Working On Me

I wrote yesterday about keeping a clear email inbox. One of my suggestions then was that you set up a new email folder called 'WAITING FOR' to hold any incoming email where you are waiting for something or someone else before you can deal with the email message or reply to it.

You can imagine how easy it would be for this folder to fill up to the point where things are forgotten, and I've got a trick to make sure you stay on top of this folder. I use Outlook, and what most Outlook users don't know is that it allows you to edit the subjects of incoming emails. To start, open the incoming email.

Next, put your cursor at the start of the subject and type. I add the date on which I expect to be able to clear the item, thus:

Do this to all email as you put it into this folder, and when you sort the mail in it by subject, it will list the emails in the order in which you hope to clear them. At a glance, you can see what you need to be doing when.

While an email sits in your inbox, how many times on average do your read it or think about it? I have always found I could lose hours in a week just trawling through the inbox to locate the email I wanted or just reviewing what was there.

Inspired by David Allen's Getting Things Done, I have developed the habit of keeping a clear email inbox. This involves first of all creating five new email folders within the inbox:

READ
REPLY
THINK ABOUT
WAITING FOR
DELEGATE

Each time I check my inbox (and that's NOT every five minutes) I skim read each mail once and immediately file it into one of the five folders, based on what I'll have to do with it. Later, I'll work through the folders one at a time, clearing what is in them by taking the action necessary before filling the email to archive folders.

Because I deal with emails in groups, where each email requires the same sort of attention (like 10 emails I just have to read, then 5 I have to think about) I get a chance to spend a while in a particular mental gear, rather than having to chop and change as I would if taking an unsorted, chronological approach to my email.

I've seen people using a similar system who have a sixth folder, called TODAY or URGENT, which collects emails that require same-day handling. Other people are content to leave these items (and these ones ONLY) in their inboxes. I have very little email that genuinely requires a same day response, so I'll generally deal with it straight away without needing a holding folder for it, but if I had more, I'd probably go with the TODAY folder method, if only to make sure my inbox stayed uncluttered.

This is the computer age. With a PC on every desk and immense computing power available to all, we are more productive than ever before. We can accomplish in a few hours more than the last generation were able to in a month. Can't we?

Well, actually, no. Repeated research shows the uncomfortable fact that we are no more productive now than we were in the 1950s, when the average desk was graced not by a PC, but often by a blotter and inkwell. How can this be? We are so used to the boon of personal computing power, many of us would feel powerless without a PC; in a very real sense, many jobs are just not possible any more without use of a computer. This dependence is a price worth paying provided the payoff is more productivity, more profit, more leisure time or less stress, but it seems that none of these have typically arisen from computerisation over the last 50 years.

Why not? Here's my take on the issue: we're all spending more time and effort on presentation. Just think about how a 1950s manager would have written a report. He (because it would always have been a he) would have written it out longhand or dictated it, and his secretary would have quickly and efficiently typed it. She (because it would always have been a she) would have typed at an extremely fast rate, certainly 80 wpm or more, and would have had no choice over fonts, text size and the like. The options would have been confined almost solely to use of the shift key. Layout would be automatic, of course. Assuming there were no typing errors, the job would be finished once the last word was typed. There would be no repagination, no tweaking of styles, no endless changing of heading levels. Furthermore, the manager would have used all this typing time doing something else.

Compare that experience to today's manager's approach; equipped with Microsoft Word, but probably not with a secretary, he or she types himself or herself, probably at considerably less than 80 wpm and then spends the same time again, or possibly more, on tinkering with the formatting. A more enlightened outlook on sexual equality is widespread, but business efficiency certainly isn’t.

And here's another example. There was a time when budgets and accounts were only handled by specialists with paper ledgers and poor social skills. But now that every manager has Microsoft Excel, he or she takes on these tasks him or herself. Not only could a specialist accountant do the work in a fraction of the time, but Excel also has extensive formatting and layout tools, the great 21st century thief of time!

And we haven't even touched on programming yet. If it were a crime to spend 8 hours writing a program which over the course of a decade might save 30 minutes or so, then I would inevitably be labelled a serial offender, as would most of my social circle.

What will define our progress this century – if we’re lucky – is the definition of a new working relationship with the PC and a return to specialism in business. Maybe then we'll finally start enjoying the long-awaited computer productivity boom.

