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August 28, 2006

Low-tech brilliance

I was recently listening to an audio interview with David Allen on our Connect website and the caller asked him about dealing with interruptions, which seems to be a major workflow concern out there these days for many people. David recommended an Inbox (like this great one from Levenger) as one of the best things one can do for dealing with interruptions.

Think about why you sometimes don't like interruptions. It's often a break in the flow of your concentration, focus or creativity. And rarely does someone asking, "Got a minute?" really mean a minute. The part of you that knows that, and doesn't trust that you'll remember where you left off, would naturally get annoyed with those well-intentioned colleagues showing up at your door because they've got something that's a priority for them.

David described what he does when someone shows up at his door. He grabs a piece of paper (the ubiquitous quick capture tool no matter how digital you are) and writes himself a quick note about where he left off and tosses it in his own Inbox. Now, the reason that this works is that he trusts his system and knows he'll go back to process it. Using your own Inbox is like creating a bookmark for yourself of where you left off. It's also a great way to minimize interruptions among your team. Think of how many times recently someone interrupted you to hand you something relatively mundane because they didn't have a trusted place to put it on your desk.

Here are a couple of keys for an Inbox:

1. Have it close enough for you to drop stuff into at arm's length but not so close that someone would have to come into your personal space to put something into it (meaning, someone shouldn't have to do the cubicle tango with you to get to your Inbox.)

2. EMPTY IT REGULARLY! Get that Inbox processed down to zero every 24-48 hours. This tip alone will build the trust for you and other people to use it. Here's the classic GTD workflow diagram if you want a good reference for processing.

Then, if you really want to have fun, set up Inboxes at home for each person in the house.

Posted by Kelly at 07:47 PM | Comments (6)

August 14, 2006

Is there such a thing as obsessive-compulsive productivity?

I read an interesting article in yesterday's LA Times Opinion section which talks about the new term "obsessive-compulsive productivity." Are people robbing themselves of the experience of downtime?

I wasn't surprised to read that 40% of Americans work 50 hours or more per week and rarely disconnect from their work, even on vacation. I hear about it all the time in my seminars where people feel like an 8 hour day is slacking off and working at night after the kids go to bed and in the morning before the office really opens is the only way they can stay on top of things.

Is it that people have too much to do or is it that they just don't have trusted systems (ala GTD) to feel like they can disconnect?

I've heard David Allen mention that we've always had too much to do. I don't think BlackBerry's necessarily create more work, it's just now people have higher expectations about how fast the work needs to get done.

Someone in one of my seminars recently told me she takes her laptop on vacation just to stay on top of her email (people actually hissed when she said this, perhaps from the fear that this will become expected.) The "vacation tax" of coming back to hundreds, if not thousands, of emails is just not worth it to her.

Your thoughts on this?

Posted by Kelly at 12:32 PM | Comments (5)

August 09, 2006

Why do we keep things in our head?

We had an email discussion yesterday among some of the staff about why we (as humans) have a tendency to keep things in our mind. Given the mind can only focus on 2 to 3 things at any given time, and only do one thing at a time, the mind is obviously not the best office manager for incompletions. Yet, this is one of the things I find people will challenge with the GTD process. Here were some perspectives on this that I found interesting about why people keep things on our mind rather than write it down:

Because they don't have a system they trust to put it in so their head can let go of it. In a desperate attempt to keep agreements, the brain will hold on....it has no other choice.

Habit

Control (or false control). As long as they have it in their head, they think they are in control of it.

They don't have a trusted place that their brain trusts to put it that is as fast or easy as holding on to it in their head.

In the moment we're reminded to call Fred it's so clear and obvious to us - why would we need to take the time and effort to put it in a system? "Oh, I'll remember that, easy."

If the next action hasn't been decided then the mind wont let go of it.

False belief that worry equals progress.

Your thoughts on this?

