Are you a bargain?

How easily do you give away your time and attention? Have you ever considered the cost of obtaining your time and attention? I’ll bet that most people give it away for next to nothing.

If you pass a colleague and they ask you for $100 the first thing that you’re going to ask them is probably, “What for?”. However, if someone comes to you and wants to interrupt you most people allow it automatically, for no charge. Even worse, it doesn’t even have to be a person that gets your time and attention for next to nothing, it can be a machine.

By default what happens when a new email arrives? Your machine goes ‘ding’ and you may see something flash on the screen. That’s your machine interrupting you. Most people typically stop what they are doing and like the ‘Pavlovian dog’ go and check to see what the email is about Problem is, the ‘ding’ isn’t very smart is it? Any email that arrives will solicit the same response from your computer. Sure, you may get a small preview, but does that actually prevent you from checking it? In most cases it makes it more likely because you want to see the whole message! Human beings are curious creatures. So, you’ve now allowed anyone, anywhere at anytime to interrupt you. It could be your boss, your partner, your mother or a spammer, it does matter. They all make the computer go ‘ding’ and obtain your attention. Should they all have the same access and priority? How cheap are you?

Wanna actually get something done? Maybe its time to challenge the defaults you currently accept. Why does your email program have to check email every 5 minutes? Maybe 15, 30 or even 60 is more productive. Here’s a radical thought, set the defaults to ‘manual’ so you can check the email when YOU choose! Why do you need to be notified of every email the instant it arrives? Why do you allow your machine to interrupt you with noises, flashing signs and the like when most of what you receive in email does not warrant immediate instant attention. You are giving low priority stuff much greater priority than it deserves. How cheap are you?

Don’t believe me? Try turning off all the notifications and increasing the retrieve times for email. Better yet, try a morning when you have something important to do, even a few hours, without opening your email program at all and see how much more you get done. If it works then maybe you’ve become too cheap and need to re-evaluate the value of your time and attention, because guess what? They’re far more valuable than you think, because they’re FINITE!

What do you get in return?

I’ve been doing some thinking about the growth in mobile devices that allow you to not only accept phone calls but also emails. There is little doubt that these devices provide those calling or sending you direct unparalleled access to your time but let me ask what do you get in return?

Think about the ability of these devices to allow interruption to your time whenever they ring or go ‘ding – you’ve got mail’. How do you handle these demands on your time? Most people I know stop what they are doing immediately and take the call or read the email. Is this productive use of your time? Is it helping you get things done? In most cases I doubt it.

What is more precious time or money? Time. Why? Because you can never get more of it but you can always get more money. Think about the people who have access to your time right now. Right at this very moment. Who can demand you attention immediately? Does this align with the way you want it? If not then you only have yourself to blame and the method by which you allow people to gain that access is perhaps something you need to examine.

Everyone only has a limited amount of time and attention they can allocate. How you allocate this says a lot about how much you will achieve your goals. Don’t fool yourself into believing that being ‘more connected’ saves your time, the reality could be very different if you stop and take a look.

Don’t check emails, process emails

Has your email taken on a life of its own? Is it the nexus of everything you do? Is it your to-do list, calendar, task scheduler and more? If it is then you are not doubt in a world of pain. My advice? You need to make a mental shift and realize that email is simply a medium for things to do, nothing else.

Everyone I know says that they “check” their email. No wonder their inboxes are overflowing and they feel constantly overwhelmed. Why? Because emails are required to be processed. That means after you have checked an email DO SOMETHING WITH IT! Don’t just leave it sitting there in your inbox. Process the damm thing and move onto the next thing you need to get done. Convert emails to actions. When you read an email ask what actions you need to take as a result of this email? Whether you delete the email, archive, respond or even defer it make sure that you have a system that allows you to process emails.

In reality you should aim to process your inbox to empty by the end of the day. Sure not always possible but none the less a good target to aim for. Your inbox is simply a container for emails as they arrive, it is not a container for saving them for all eternity while your procrastinate with how to best handle each one. Deal with it and move on. It is far more satisfying to finish the day with an empty inbox. You know you have achieved something!

You may have a laugh but have a look at your inbox right now, now look at anyone else’s inbox and I’ll bet there are many, many emails that have sat there for month even years. If you want to recover your productivity you need a system to process emails effectively and efficiently. I’ll write something about a system that works for me soon but for the time being, if you REALLY want to master your emails, start thinking PROCESS not CHECKING.

Applying lessons from the Four Hour Work Week

I’ve been a huge fan of the Four Hour Work Week written by Timothy Ferris. It is one of only a few books that I can say has really changed the way that I view the world. You can read my review but I would urge you to actually take the time and read the book.

Most people that have read the book simply don’t understand how it can be applied to a business (especially their own). With that in mind I have found the following articles about how businesses has applied the principles from the book and the benefits it has provided.

Local business owners swear by time-saving efficiency methods outlined in best-selling book.

