Improve My Business

Many folks complain about how e-mail takes up all of their time - it interrupts them, prevents them from getting concentrated work complete, and sucks up all their time.

I used to be no different - until I got fed up with being in e-mail hell, and figured out a way to get out of it.  There are several techniques that I’ll list here - figure out the ones that work for YOU, and implement them immediately.

The list, in no particular order (other than the order I thought of them), are:

- the unsubscribe feature on company emails.  Do you get daily coupons from a pizza joint, weekly sales notifications from your favorite clothing store, or other emails that take up your time?  If so, scroll to the bottom and follow the instructions to unsubscribe.  Getting rid of these once and for all, rather than deleting them without reading, will eventually clear out some of the clutter you see when reviewing unread emails.

- don’t reply if you don’t have to.  Sending an email with “thanks”, or “got it”, or even “OK”, unless specifically requested, or in recognition of someone else going above and beyond for you, is unnecessary; and worse, clutters up THEIR email box!  However, if someone does you a favor that would be nice to acknowledge, write them a thank-you note by all means…

- set aside “no email” time.  I leave email processing for when I’m done with a chunk of a big project, when I’ve completed a couple of blog posts, when I need a break from writing a report, etc.  I DON’T have an email flag that pops up every time I get an email; I DON’T check my email every 30 minutes (unless I want a headache that day); and I DON’T live on my email account unless I need to (a client and I are conversing back and forth, exchanging documents, etc.)

- schedule your “email” time.  When consulting with execs to streamline their day and help them to become more efficient, we start with two basic things - interruptions, and emails.  (Interruptions will be a separate blog post at a later date…)  when we cover email, I ask them when they REALLY need to look at emails, and the most common times are:

1. at the start of the business day
2. right before lunch
3. right after lunch, to check for afternoon info
4. before going home
5. (unfortunately) at home that evening

So, if I can get the exec to commit to ONLY looking at emails these 4-5 times, for a few days, they invariably report that they had been more productive since they handle emails in batch vs continuous mode, and they subsequently had more time available to get other things accomplished.  One fun way to do this is to play the E-Mail Game, which lets you see how long you are spending on each email and provides points and timing - to make it fun.  It’s also very helpful in getting emails out of your inbox, since you can ‘boomerang’ something out for a set amount of time rather than leaving it there (and potentially overlooking it).

There are tips galore on the web about handling emails; these are the ones that most of my clients find to be the tops for getting them sprung from email hell.

Any tips to add?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Technorati Tags: Business, de-clutter, efficiency, email, managing your time, organizing, process improvement, Streamlining, Time Management, working smarter

Great post from Michael Bungay Stanier from Box of Crayons, on 10 small actions you can make to shift your thinking (cut/pasted from his newsletter):

On the road

I fail on lots of the standard “You Are A Real Man” tests.

I’m not into cars at all. I’m generally useless at fixing things up. I’m a distant second in the Sports Fan rankings in our household, and there’s only two of us.

But if there’s one thing I do admire, it’s a good bicycle.

I remember reading that it was the most effective machine at converting energy into motion, and when you combine that with the elegance of its design - as little as possible, but no less - you have a thing of beauty.

The bike I ride is a Cervelo, a fancy road bike that’s designed here in Toronto and is ridden by teams in the Tour de France (well, fancier versions of what I’ve got are in the Tour).

Shift

This summer I’ve upgraded my shifters, so I can change gears by flicking my brake levers back and forth. Generally speaking, I’m trying to keep a steady tempo as my legs spin around - 90rpm is what I’m going for - and mastering gears is a key part of that.

I’m changing gears all the time to adapt to what’s happening. It’s a subtle and constant thing. As the road rises slightly I shift one way, as I want to pick up pace I shift down a click or two, as I notice a headwind I shift back again.

You get the metaphor here, I’m sure. Just like a good cyclist is constantly using the full range of her gears to best maintain momentum, we all can adjust our own gears to maintain the pace we want in our own lives.

When I was growing up, racing bikes were simply known as “10 speeds”. So here are 10 gears you might like to try out and see what works for you.

10 Speeds

1. Pulse
Tony Schwartz writes convincingly that it’s a fallacy to try to manage our time. What we’ve got to do is to manage our energy. One thing he talks about is our bodies working on 90 minute cycles. We can go go go for 90 minutes, but after that you’ve got to take a break to shake things out, refresh and renew.

This is of course impossible to remember without a little help. I’ve started using a great little app on my Mac called Time Out that blanks my screen for 60 seconds every 15 minutes, and for 15 minutes every 90 minutes. It’s annoying as heck at times. But it forces me to step back from my work regularly and ask myself, “Really? Is this the best thing I could be doing? And is it time to take a bit of a break…?”

2. HVA
Start each day by defining your High Value Action - the thing that’s truly going to move you towards your Great Work. Taking time to actually get clear on the thing you need to do, rather than just trying to cope with the flood of work, can make all the difference.

My friend Molly Gordon is masterful at this. Every morning, as part of our Brain Trust mastermind group, she articulates her HVA and then the next day reports in on how it went. It’s no exaggeration to say this has changed her life.

3. Appreciate
Simply put, spending some time being grateful will make life sweeter for you. We’ve got a blackboard at home with “I’m grateful for…” written on it. While I make an espresso in the morning, I take time to reflect upon something I’m lucky to have working for me.

If you’d like some inspiration on this, check out Neil Pasricha’s blog 1000 Awesome Things. He’s masterful at this.

4. Abandon your goals
I’ve just had the pleasure of hanging out with Leo Babauta of Zen Habits at Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit. Recently Leo has sent out a call to abandon goals. It’s hard to get my head around that totally, but his general point is that goals can become chains that bind us, set us up for failure or unsatisfying success, and contribute to us missing opportunities that float past.