In the meantime, some practical actions and decisions you can take now to improve matters:

1. Decide to stick with the software you use for your most common tasks. Devoting significant time to roadtesting every new application that comes along will seriously reduce your productivity. By all means, undertake an organised review annually, but don't waste time between reviews.

2. Invest a little time now in making Word templates with header and list styles. When you don't have to duplicate time in every document adjusting these formats, you'll save hours.

3. In Word and Excel, save all your formatting and tidying up until the final draft. Doing this as you go along breaks your creative flow and switching constantly between creating content and decorating it snarls your productivity in a big way.

In late July of 2005, I was in Mumbai, India. The day after I arrived there, the city was devastated in a record-breaking monsoon. In 24 hours, nearly a meter of rain fell on the city. Homes were washed away, people were stranded and separated from their families, food and water supplies ran low and there were thousands of deaths.

I was in a comfortable hotel throughout the incident, but I felt its effects. The work I was in Mumbai to do was cancelled, and the airport was closed. I was due to return home the following Saturday, but it was by no means certain that my plane would be able to fly from the airport. When the day came, I called to check, and all the signs were good. I packed and presented myself at the airport, where the sweltering heat combined with the presence of thousands of delayed passengers made for an uncomfortable atmosphere. Even in the first class departure lounge, tempers were frayed.

And so when our flight was cancelled and the airline representative toured the lounge, breaking the news to us each personally, she met with much unpleasantness and rage. When she came to talk to me, I listened, asked politely what would happen next and thanked her for letting me know. She seemed surprised that I didn't want to shout at her. In truth, I was as frustrated as everyone else there, but I wasn't going to take it out on someone who wasn't to blame.

After an hour or so during which I called my wife and explained what was going on and started to explore other options of getting out of the country (there were very few and they were very expensive), I felt a light touch on my elbow, and the airline representative urgently whispered in my ear, "Mr Blake, please come with me quickly and quietly – and bring your bags." She had worked hard to secure a small number of seats on another plane that was leaving, and I was the first customer she decided to put on that plane. Those who had ranted were not so lucky. I heard later that most hadn’t got out for another five days.

I was nice to the woman because it was the right thing to do. At the time, I didn't believe there was anything to be gained from being nice, but it turned out to gain me a benefit far beyond what money could have bought me. I continue to be as nice as I can to everyone, whatever may beset and frustrate me, not seeking reward, but knowing it will surely come anyway.

Now that you know the 'brainstorm for one' technique, here are three key topics to think about using it with:

1. What do I want to achieve in the next year/5 years?

2. How can I take my skills to the next level?

3. What positive changes can I make in my life?

The power of writing down some of these thoughts is enormous. And when you start to group your ideas together into themes, you'll start seeing clear courses of action and quick wins which would never have emerged had you not picked up a pen.

When you think about all the things you're proud of having achieved in the past, I'm sure that one thing will connect them all: passion. When we're passionate about something, we go the extra mile, draw on special resources we rarely otherwise use and more often than not we actually enjoy the effort.

But in day-to-day, business-as-usual life, it is unusual to find passion. So my technique is for when you need a great result but don't have or can't rely on passion to carry you through. SImply ask yourself (or write on paper) the following question:

What would I do if I were passionate about this?

Answer the question as quickly as you can. This would make a good 'brainstorm for one' session. When you have a list of actions you'd take if you were passionate, take them. Maybe you'll acquire the passion as you go along, or maybe you won't. But the result will be excellent either way.

I'm working in a client's office every day at the moment, which involves me spending upwards of three hours a day on trains and tubes. Although this would drive many people I know insane, I enjoy these commutes. Why? Because I use the time to read books.

Rarely does my book have anything to do with business or self improvement. Usually, it will be a work of fiction, and I read widely in mainstream and genre fiction. Last month, I read fourteen novels, mostly while travelling, but also before going to sleep each night.

So what do I get from the habit of reading fiction? I thought I'd list the benefits:

1. It improves my reading speed so I can get through work reading more quickly
2. It punctuates the day, helping me switch off from work or ease into the day gently
3. It expands my knowledge of different people, places and eras
4. It prompts creative ideas (particularly when I carry genre fiction)
5. It entertains me when otherwise I would be bored

I am surprised every day by how few of my fellow commuters read a book. Many of them don't even read a paper or listen to music, but just stare through the train window, at their neighbours, or just into space. They are missing so much.