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August 31, 2007

Being selfish with your time

One of the things I hear from people all of the time is that they are so yanked around by other people's fires, crisis & priorities, their own processing time takes the biggest hit. I hear stories all of the time like:

* An 8 hour day used to be the norm, now 10 hours feels like leaving early.

* Zero in "In" used to be a regular occurrence, now there's backlog that would take days to process.

* So many back-to-back meetings there's never a chance to even download what happened in the last one before dashing off to the next one. Meeting notes to be processed are piled up in a 1/2 dozen notebooks.

* Filing? Are you kidding? The "To File" pile is knee-high.

* We HAVE to read our email during meetings just to stay on top of it.

The best strategy I can share about getting in control again is to be selfish with your time. If you are in a shared calendar environment, there's a good chance open spaces on your calendar are considered free game. And I doubt anyone else is holding back from booking a meeting with you so that you have some quality "review, get clear, get current, stare at your belly button and figure out your priorities time" instead of coming to their meeting. If you want that, it's up to you. Now, I know this is easier said than done. In some of your environments, the volume and demands for your time coming at you like your face is in front of a fire hydrant. That's even more reason to be vigilant about carving out your own processing time. Remember, processing is different than doing. Backlog comes from the unprocessed too, not just the undone.

* Consider blocking your own calendar for meetings with yourself. I know many people & teams that do this just to create some protected calendar time for processing email at the beginning and end of day. A good guideline for how much time you need is about 30 seconds to process each piece of input you get (paper or digital). For most people that comes out to about an hour to hour and a half per day for their own processing time.

* Don't accept meetings that start the moment you walk in the door, before you've had a chance to process email. Otherwise, there's a good chance your attention will be on what's lurking in email and not on the meeting. I think this is why so many people process email during meetings. Being a presenter of meetings, I can tell you I can spot a BlackBerry user in a seminar from across the room. They are barely "there". If what's going on in email is really that important, is it really a good idea for you to be in that meeting anyway?

* Consider delegating some of the things that are choking your system--like filing. If you can't delegate this, then get your filing system to a place where filing something will take you less than 2 minutes and no more.

* Give yourself buffer time between meetings. Some companies will end meetings 15 minutes before the hour to allow transport time for people to get to the next one. Not to mention letting your brain decompress before it has to shift gears.

And, the best thing I know for getting back in control is the Weekly Review. If you haven't done one lately, how about giving it a whirl?

You need to spend quality time, detached from the daily grind, thinking about, getting control of, and managing the daily grind.
- David Allen

Posted by Kelly at 11:02 AM | Comments (12)

August 21, 2007

Is productivity contagious?

An article was published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine proposing that social ties can affect obesity. If that's true, couldn't that also be extended to personal productivity and organization?

I was in a doctor's office yesterday and was amazed at how organized, efficient, relaxed and happy everyone in the front office seemed. In contrast, have you ever been in an office (doctor or otherwise) where everyone seems frazzled, disorganized and annoyed? It's as if the mood and behaviors strike everyone, positively or negatively. I wonder, do we start to adapt our efficiency to those around us to fit in socially?

I had someone share in a seminar one time that she was proud to say her email inbox was at zero when she walked into my seminar that day. Another participant shot a remark over at her and said, "Well, then you don't have enough to do." How sad that someone who stands out as productive, efficient & organized would be the outcast. I would not be surprised if the person at zero unconsciously adapted her behaviors to match the rest of the group's disorganization rather than the other way around.

One of the things I love about working for David Allen is that he encourages us to "eat our own dog food." I would do GTD whether I get paid for it or not. I bet anyone on our staff would say the same thing. We really do use the best practices--not always perfectly--but we are all on the same side of the fence. Luckily it's the side I want to be on!

Posted by Kelly at 11:50 AM | Comments (9)

August 17, 2007

Eliminating the speed bumps

How many times have you had something that belongs on your lists, but you didn't capture it because it was too many clicks or key strokes to get it there?

Here's one of those tips that I have found to be essential for making my system work: have your lists be as easily accessible as possible.

Each morning, I open up 3 separate windows when I start my system:

* my Email
* my Calendar
* my Action lists

They stay open ALL DAY. If all of those windows are in the same application, Ctrl+Tab on Windows and Apple+Tab on Mac lets you fluidly navigate between them. If they are spread across different applications, use Alt+Tab.

If you are using Outlook, go to the left panel of your screen and right click on each of your Outlook bars for Mail, Calendar & Tasks and choose "Open in a New Window." If you are on Lotus Notes, open up each one as workspace tab. If you are using something like Gmail, open up each one (Mail, Calendar, Actions) as a New or Window or Tab in Firefox or IE.

It typically takes me less than 5 seconds to add something to my lists when they are open and accessible like this. You can't argue "It takes too long to maintain the lists" with speed like that.

Posted by Kelly at 10:06 AM | Comments (10)

August 02, 2007

Stop digging and start climbing

We've all been there: I feel stuck so I might as well get busy doing something...anything...so I at least feel like I'm at least making progress. Email is wonderful for this. Send/Receive never fails to distract me into a busy trap. It grew up on the same farm as procrastination. I'm not saying plenty of valuable work doesn't show up in email, but I think anyone these days can relate to getting stuck in the infinite loop of email rather than doing what we know we should be doing instead. Just because it landed on email doesn't mean it's your job.

How do you know that what you're doing is the best use of your time, talent & attention? We've all had our internal tap on the shoulder (or kick in the gut) telling us, "HEY, YOU! You know you're not doing what you're meant to be doing!" Trust that. I don't know about you, but I'd rather get those reminders from my own internal monitoring before my boss does.

One of the best GTD tools I use to keep myself on track with doing what I'm meant to be doing is in what David calls the Horizons of Focus:

50,000 - Purpose (why are you here, what's important to you?)
40,000 - 3-5 year vision & strategy
30,000 - 1-2 year goals and direction
20,000 - Areas of responsibility, focus and interests
10,000 - Projects
Runway - Current Actions

Specifically, the 20,000 foot level defines your areas of responsibility, focus and interests. Most people tend to have 5-7 "hats" that they wear professionally and personally that make up the 20k level. That doesn't stop things showing up on the runway level that demand my attention, but it sure makes it clearer to know what to take on as next actions and projects. It's pretty simple for me, when I get something that doesn't map to something for me on the 20k level, such as "Present GTD classes", there's a good chance it's not a priority for me and it's easier to say no. Or, it's an opportunity for to get even clearer about what my 20k level is since it does change.

I'd suggest sitting down and mapping out your 20k level, especially if you've been wanting more clarity on your priorities. Make two columns: Work and Personal. What areas are you measured by in your job? What are the roles you play personally? That's the kind of stuff that makes up your 20k level. See if that makes a difference in some of the things on your Projects and Action lists. Would you choose anything different? Would you let go of anything?

Posted by Kelly at 04:08 PM | Comments (5)