Posted by Kelly at 07:51 AM | Comments (7)

August 07, 2006

Browsing shortcuts

Here are a few shortcuts for the Internet Explorer browser that I have found handy:

A fast way to type in new web addresses is to enter the domain name only and then press Ctrl + Enter. Those two keys will automatically fill in the http://www. and .com. Thanks to Eric Mack for this one.

If you find a link you want to open, but don't want to leave the current page to view it, right click on the link and choose Open in New Window.

For quick Web page bookmarking, try Alt + A + Enter.

Posted by Kelly at 10:30 AM | Comments (7)

August 04, 2006

When is the right time to process?

I was reminded today by a seminar participant of a great tip on processing: she said she only looks at her email at a time when she can actually do something about it. She has found, and I would strongly concur, that looking at email when she doesn't have time to really process what's come in only creates frustration--or what GTD would call "open loops." She waits until she has time (even 10 minutes) to actually give what she's looking at proper attention to handle it.

The flip side of this--as tempting as it is-- is opening email and closing it (or even marking it unread!) because you realize you've got to dash off to the next meeting and don't have time to DO the thing the email wants you too. But then that email hangs over you like a cloud because it feels undone. Problem is, a part of you hasn't forgotten that email. It's like you've made an investment in focus and attention. As long as a piece of your focus and attention is in that email it can pull you away from being fully focused on what you're doing. You're mind is trying to close the loop because it's still chewing on what you would have done or decided about it.

Deciding a next action can be as powerful as taking the action. The amazing thing about deciding is that it temporarily closes the loop so your mind can let go of it. What often causes stress is stuff left undone and undecided. Try it with your email Inbox. Next time you're checking email and are tempted to close it and come back to it, ask yourself, "what's my next action?" Then park that email and/or reminder about your action in a place you trust. THEN dash off to that meeting and see if it makes a difference in your focus.

Two keys I would suggest out of this:

1. Process your "stuff" when you've got the time to make decisions and process it.
2. Deciding a next action is as powerful in closing a loop and reducing stress as finishing the action.

Enjoy your weekend!

Posted by Kelly at 06:50 PM

August 01, 2006

Conscious vs. Unconscious

I was driving around in the car with my husband John recently and we were chatting about something related to GTD. We love chewing on GTD topics, like something I came up against in a seminar or a challenge he had with his GTD systems. On this particular day we were chatting about how GTD deals with priorities. It's one of those topics that often comes up in seminars where I can tell the audience is looking for me to roll out some magical ABC coding system that will tell them what to do after they've spent all morning in the seminar being reminded of their rather large list of things to do.

If you follow GTD you know that we generally don't advocate a coding system for priorities. Not that ABC coding systems don't work, but they rarely stand up to the rapidly changing environments that most of us are in. Something that is a C3 at 9am might become an A1 after one phone call from your boss at 9:05am. Whenever I've coached someone using this kind of coding system they seem to spend an enormous amount of time maintaining the codes to stay current with their work and eventually lose interest in maintaining anything other than the A1's. The system starts to fall apart or at least become a drag to maintain.

As David Allen says, "Everything on my list is to be done as soon as I can get to it."

The best answer I can give about priorities is to trust your gut, your intuition, your hunch--whatever you want to call it. If you REALLY know what your work is then that choice will be an easier one. That's the beauty of the GTD Levels of Work (Runway>50k as found in pages 200-210 in the GTD book). I find that the clearer I am about the higher levels, such as 20k/areas of responsibilities, it's easier for me to not get buried in the current action level and to have more confidence that what I am doing is my highest priority in that moment.

Another key in trusting my priorities is that my system captures everything so that my mind is really free to choose my priorities from the clearest perspective possible. You can tell your conscious mind to focus on your priorities, but it will have a hard time doing that if your unconscious mind is out of control and trying to grab your attention.

An easy way to get started is to do a thorough Collect of everything that's got your attention. Process it all and decide what it means to you. Organize it in a place you trust that you Review regularly. And all that is designed so that you can trust that what you're Doing is what you want and need to be doing.

Posted by Kelly at 04:05 PM | Comments (1)