Sandia – Being more productive

I’m sure there’s at least one thing in there that you’ll get benefit from. Remember to save time in the future you need to invest some time now, however any thing you invest now will reap much greater rewards in the future than simply letting things continue the way they are now. Work smarter, not harder.

Always being ‘so busy with work’ isn’t a badge of honour, it’s simply being stupid!

Do lots of emails make you feel important?

I’ve been doing some research and contemplation about emails of late. Interestingly, I came across the following article from Slate called – The E-Mail Addict. The article raises a number of issues with email that I think most people, including myself fall, into.

To start with, ever do this?

“people have a tendency to simply open their inboxes and scroll up and down for several minutes, knocking off two or three messages so they feel better”

It is all too easy isn’t it? Not feeling like doing anything, drifting along, what can I do you, you think? Rather than face an unpleasant or difficult task that NEEDS doing it is so much easier simply to scroll through your inbox and delete or reply to one or two emails. You now feel that you’ve done something so you drift off onto something else. Sound familiar?

Secondly, what about this?

“Lots of e-mail makes you feel important”

So, not only is email a good time waster for most workers but the more they get interrupted by email and the more they store in their inboxes the more “important” they feel. Silly isn’t it?

There was a time when emails were are real productivity improvement but sadly they have plainly become an excuse to waste time. Why? Simply, people have allowed the technology to control them. They have lost the discipline of saying enough is enough. They have become so insecure that they need emails to confirm their self worth. Ad infinitum.

Finally, consider:

Today, scholars talk of the “communication enslavement” that occurs when someone sends e-mail to someone else.

I had never really thought of it that way but in many cases this is right on the money. You send some an email and EXPECT a reply and EXPECT the reply instantaneously.

It is interesting if you take a step back and really have a look at the VALUE of Internet communications (in all their forms). Consider whether they are really improving your productivity or are they simply giving you something to do and something to feel good about. It is a brave person that can walk away from emails in today’s overloaded environment but the studies seem to indicate that unless you do you are doomed to life tethered to a machine. That certainly isn’t suppose to be the way it should be, in my my opinion.

I will happily admit that I fall into the same traps as well but I am trying to do something about it. My starting point? The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris (see my review, in my opinion a must read), and yes I am reading it AGAIN!

Proof that emails make you stupid

I came across the following article about the Myth of Multi-tasking in which it says:

“Workers distracted by e-mail and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.”

So there you have it. Actually, I commend that you take the time (don’t multi-task) and read the complete article, which simply shows how humans can’t improve their productivity by multi-tasking. In fact they make it infinitely worse.

To me the rest of the world seems to be chanting “multi-task, multi-task” but the real heroes are those that step back and say “No, I need to concentrate on one thing at a time”. They may suffer ridicule but I bet they get more done than most people.

Most emails are a waste of time

Here’s an interesting article from the NYTimes about information overload. As you can see from the above graphic most information workers waste the greatest percentage of their day on interruptions from things that aren’t urgent. Don’t forget that it isn’t just the time to look at the irrelevant material, it is also the time taken to get back to what you are doing. (Also, interestingly they spend 15% of their day looking for stuff – I’ll talk about that in the future.)

Have you ever stopped to evaluate your own productivity in relation to things like emails and mobile phones? Are you actually “using” the technology or is “using” you?

Technology should be making your life EASIER not HARDER. If it isn’t then perhaps it’s time to take control back or perhaps just ignore it for a while?

Turning the frown upside down

I’m a ‘glass half empty’ kinda guy. Well really I’m a ‘who the hell made this glass twice as big as it needed to be‘ type of guy but for the purposes of this let’s just stick to the half empty metaphor.

Now the other day I was really pissed orf about something (if you will excuse my French, but I was). Now the rational part of my brain was saying – ‘Look this is a total waste of time, there ain’t anything you can do about the situation so just forget it!‘. However the emotional part of my brain was saying ‘Yes I know this is a waste of time but I am still pissed orf and need to vent this‘. A classic power struggle, which in most cases results in my rational mind simply stepping aside until the emotional part cries itself out feeling pissed orf.

For some reason my rational mind just could put up with the wasted energy on this occasion and decided to find a solution. What it came up with was pretty clever. Now we all know we have negative feelings that do no good but we are human beings and that is just the facts but imagine if you could redirect that negative energy into something positive? Let’s say that the next time you get pissed orf instead of dwelling on the fact you redirect that energy into accomplishing or thinking something positive.

I agree that it isn’t going to work every time but I have been giving it a try of late and am impressed with the results. Firstly, redirection gets my mind away from the thing that is pissing me orf and secondly I feel much better actually accomplishing or thinking about something positive. Every time I feel my emotions about a situation rising up again I redirect that energy to something far more rewarding.

Don’t get me wrong, you just can’t flick a switch and redirect the emotion it takes a bit of practice and patience but I can see the benefits even after a short period of time. I know that I am not always going to succeed in my aim but I think it is good a solution to at least try. Firstly, my rational mind can take the negative energy and put it towards something more useful and my emotion mind can vent all that it wants since it is being used for good and not bad.

That’s the theory anyway.