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

Courtesy of our friends at 825Basics, this post:

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

I recently delivered my updated Time Management class to a branch of the Federal (US) government.  During this time, I always review the course materials and see if there’s anything that needs to be refreshed or updated.  One of the things I talked about briefly, and probably will expand upon during the next go-round, is setting priorities.

Sure, we talked about it some; how everyone writes a “to-do” list instead of a “results needed” or “things to accomplish” list; and some attendees even said that they were going to switch from writing down tasks to writing down what needed to get done, and then how they would accomplish it.  That’s a great start.

What are the best ways to set priorities?  It turns out, it depends on who you ask:

Covey - Quadrant Method

Pareto - 80/20 rule

For many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.”

Pairwise comparison

Determine what you need to do, and then ‘vote’ which you do given the list.  Let’s say our list states

1) get food for dinner

2) clean pool

3) work on proposal

You say which you’d prefer to do by voting:

1 vs 2 - 1

1 vs 3 - 3

2 vs 3 - 3

so your prioritized list is #3, then #1, then #2.

There are literally dozens of methods for setting priorities.  A quick scan into any search engine will show you these in detail.  Which one should you choose?  The one that works for you.  That’s why I present multiple tools in class - I ask students to find a tool that makes sense to them (logical for them, not onerous to use) - and then to start using it!

Technorati Tags: Time Management

Steven Covey, in his groundbreaking work The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, tells us to “begin with the end in mind”. The concept is to know what you want to accomplish, and to set up your tasks to assist you in reaching that goal. This is nothing more than knowing what you want to accomplish, and aligning your tasks and assignments with that goal.

Many folks get caught up in the social media craze – I admit that I did too for a while. The good news is that my personality gets ‘tired’ with things pretty easily – whether it’s posting 5-6 times per day on twitter, or connecting with acquaintances on Facebook, or answering questions in the Q&A on LinkedIn Answers. Why is that good news? Because I know that, once I ‘master’ this new application, it will lose its allure. So, I can focus on my new obsession in the knowledge that it’s only because I’m not expert at it yet; once I get there, my nature will allow me to naturally ratchet back on the time, effort, and brainpower I’ll put in on this.

Let me give you an example: when I first logged on to Twitter, I was one of the earlier adopters (I won’t say early adopters, but certainly am not a newbie to the app). I was focused on identifying posters who were interesting, humorous, leaders in their field, and leaders in my field. I grew my follower list thoughtfully (I don’t automatically follow those who follow me; and if someone follows me, I go to their profile, read 2-3 pages of the most recent posts, and decide to follow or not based on whether I want to hear what they have to say. If their entire post history are either retweets (RTs), responses (@twittername) or links to their own products (“come check out my 50% off sale!”) I don’t tend to follow them.)

My twitter followers to @marymcd has grown organically to around 1,000 – 1,100 followers – every week I gain some, and I lose some. I check out who I lose, and it’s invariably people who have followed me for 48 hours, seen that I don’t automatically follow them back, and they drop me (Twitter Quitters). Conversely, I’ve built online relationships with folks that I’ve never met IRL (In Real Life) and have a network of professionals I can tap at any given time to get their thoughts on something I’m struggling with. So, although I devoted a bunch of time to building this network, I don’t spend NEARLY that much maintaining it (and yes, I do post regularly on Twitter except when I’m travelling…)

What was my original goal? To understand this new tool, to figure out if I could build a revenue stream from it (yes, but indirectly only), and to connect with colleagues in far-flung locations. Did I accomplish this? You bet. Was it worth the effort? Yes, when I consider the friendships I’ve developed (you know who you are, @my-virtual-twitter-friends…) Am I a twitter guru? Not even close. I use the tool, and am happy with my use, but do not aspire to be a Twitter queen.

Re-examine how you are spending your time – are you doing things that support your ultimate goal? If not, why not? What can you do differently?

Technorati Tags: blogging, Business, communication, efficiency, goals, managing your time, Time Management, working smarter

Both last month and this month we have talked a lot about what I consider personal practices to increase performance. Whether it is better time management, or cleaning out our to do list on a regular basis, all of these things will reduce the stress we feel at work and help us be more productive with our time. However, these practices can only help us if we turn them into habits. If we have to consciously force ourselves to do them then when we get stressed/tired/busy we will inevitably stop these practices and their benefits will go away. So for this week I want to point everyone to an article on www.lifehack.org about making habits stick. The habits the author talks about in the article aren’t necessarily the same habits we are trying to cultivate, but the advice holds true for anything you want to make a habit. Give it a read here and let me know what you think. Do you think this can help you turn the new practices we have been working on into habits?

Full link: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/6-proven-ways-to-make-new-habits-stick.html

Technorati Tags: improvement, Time Management