Inbox Zero - why?

Crazy thought right? Inbox zero is the idea that all of your inboxes are empty. Every email is either deleted or archived in a folder. If it isn’t taken care of, it lives in an archive folder or an @action folder. All of those post-it notes on your desks? They are processed and in a system, in my case OmniFocus.

While some of you may be thinking that it is impossible… let me first explain why inbox zero is important:

1. Picture your dresser. When things are where they belong, you are able to pack a suitcase or dress for the day faster since the socks are in the sock drawer, and your skinny jeans are in the jeans drawer. How does that feel? Now imagine that all of your clothes are in one laundry basket (and not folded, of course!). How does that feel? Having inboxes sit in an inbox is like leaving your clothes in the basket.

2. How many times are you going to skim that email’s subject line? When you are browsing your inbox for a missing email, or something urgent, you are wasting time reading and rereading the same emails. Take the time to process every email. Touch it once… then you’ll never have to touch it again.

3. Should you be receiving these emails? Consider unsubscribing from newsletters and advertisements that are either no longer relevant, or you don’t need right now (you can resubscribe again in the future). If it’s from a person, consider creating a filter or rule that automatically puts the email in a folder. This is especially helpful if you get updates from a department, but only need to check it once in a while because it’s usually not urgent or important.

How do you see living with inbox zero improving your productivity?

Start Your Day on the Right Foot

There is something to be said about kicking off your day on the right foot. Whether that’s downing a venti mocha latte, or blasting “Kick Out the Jams,” you have triggers and associations with things you do that have a direct impact on your day… even if they are placebo.

So if you are struggling getting up in the morning, or starting your day off on the right food, find something to look forward to. That will motivate you to get up in the morning and start your day.

Take Care of Yourself

When you try to complete tasks based on your energy level, you become more self aware of when you are at your peak energy and focus. This has the side effect of also building your emotional intelligence on your mood and ability. Take advantage of this. Observe how the food you eat, when you complete a certain activity, or don’t get enough sleep impacts your productivity. Is the loss of half a day of doing something you want to do worth a couple glasses of wine? Every task we complete has a time and energy cost, as well as an impact on our short term goals. If the tasks we choose to do or ignore become a bigger pattern, they start to have a larger impact on our next level goals. So while that one drink, or that one late night seems innocent enough, what is the overall cost if you make it a habit?

Renegotiating Promises

People don’t notice the quantity of work you accomplish, just the things you promised them and deliver. So how do you demonstrate productivity to those around you?

First, if you promise to do something for someone, you have to do it by the date promised. If you are late, that can taint you as being disorganized or untrustworthy. Some would also argue if you complete items too early too often, you can come across as not having enough to do.

Second, if you can’t deliver, you need to renegotiate the deadline within a reasonable amount of time. This can be notifying the other person about the new deliverable date, or actual negotiation in trying to find a more realistic deadline.

Third, you need to be willing to drop tasks. You will always have more tasks or requests than you have time to complete. If some of those were given to you by your manager, or anyone really, you need to be able to say “no.” This can be done tactfully by sharing priorities such as “I am currently working on the TPS report. Would you prefer me drop that for now to complete this errand?”

Productivity is not the amount of work you get done, but how impactful the work you get done is. Managing the requests from others as well as the ones you create is essential to reaching your most productive self.

Mind Like Water

When I discuss the concept Mind Like Water, I feel like I am teaching a buddhist concept. In GTD, mind like water is the state when all of your responsibilities and tasks are managed and you can focus on what is in front of you, or nothing at all. This opens up your headspace for your most productive and creative thoughts. This only happens if you have a system to manage your tasks and responsibilities in a way that you trust and ensures that you keep the promises you make.

How do you achieve it? In GTD, you write down every task and responsibility you have, you review regularly to ensure that nothing is missed, and you complete tasks in the contexts that they make the most sense to do. It’s that easy (easy?).

GTD Through Change

Life events such as graduating from college, or the birth of a new child can really shake up your world. Even if the event doesn’t have a direct impact on your workload, the new reality causes you to lose focus. While GTD tries to prevent that by having you refocus your horizons to ensure you are ahead of the change, we are still human. This means that throughout the process, you will get derailed.

How do I know when I am derailed? I feel unproductive. I may be getting things done, but I don’t feel like I am getting the right things done. It’s what I call “being busy.” To get back on track, I revisit my Horizons of Focus. By visiting and recalibrating my long term and medium term goals, I am able to figure out where my energy should be spent, and where it should drop. It also gives me a chance to remove projects that are no longer relevant, and add projects that align to my new world.

If you feel lost, take a step back and try to view your situation from a higher level. What are you trying to accomplish in the next three to five years? How does what you are doing today impact it?

Where Is Your Job Going?

Horizon 3 is all about your one to two year goals. This is especially helpful in aligning your projects and goals with where your job or role will be in 18 months or so.

Oftentimes, our projects and tasks become stagnant. We work on the same stuff we did last year. To keep our focus forward, preparing us for where our role will be tomorrow instead of what it was yesterday, every three months or so re-evaluate your Horizon 3. Are your job expectations the same? What are some new skills you should develop? What are some projects you can start now? Staying ahead of future problems is part of the secret sauce that makes GTD work.

Your 3 to 5 Year Plan

In a previous post, we talked about the importance and impact of knowing your life’s mission (Horizon of Focus 5). But how do you get there? The goals you aim to achieve in three to five years goes a long ways towards getting you there. This is Horizon of Focus 4.

Your horizons may change at any time, but having a map of where you are going is helpful to keeping you focused and productive. It is impossible to reach your life goals without splitting it into chunks that can be managed. The theory behind the horizons of focus is to see how each level connects to the next allowing you to make your dreams a reality. Whatever your three to five year goals are, they should be attainable and help you get closer to your life’s ambition.

I Forgot My Umbrella!

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You and your family decide to catch a ball game. You grab the tickets, jump in the car, then head towards the stadium. As soon as you jump on the highway, that’s when you start thinking about what you need for the game:

• