Tag: Productivity

All about attention

Just been reading a nice article,”Taking control of e-mail”, that provides a good summary of the issues around information overload. What I liked was the following quote:

 

“Attention is the bedrock to learning, memory, social connection and happiness”

 

So if you are allowing yourself to be constantly distracted by incoming emails then your attention is very low and chances are it is affecting more than just your productivity.

 

The article covers some of the basic steps to help remove the distractions of email and is therefore well worth a read. I’d also recommend you take a look at www.doemailless.com where you find additional resources if you are looking to improve your productivity.

 

At the very least I’d commend you to try some of the steps mentioned in the article and see whether it does help. I’m confident that after a few day you’d agree that even a small change can reap significant benefits.

Challenge the norm

One of the best ways to improve your productivity is to do email less. Yes, that’s right do email less. This means setting aside dedicated times to check and respond to email. Now many people would say that is totally impossible for them to do but my response is, have you actually challenged that way of thinking? Have you actually tried rather than just saying you can’t?

 

Here’s a great video (4 mins) from Tim Ferris the author of the Four Hour Work Week on how he manages email.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDhfaIbstIY&rel=0&border=1&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

You’ll notice in there he actually briefly mentions this topic of challenging the norm when it comes to email. Interestingly, the person Tim speaks of who did this found that their boss actually commended them on improving their productivity and recommended the idea to other managers.

 

At the end of the day email is a tool, it shouldn’t rule your life. As Tim says, if you have a system that isn’t working you need to try something to improve it. In short, I encourage you to challenge the norm with email. Try looking at you inbox less and see how much more work you get done. All I ask is you give it a try.

 

For more help with improved technology productivity please see www.doemailless.com.

Thanks Dale

Dale Unroe made a comment in a recent blog post about a online video about productivity from Mark Hurst, author of the book Bit Literacy (which is on to read list). If you are interested:

1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/summit/
2. Select the topic Productivity & Security
3. Half way down the list you should see a video with a heading Bit Literacy

There is also a web site http://bitliteracy.com which includes a same chapter from the book.

 As I said I have not as yet read this book but have it on my list to read. In the meantime take a look at the video and as always if you need assistance with managing your email productivity go to www.doemailless.com.

Simple inbox advice

It is amazing how complex people have made the control of their inboxes these days. You can’t travel far without hearing people complain about ‘How full their inboxes are’ or ‘How many messages they need to respond to’. In truth, the solution is pretty simple yet remains elusive for most.

 

I found a good piece called “An Empty In-Box, or With Just a Few E-Mail Messages?” over at the NY Times. What it suggest isn’t rocket science it is pretty simple as I have always maintained. The most important thing is to limit the time you spend in email. This means disabling notifications and only dealing with email a few time a day rather. Probably the most liberating step, and the one that most people fail to successfully take, is to clear out you inbox. Your goal should be to keep you inbox as empty as possible.

 

When setting out to empty your inbox, be ruthless. If you don’t need it then delete it, if you do then archive it somewhere else than the inbox. There isn’t a need to create a really complex archiving folder scheme because all modern email programs have sophisticated search, so just archive it to one folder and move on.

 

Once you have a clear inbox then you’ll need to work to maintain it that way which is what most people are afraid of, but let me ask you – did you get employed simply to go through email? When the time for performance reviews arrives are you judged on how much email you have? Of course not! You are are judged on getting results for your company and email is simply a tool for achieving that. Like any tool it needs to be used effectively and that, my friend, comes down to you, no one else.

 

If you lead a life that is dominated by you inbox then I feel sorry for you because there is so much more out there to enjoy in the world. If you want to get back in control of you inbox and avoid information overload then I’d suggest you read the article and maybe see www.doemailless.com for more information about getting any help you need.

Too much Twitter

Seems like we are experiencing a Twitter-explosion of late in the media and perhaps this video from the “The Daily Show” might put some perspective on it.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219519&title=twitter-frenzy

or

However, on a more serious note here’s what Tim Ferris, the author of one of my favourite business books the Four Hour Work Week has to say about using Twitter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3weqLgnPfQ&hl=en&fs=1
Now I reckon there is a business case for Twitter but certainly not the way most people seem to be using it! No matter what you think I can assure that Twitter is coming to a screen near you real soon. As I always say, technology distractions don’t just occur – THEY SEEK YOU OUT.

Tweet, Tweet.

Email “free” days don’t work

One of the “solutions” that companies mistakenly believe will solve their email overload problem is the concept of email “free” days. On a nominated day no-one is allowed to send emails to each other, they must find another way to communicate, be that phone, conversation, SMS, whatever.

