Jujutsu Email

I check email twice a day (unless some crisis warrants more frequent checks, but that's very unusual), once in the morning and once in the afternoon. And every time I check email, I empty my inbox completely. That's right, twice a day my inbox shows "0 unread". Makes me feel like a Ninja.

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When I explain this to people, lot of people are stunned, and initially consider me a slacker. What if someone wanted to reach me at noon? I have a cellphone, and it's always on, so if it's really urgent, call me. It's like jujutsu: it sounds contradictory at first, but when you study it, it's actually quite powerful. And the more others assert their force on you (send you emails) the more powerful it becomes for you (you're not wasting those little extra minutes switching context to check those email). Everything is batch processed, and you get long uninterrupted stretches of time in between to get actual work done.

I also constantly ask myself: could I check even less often? Sometimes I won't really do a full check in the afternoon, but just a quick scan to see if there's anything important, and leave the full scan for the morning after. It works. And even more amazing is that people who have no idea how I work actually have told me they're amazed at my responsiveness!

Could I do once a week? Probably not. At least not in my current job. But I encourage you to find your minimal email-check-frequency. Big productivity boost lies ahead.

- Gummi

3 tasks

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Are you one of those task ninjas who empty their inboxes twice a day, keep a tidy list of next actions, and treat your weekly cleanup like a ritual that's more important than your daughter's birthday? That's great! But are you really getting the right stuff done?

It's all too easy to be a task management guru, but lose sight of the bigger picture, and never really accomplish anything that matters. It's what some people call busywork, and that's a great word for this because it's really keeping a lot of people busy at work! There are so many people trapped in this mindless mode, people who never stop to smell the flowers... or at least figure out why they should be doing what they're doing.

In order to break this pattern, you need to proactively decide to do certain things, and do them because you think they matter. My method is very simple (and so very, very powerful): in the evening, when I've stopped working and my mind is wandering, I write down 3 tasks that I want to accomplish the next day. I consciously pick tasks that are important, and I would feel good about finishing during the day. They're not reactions to some emails I got during the day, or other isolated external factors. Then I strive to finish these tasks as soon as possible the day after.

Now let's do the math. Sometimes I finish all three, sometimes I finish none, but on average, I probably get 2 out of 3. So that's about 10 really important tasks every week. That's 520 (!) important tasks over the course of the year. When you look at it that way, that's not bad.

Assuming you have the basic task management in order, this is probably the best productivity (or effectiveness) boost you can get. Highly recommended.

- Gummi

No more coffee

I love coffee.

So much, in fact, that I was drinking many, many, many cups every day. And I got into a very bad cycle. So I stopped drinking coffee, had a splintering headache for 5 days, and just felt miserable. And now I feel great.

But I still love coffee, too bad I can't drink it. It's my forbidden fruit.

This may not apply to you, but my coffee drinking was impacting my sleeping habits, causing me to feel misearble in the morning, and generally making me addicted to more coffee. It's a very negative cycle, if you get caught in it.

So here's my productivity tip: if you're addicted to coffee (or any other highly caffeinated drink, such as some sodas) and always feel tired, stop! Just throw this habit away, suffer through the withdrawal pains and then enjoy the renewed energy that will flow into your life.

- Gummi

Productivity Tip: Don't check email too often

Are you keeping one eye on the mail notifier all day long? Hmmm... the invention of the email popup, a.k.a. "You've Got Mail", is probably the biggest cause of productivity drop in the past 2 decades. Our mind is very good at focusing on one thing at a time (yes, regardless of gender; we all know women are better at multitasking, but they're even better when focused :) so when there are constant distractions, our productivity drops.

Well, we all know this. The question is what can you do about it?

The key thing here is to remember that email should not be used for time sensitive communication. True, your boss might think otherwise, but it's your job to educate others about the same, and in return you'll be more productive. Sounds like a great deal to me!

So what does this mean in practice? First of all, check email as seldom as possible. Your rythm will depend on the type of job you are in, but for most people twice a day is more than sufficient. And tell people about your schedule and that they can call or text you if they need your attention urgently. And trust me, the world will not end.

Second of all, make sure you empty your email inbox regularly; that way you know there are no fires going on, and nothing will bite you because you weren't on top of things.

Try this, and you'll have more time to read the paper, listen to the bird sing, take a neighborhood walk, read for your kids, spend time with your spouse... oh, and of course more time to do actual real work.

