managing the expectations that other people have of us.

Turnaround Time Conditioning

If you think it makes you look professional and responsive to reply to every communication immediately, think again. Your colleagues – and your boss – could take this as a sign that you are erratic and reactive or that you don’t have enough to do! Your ability to remain focused on high-value activities and deliver timely results is where you should concentrate your personal PR campaign.

For those people who really do need to hear from you frequently, work together to determine a reasonable turnaround threshold for your communications – email in particular.  Is it 20 minutes? 40 minutes? 90 minutes? The benefits for both of you in having longer stretches of time to concentrate on important work are significant.

If you’ve slipped into a negative habit of interrupting each other frequently, have a conversation about the challenges and take control together.

For true crises, use the phone or your feet to walk to each other’s offices.

Selective Response

This is just a fancy way to say: Ignore anything you can. You’ve got more important things to do.

Worst Case Questioning

If you thought that last one was a bit tough to swallow, try asking yourself, “What’s the worst thing that could happen if I don’t engage in this conversation?” Could you live with that scenario?

Remember – you’ve got more important things to do. What’s the worst thing that could happen if those tasks don’t get your attention?!

Stand-up Meetings

For conversations that are best had face-to-face, have a stand-up meeting. If nobody sits down, the meeting will be short and focused! This works for quick team meetings as well as 1:1 discussions.

Stop the Drop-By Meetings

Even if a discussion only requires 5 minutes, everybody deserves a heads-up on a conversation.When people drop by each other’s desks whenever it suits them to have a chat, the discussion is generally unfocused and takes longer than necessary.

The ‘dropper’ may get what he/she needs, but the ‘dropee’ has been interrupted and compelled to comment on an issue without a chance to switch gears mentally.

When someone drops in on you and asks if you’ve “got a second,” look at your watch and give one of these answers:

• “Now isn’t a great time, but I should be able to think about that in about 30 minutes. Can we schedule a chat at 10:00?”

• “Sure, but I’m pushing to finish something. How much time do we need?” Stand up when saying this so your visitor isn’t tempted to sit down and linger! If the conversation drags, suggest you schedule a longer session at a mutually convenient time. Open up your calendar and/or walk toward the door while doing this.

Get Better at Saying NO or Later

If much of your day is spent spinning your wheels, and your evenings are spent working late when the office is finally quiet, you may need to work on establishing some better personal and professional boundaries. See 7 Ways to Say NO for some tips.

Put an End to Pouncing

One of the greatest complaints we hear from senior managers is that their people ‘pounce’ on them all the time. The second they return to the office, are seen online, or set the phone back in the cradle, a line forms at their door of people needing to talk.

What do the associates and support staff complain about? The bosses never give them any time. Thus, they grab it whenever they can.

The answer to this problem lies in establishing a sacred rhythm of daily briefing and/or weekly meetings (ideally on Monday or Friday – looking forward) to review progress, clarify priorities and schedule time to discuss critical issues.

The key is that these meetings must never be cancelled. If absolutely necessary, they can be rescheduled within the same week, they can be held via phone and remote desktop sharing, or they can be shortened…but they must take place.

When people come to trust that there will be a regular opportunity to touch base, they will begin to collect issues for review at the regular meetings rather than playing ‘catch as catch can’ all week long.

Reduce the Volume and Get Back to Work

There is a lot you can do to regain control of your work environment by
cutting the amount of input you have to deal with. You also need
to understand the difference between processing and working. These
topics have been explored in depth elsewhere on this blog:

• Create a ‘Front Office’

• Put Your Inbox on a Diet

• Establishing Com-Free Zones

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Here’s the challenge: do you value your time (a.k.a. your life) enough to place some parameters around how it gets used? Or do you find it easier just to go with the flow, crossing your fingers that it will all get done? How well is that working for you?

If you’re like many of our readers, you probably struggle with finding ways to make yourself available to colleagues and clients yet also get your work done so you have some time left for your life and loved ones.

Let me share a little truism with you: The less time you have, the more wisely you will use it. This is our variation of Parkinson’s Law, which states that ‘Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.’ We have all experienced the validity of this law when we pulled off a great term paper the night before it was due. There’s nothing like a looming deadline to help us tune out distractions.

Enough Chit-Chat

The law applies to our social tendencies as well, i.e. ‘Conversations expand so as to fill the time available for their completion.’ If your door is always open, your phone is always on, and your chat status is a free-for-all, there will be no end to the interruptions and distractions you are battling. Whenever somebody else is bored or stuck, they will seek out the easiest path to their own procrastination: always-available-you.

Sound familiar? Let me share some tricks to help you change this by establishing what we call ‘Com-Free Zones.’

These are chunks of time each day when you block all communications and focus on – well, whatever YOU want to. This could be a critical task or project…but it could also be going to the gym without being tethered to your boss via the Blackberry at 8 p.m.

Defined Working / Available Hours

When do you work? When are you off work? Did you know there was such a concept?! Just decide, and stick to it – at least publicly, anyway. If your hours aren’t fixed by someone else, set them for yourself – especially if you work from home. If you are a corporate professional, decide when you start and when you finish, and don’t respond to email and text messages outside of those hours.

