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January 15, 2008

Balancing proactive vs. reactive

Someone recently asked me, "How do you manage your day so that you are proactive versus reactive? I assume you have lots of people/projects pulling for your time -- how do you stay focused?"

Here was my response:
There's always a blend of proactive versus reactive in everyone's day. The best mix of those will be different for everyone, based on what your job and personal life require. In the GTD book, this is described as the 3-Fold Nature of Work (p.50). For me, I build in plenty of my own proactive time so that when I do get pulled in new directions, I'll be ready for that and my own work won't suffer. I give myself my own defining work time in the morning and evening just to collect, process & organize. Many days I'm reacting to things I had no idea would show up--which is not always a bad thing. It's a balance and an intuitive judgment call that only you know works or not.

I'm guessing interruptions are a big part of you not staying focused as much as you'd like. Get rid of the easy ones like turning off the email notifiers for every new email. If you're working with people who are pulling on your time more than you like, then set boundaries. People are likely interrupting you because you've trained them it's OK to do that. If you work in a culture of interruptions, you've got a bigger challenge to deflect the interruptions without offending and alienating. Give people options. For example, if someone comes to your door and says, "Got a minute," and you really don't, give them a time you can chat. If you get a project delegated to you that will blow your other priorities out of the water, it's up to you to decide whether that's a good thing for you or not. Communication is key. There's a good chance that when someone delegates something to me, they don't have a clue what else that affects. It's up to me to know what will not get done, if I say yes to this new thing coming in. Having my project and action lists current definitely makes it easier to change directions and shift priorities more easily. Then it's just a balancing game.

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Posted by Kelly at 03:40 PM | Comments (2)

January 14, 2008

How much do you value your attention?

I was doing a class recently and suggested to the group, as I often do, to resist the urge to 'reply to all' on emails. In my opinion, that's one of those seemingly innocent things that is a huge contributor to email volume. I'm not saying that replying to everyone is never appropriate, but somehow when it's on email there seems to be a greater freedom for over-communicating and looping everyone in on random bits of information, whether it's relevant for them or not. Hey, it's just an email right? They can always delete it, or so the thinking goes. It works both ways though. I bet if you assessed the kind of emails you get, there are some that you are allowing in that you don't need, or even want.

Working for David Allen, our team is vigilant about who gets copied on emails. I wouldn't think of copying David on a 'thanks', 'got it' or any other email that I know isn't worth his attention. I value his time too much and I know he processes everything he gets. It helps that he lets us know the kind of things he wants to get and not get so we're not trying to guess or hold back on something that actually could be valuable to him. He does the same in return for us. About twice a year he'll send an email out to all staff giving us the choice to opt in or out of particular kinds of emails that he sends.

Consider that every piece of input you allow in will require your time and attention. Every email. Every phone call. Every conversation. Every piece of mail. Input in = time and attention out. Take some time to assess what's coming in for you. Can you let go anything? Any updating that needs to be done letting others know what not to send you? Anyone to ask about what you send them?

Here's an easy place to start--email newsletters. Opt out of every email newsletter you don't read. Even the nice to read and might get to's. Even the ones you just have filtered to a folder. If you're not reading them, why have them even tug on your attention?

Posted by Kelly at 11:11 AM | Comments (1)

January 03, 2008

David Allen gives the keys to GTD on YouTube

A few months back, I had the pleasure of accompanying David Allen to Google where he presented the keys to GTD to a standing-room only crowd. It was a fantastic talk and it's now available on YouTube:

The Matrix of Self-Management is great stuff and will be new to many of new.

Enjoy!

Posted by Kelly at 09:39 AM | Comments (9)

January 02, 2008

More of and Less of

I don't make too much of New Year's Resolutions--probably because they tend to have such a negative connotation and guilt around subsequently breaking them. What works better for me instead is to take a look this time of year around what I would like to have more of or less of in my life. I don't place any big should or have to on myself around it--just an intention to just do the best I can with to work with what I came up with.

Some questions that have been useful for me include:

* What worked well last year? Any big accomplishments, milestones, goals reached?
* What would I like more of this year?
* What would I like less of this year?
* What took more of my attention last year than it needed, deserved or I wanted? Any improvement opportunity?
* What would I like to do, have or be different this year in my job, home, relationships, finances, health etc.?
* At the end of this year, what would I like to have completed?

One of my favorite memories from last year was this simple little photo I took of a child playing on the beach at sunset. So free and joyful.

I hope this coming year is exceptional for all of you!

Kelly

Posted by Kelly at 02:04 PM | Comments (1)