- Gummi

Productivity Tip: Meetings != Work

This one is for you all working in big companies (if you work for a startup and find this true as well, run... run very fast!)

A lot of people think that going to meetings is equivalent to work. A full day of meetings is a productive day! Wrong. For most lines of work, meetings are necessary tools to coordinate and make decisions, but the actual real work happens in between, when you're sitting at your desk, reviewing work plans, or making sales calls, or writing proposals, or taking on whatever is next on your prioritized task list. And no, email is not work either in most cases, so that's not an excuse.

Following on my experience yesterday about days that have scattered meetings throughout the day, there are sometimes days that have just a lot of meetings. And today was one of those. So what do you do in those situations? My rule of thumb is very simple: question every meeting on your calendar. That doesn't mean all meetings are bad, but too often meetings are set up for the wrong reason, or regular meetings stagnate and lose their purpose, or people show up unprepared and just looking for a break from work (meetings are a great excuse to not work, what a shame...)

The point is, for every meeting that either you've set up, or someone invited you to, think hard whether this meeting is likely to help you achieve your top priority goals. Your work is not a social club, don't go to meetings just to hang out with your colleagues. If the meeting does not seem likely to further your goals, reject it. If it seems like an appropriate meeting, but is too long or you're not clear on its exact purpose, ask for a shorter meeting and make sure the meeting has a clear agenda. In fact, make sure every meeting has a clear agenda, and has a clear purpose of discussion, coordination and decision making.

For most people in meeting heavy jobs, this should allow you to cut off a significant portion of your meetings, which gives you time to do actual work - or even have a life outside of work if that's what you prefer! :)

- Gummi

Productivity Tip: First Things First

When I got to the office this morning and looked at my schedule I realized I wouldn't get a ton done today. What I saw resembled more a minefield than a smooth sailing productive day, with lots of small slots in between several meetings. The outlook was pretty grim.

I've gotten into the habit of jotting down a few "must-do" tasks the night before. I usually have 2-3 per day, and the idea is that by the end of the week, assuming I finish all those tasks, I've accomplished 10-15 meaningful tasks. Doesn't matter if I screwed everything else up, as long as I chose my tasks carefully and aligned them with my important goals (easier when you're at home at night, outside of the daily "chatter" from other people). Usually I tell myself that I will do those tasks first, and then everything else... but I usually don't do that.

But today, I figured that wouldn't even finish my 2 must-do tasks given the limited time I had to actually work (as opposed to the "work" called meetings) - unless I simply focused on the must-do tasks and nothing else. So that's what I did. Just 5 minutes email scan to make sure nothing was burning, and then I dove in. And you know what? It actually turned out to be a very productive day after all!

The point is, figure out what's most important for you to do, be ruthless when prioritizing, and stay focused on getting those things done. It's very easy to fall off this path, but if you try it, you'll immediately feel the impact.

- Gummi

Productivity Tip: Work the Pile

[Really have to get this blogging going...]


In addition to writing in details about how I manage my daily tsunami of tasks and activities (and in survive each day in general), I'm going to start a new, more serendipitous thread about random tips that I think of during my normal course of activity.

These won't be structured at all, but will hopefully be helpful to some of the readers of this blog. So here goes my first one.

I got back from Tokyo last Friday (very cool to take off at 6 pm and land at noon - on the same day!) and then went camping (in cabins though) with my daughters overnight, spent all Saturday in activities at the camp site, rushed back home in the afternoon and attended a wedding on Saturday night, and then went to a carnival downtown on Sunday with my daughters. Needless to say, I was exhausted, but even worse: my email inbox was overflowing!

I've recently gotten into the habit of cleaning my inbox twice a day. It has a lot of positive side effects, but most notably I know that I'm on top of things. No timebombs. No lurking unread message about some time critical thing that you have to do before end of tomorrow or the world will end (spoiler: it never really does regardless). So this was unusally long for me and a bit frustrating. It was tempting to let it slide and start working on things instead. But I resisted the temptation and spent a couple of hours chopping the pile down and getting it to my favorite unread count: zero.

The point is, keep processing inbound traffic at a regular interval and don't let anything sit to rot. You will feel better about your work, you'll be more productive, and you'll know for sure that you really are in control.

That's it for the first tip, I'm going to try to post these tips regularly.

- Gummi