So if you’re tangled up with lots and lots of goals, endless lists of to-do’s and a general sense of heaviness, consider letting some of it go. (You can check out #8 on this list - it might help.)

5. Create systems
Jonathan Fields has a fantastic new book coming out in September, called Uncertainty. He looks at the paradox that although we’re wired to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty, it’s only in ambiguity that we get to explore the edges of ourselves and our Great Work.

He’s interviewed lots of people who are excellent at consistently being creative, and one of the things he noticed is that these people build lots of systems and processes. It allows them to be efficient and “on automatic” for much of the mundane stuff in their lives, and consequentially be able to be more focused and creative for the work that matters.

6. Do something badly
The pressure to be a polished high-performer is something that many of us feel. Or maybe I’m just projecting. It’s a wonderful thing, then, to be able to step away from that and into a place of being a learner. Daniel Coyle writes about this in his book The Talent Code as does Joshua Foer in his book Moonwalking with Einstein. Growth comes not from repeating what you already do well, but from putting yourself in that place of incompetence that is both painful and vaguely exhilarating as new neural pathways are being created.

7. Savor and Serve
Another friend from my mastermind group, Jen Louden, is building a wonderful community around the concept of Savoring and Serving the World. It’s a marvelous insight. How do you both step up your game to make the world a better place, and  step up your game to enjoy the wonders of the world as it already is.

8. Cut 90%
I spoke recently at Andrea J Lee’s Wealthy Thought Leader conference in Vancouver and talked about ways of making ideas stronger and more powerful.

One route I offered up seemed to strike a real chord with people. Cut 90% of what’s going on. It’s a provocative challenge. You can’t just trim and tinker when you’ve got to cut 90%. You’ve got to make some bold decisions and get serious about the No’s.

What’s powerful about this, is it will force you to focus on the essential, your best guess at what will really make a difference.

9. Find a hero
For a good part of my career I kept hoping for a fabulous mentor who would show up and with gentle but profound wisdom guide me down the right path and make my journey a bolder and braver one.

Still waiting for that. You waiting to be rescued too?

Seth Godin has a great point of view on this. If you’re waiting for a mentor before you act, you’re just finding a reason not to act. Rather, pick a hero - someone whose work and style you admire - and decide what you might learn and emulate from that person.

Three of my current heroes? Eddie Izzard (for his willingness to constantly stretch himself and the impact he has in the world), Bob Dylan for his sense of mystery and resilience and James Schamus, CEO of Focus Features, for exploring the edges and for espousing “moderate weirdness”. How about you?

You can download a template from Do More Great Work on an exercise on heroes and role models here.

10 (+7). Pick one of the Irresistible Principlea of Fun
The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun. I know you’ve seen it. But hey - it’s irresistible, right?

Take another look and pick one to work with, play with, savor and explore. See where it takes you.

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Michael Bungay Stanier is the founder and Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. He is the author of Do More Great Work and Get Unstuck & Get Going, and the creator of The Alchemy of Great Work, The Great Work Movie, The 5.75 Questions You’ve Been Avoiding and The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun. Michael was a Rhodes Scholar and the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year. He is Australian and now lives in Canada.

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so, that’s my inspiration for this post - what do you think?  I’d love to hear your comments…

and, if you like this, sign up for his newsletters - they’re definitely worth the read…

Technorati Tags: Box of Crayons, inspiration, Michael Bungay Stanier, shift thinking

our friends at Crucial Skills offer the following advice if you are plagued by one of these

Top 5 Career-Limiting Habits:

1. Unreliability
2. ”It’s not my job”
3. Procrastination
4. Resistance to change
5. Negative attitude

Luckily, they also provide some tips on how to overcome them…

Technorati Tags: Business Relationships, eliminating defects, improvement, leadership, managing your time

Courtesy of our friends at 825Basics, this post:

Technorati Tags: communication, efficiency, managing your time, Time Management

Being more organized - isn’t that the holy grail for many of us?

• Finding something within a minute of starting the search for it
• Laying your hands on a document you need - when you need it
• having everything ready for the next client interaction, staff meeting, or group get-together
• being able to sail through your day like the character from The Wedding Planner - ready for any emergency or curve ball thrown at you, breezing through crisis after crisis with aplomb

In reality, organization is not rocket surgery - it’s pretty straightforward.  here are some key points to being more organized:

1)  Give yourself the time to do so. If you are rushing around and unable to put things back where they belong, file them where they should live, etc. then you will be even more disorganized the next time you need that stuff.  So, take a few minutes at the end of the day, the shift, the week - and put things back in their ‘home’.

2)  Adopt the regiment to do so. It amazes me how many people say “they don’t have time to do xyz”, yet their faceback page proudly announces that they’ve reached a new level on some game.  Here’s a strategy (from someone who enjoys a game also) - every time you reach a new goal on your game, look at how much time it took you to get there.  And then devote that much time instead to being organized FIRST, then play the game as a reward.  So, if it took you 1 hour and 20 minutes to pulverize the evil forces, or unlock a new crop, or whatever - spend that amount of time on being organized before you allow yourself to play that game again.

Not a game player?  This technique works equally well if you’re a runner, watch sports or sitcoms, etc. - organize prior to enjoying your down time.  [And if you're saying, "Hey Mary, I can't POSSIBLY devote that much time to organizing or I'd have no down time!"  -- perhaps you need to look at where your time is going...]

Remember - if you can organize how, you WILL get more time later - time you’re not spending redoing, searching, fixing, etc.

Technorati Tags: being organized, prioritization