People will catch on. Even your boss will catch on. You say you’ll lose your job if you do this? Hmmm….so how long are you going to live under that sort of pressure? 5 more years? 10 more years? And what will the payoff be for that? Just asking…

OK, here’s a cheat for you. If you occasionally chose to work ‘under the radar,’ e.g. after the kids are in bed, in the early morning or evening, don’t let everybody know about it! Queue your email messages to be sent out when your official working day begins. If you are careful and consistent about this, your workmates will start to adjust to your rhythm, and you will find your life again.

Control Outgoing Communications

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” So said Walt Kelly, and so say I about how we distract ourselves as much as the other guy.

I will put my hand up here and say I am as guilty of this as the next person. I will be working along and suddenly decide to make a call or send an email, check in with someone via chat, etc. Sometimes my communication is directly relevant to the work at hand, i.e. I need some information before I can move forward. But most of the time it’s nothing fancier than boredom or procrastination.

So when the only enemy to my productivity is actually me, my trick is to completely shut down all communications channels. That means I close (not minimise) Outlook and Skype, and I set all phone notifications to still and silent. Then I put my phone away so I don’t see it flashing. I am always amazed at how many times I try to click over to my email or reach for my phone. When neither is handy, I remember that I’m supposed to be working on something! So I make a note of what I need to do online or on the phone, then get back to work.

Even though I’m a productivity consultant, I have to play these tricks on myself. Maybe they will help you as well.

What’s Your Threshold?

I understand that you really need to be in touch with your colleagues and clients. I hope you understand that you really need time to focus and also to be not-working.

So let’s agree to a little experiment. Think realistically about how long your team, your boss, or your clients can reasonably wait for a response from you during the work day. Is it 20 minutes? 40 minutes? 2 hours?

Now try it. Test yourself and your work environment to see what happens if you are not available by phone, chat or email for that length of time. Find your threshold, commit to it, and use those golden minutes to actually get something meaningful done.

For tips on how to help people cope during your ‘extended’ absences, read Create a ‘Front Office.’

Filed under: Flow, Focus, Productive Routines, Time Management, Work/Life Balance | 1 Comment »

Gone are the good ‘ol days when most white collar workers had a dedicated secretary to filter incoming communications and information, making sure the boss could keep his or her mind on the most important matters. Email, instant messaging and mobile phones have given everybody direct access to everybody else – all day, every day.

While today’s tech tools can be great business and productivity boosters when used with discretion and flair, the general trend is toward non-stop interruptions and distractions preventing most of us from finding the quiet time needed to focus and complete critical tasks.

So how do we leverage the tools to our advantage but retain control over what gets our time and attention? Here are a few nifty little tricks to help you mimic the days of old with your very own ‘Front Office.’

Voice Mail + Caller ID

We’ll start with an easy one. Make sure frequent callers’ numbers display on your land line and mobile phone when they ring, and create protocols for yourself about which calls you’ll answer immediately and which you will return later.

Leave a short and sweet greeting to the effect of:

“Hi – sorry I can’t pick up your call right now. I’ll check messages at least once daily and will get back to you within 24 hours. For urgent matters, please send me a brief SMS beginning with the word URGENT.”

Email Autoresponders

This is the same idea as above, to manage expectations and put you in control. Set your server to reply to all incoming emails with a message like this:

“Hi – thanks for your message. I will check email twice daily at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Hong Kong time (GMT +8) and will reply within 48 hours. If you need a response by a particular time, please indicate this in the subject line of your email. For urgent matters, please send me a brief SMS (+123 4567 8910) beginning with the word URGENT.”

Tip: For both suggestions above, be sure to follow up as you have promised; otherwise people won’t trust your system or respect your boundaries.

IM: Not Available

Even if you are in plain sight of your workmates, set your instant messaging status to ‘Not Available’ or  ‘Do Not Disturb’ when you are focusing on essential tasks or project work. Ignore all attempts to get you to crack – even the funny ones! You won’t have to do this more than a couple of times to send a clear message that your M.O. has changed.

Workstation: Do Not Disturb Signal

Come up with a team-wide signal to indicate when you are not free to chat or answer questions. Some companies use a coloured flag system on the door, cubicle entry or computer monitor. Others create open door/closed door guidelines and understandings.

Some employees put headphones in/on their ears and orient their computers so that passers-by can’t gain immediate eye contact. Brainstorm ideas with your team and support each other to implement the system. Everybody wins!

Personal or Virtual Assistant

Build a solid case for an extra pair of hands by logging your time use faithfully for a 2-week period. Demonstrate to your bosses which tasks could be done by a support person, freeing you up to clock more hours on the creative, value-adding work you were hired to do. Calculate and compare the cost of your hours against the cost of support hours to put some teeth into your pitch.

Consider part-time and virtual assistant options rather than thinking you need a full-time employee. Delegate work on an hourly basis or outsource entire projects. Then be a good manager – give clear expectations and deadlines, allow enough time for discussion and revision, etc.

Empower Others to Act for You

There’s a lot of power in systems that are written down so people can follow them to your specifications and quality standards. Make a list of all the things you do on a routine basis that could be documented and handed over to someone else. One by one, create a short how-to guide and train others to implement your processes just like you would.

This takes time, but the payoff is HUGE if you do it right!!

Away Find

Small businesses and open-minded corporates can achieve much of the above with this elegant productivity app: http://www.awayfind.com/

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