 

Now this concept is bankrupt as the article “E-mail ruined my life” demonstrates:

 

E-mail is so ingrained in our working lives that Deloitte’s experiment was abandoned after only a month. But the company still thinks it was worth it.

 

Bzzzzzt, wrong. Email “free” days don’t work because they don’t CHANGE the bad habits people have. All they do is forcibly prevent them but when that edict is removed everyone returns to their former unproductive behaviour. In short, nothing has changed so how do you suddenly expect behaviour to change? It won’t but it seems even large companies can’t understand that.

 

The secret is providing people with the training necessary to change their habits, to improve they way the use emails. It is only with this change will you see an improvement in productivity.

 

For more information about improving email productivity visit www.doemailless.com.

Email interruption

A while back I did a post on Productivity costs of emails based on the average Australian wage. Since then I’ve come across “The cost of email interruption” which is a short report from researchers at Computer Science Department of Loughborough University located in the United Kingdom. Although the report appears a little dated now some of its observations are still very relevant, like:

 

– It was notable that many of the email messages employees received were not really relevant to for them.This usually resulted from an email sent to all employees.

 

– The common reaction to the arrival of an email is not to delay response to a time that is more convenient to the user but to react within 6 seconds, again almost as quickly as they would  respond to telephone calls.

 

It is amazing when you realize that people actually respond to an email faster than they do the phone. Now multiply that by how emails a day they receive and you get an idea of how bad email interruptions are.

 

Here’s another interesting finding:

 

During the study it was noticeable that none of the employees monitored used message rules within their email application

 

That’s right, none of the employees used message rules to filter their incoming emails! Like most applications we have on our machines these days we have no idea of the true power they provide us. We (and our employers) spend so little time learning how to use the technology tools that we are typically using a screwdriver to hammer in a nail. It does the job sure, just not very efficiently.

 

So what’s the solution according to the report?

 

Introduce training to all staff on how to use email in areas such as, setting email priority, email house keeping with message rules, effective use of the user groups and address books,  constructing better structured emails.

 

and having recognized these issues myself that is exactly the training that I provide. Why? because it is truly amazing how much more productive the whole business (or the individual) becomes when they understand how to use email and their email programs correctly. They are never going to learn this on their own, it something they need guidance with.

 

You can find more information about the email productivity training I provide at www.doemailless.com.

Twitter clients

I’ve been searching for a Twitter client that works the way I want to work. Here’s a run down of the process I’ve been through so far.

1. Web Client

When you start out using Twitter you simply post and monitor your updates via the Twitter web site. This has the advantage that you can achieve that from any Internet connected device but it also has a number of drawbacks in that the interface is pretty simple and to keep track of things can be difficult.

2. Twirl

Twirl is very much like Microsoft Live Messenger in that it keeps all your Twitter info inside a nice little application that can be minimized. It is easy to follow people and post using Twirl. The problem is that Twirl is another application I have to install, swap between when monitoring Twitter and has all the annoying interruptions that Messenger has (although it can be customized). The other issue I have with Twirl is that all the posts, including direct messages, simply appear in the same feed.

3. TweetDeck

TweetDeck is another very popular Twitter client application. The good think here is that it splits up replies and direct messages as well as other updates. It has a whole host of other features and is very pretty to look at. Problem was again it is a separate application that I needed to install and swap to when I wanted to monitor Twitter traffic. Annoyingly, by default, like most other “messenger” style clients it keeps interrupting me when a new post arrives.

4. OutTwit
 
By far the best client I have found is OutTwit which is an add one for Outlook. Once installed you can easily configure how often OutTwit checks for postings (yeah!). You can also select a folder in your mailbox for postings to be sent so you can review them at a later date. With the OutTwit toolbar in Outlook, you can post Twitter updates directly from Outlook. It even keeps track of Twitter statistics that are displayed in a graphical format.

To maintain productivity I really don’t want to be running another program to check Twitter. Given that I use Outlook for emails it makes so much sense to have Twitter postings also delivered here as well. I love the ability to schedule and automatically route incoming postings. Now with all my Twitter information inside Outlook I can use all the power of Outlook (searching, categorizing, archiving etc) to make better use of what come to me via Twitter. For me it just makes so much sense.

OutTwit wins hands in my books down because it integrates with the way I work now and means I don’t have to open and monitor a separate program. It would be nice if Microsoft could do this also for Messenger I reckon. Sure, I’ll still use the web interface now and then when I’m not in front of my Outlook, but these days how often is that?