"Take Back Your Life" ... Incoming!
Question: You have a few minutes free and want to use the time wisely - what do you choose to work on next? Where do you look?
Author Sally McGhee asks you to think about the places you store information about all your loose ends - calls to make, shopping lists, emails to return, errands to run, project work to do, etc. You may guess you have just a few places where you collect such things but I started making a list and was surprised to see just how many there were:
Postits on the monitor, notes on my desktop, voice messages, email Inbox at work, 3 email Inboxes at home, my cell phone (voice mail, txts, calendar), Outlook calendar, Outlook tasks, notes made during meetings (notebooks, notecards, etc.), the calendar on the wall at home with Katie's activities and visitation schedule, and mail at home could be anywhere - my purse, my tote bag I take to work, computer desk, coffee table, kitchen counter, kitchen table, or even the bathroom! But the trickiest "inbox" is the one in my head - all those times I say "oh yeah, I need to do that sometime".
Seeing just how many sources of Input is a bit freaky! If I'm trying to pick the one most important thing to do, I would have to check ALL of those "input spots" ... and boom, my 20 minutes are gone. So:
Author Sally McGhee asks you to think about the places you store information about all your loose ends - calls to make, shopping lists, emails to return, errands to run, project work to do, etc. You may guess you have just a few places where you collect such things but I started making a list and was surprised to see just how many there were:
Postits on the monitor, notes on my desktop, voice messages, email Inbox at work, 3 email Inboxes at home, my cell phone (voice mail, txts, calendar), Outlook calendar, Outlook tasks, notes made during meetings (notebooks, notecards, etc.), the calendar on the wall at home with Katie's activities and visitation schedule, and mail at home could be anywhere - my purse, my tote bag I take to work, computer desk, coffee table, kitchen counter, kitchen table, or even the bathroom! But the trickiest "inbox" is the one in my head - all those times I say "oh yeah, I need to do that sometime".
Seeing just how many sources of Input is a bit freaky! If I'm trying to pick the one most important thing to do, I would have to check ALL of those "input spots" ... and boom, my 20 minutes are gone. So:
- Brain: First thing I did was sit in Outlook, Tasks, and just did a big brain dump - everything that I could think of got entered as a Task. I've had to revisit this several times as things surfaced or got added to it. The book said most people come up with 20-25 items - I had 72. *gulp.
- Home: I've collapsed all those down to one spot. I cleared the kitchen counter and put 3 things on it - an Inbox, a "Shred" box, and my filebox (with the trash can nearby). Now when mail comes in, it goes to the Inbox. I have a set day/time where I go through it and it's going to get placed in either the trash, shred box, filed, or if it requires, into my...
- Portable Inbox/Outbox. I got an expandable folder for my workbag and it is now my "portable" Inbox/Outbox. That is the ONLY place that papers being shuttled from home to office and back can go. If I change bags, it moves with me (this sounds obvious but has somehow escaped me over the years)
- Office: All my to-dos are now captured in Outlook Tasks - my monitor has no post-its on it and my notecards are filed, to be pulled out when I'm working on that item. I used to keep them all over my desk as visual reminders - out of site, out of mind, so I had to keep them all in sight. Oddly enough, though, it meant I didn't "see" much of any of them. My Outlook tasks are now my reminder (using the Due Date, etc.), and I pull out only the cards/notes/reference materials I need for that task. I have a box on my desk labeled "Inbox" (which seems really old-fashioned!) and collected the things that were all over the desk into it.
- But my big thing was my Inbox at work - I had 4400 emails - all read but saved - in my Inbox alone. I also have a dozen folders, one for each project. My problem was that if I filed it, I'd lose my visual "cue" to follow up. Most of what was in my Inbox was junk that I never got around to deleting and built up over time - so I allocated 20 minutes a day to going through the Inbox and deleting anything not necessary. I'm down to 1400 emails - those are from the 10 key people I work with and will take a little more review/capturing action items, etc. My goal is to get through those, too, and not use my Inbox as a source of filing - move those to a Reference area (with ticklers in Outlook Tasks)
- Lastly, I needed a frame around when to revisit these things. I now have time blocked on my calendar for doing a mini-brain dump, processing the In/Out boxes, and reviewing the weekly calendar. Having this little system has given me a boost of energy, so putting a few minutes into it on Mondays/Fridays to keep it maintained will be time well-invested.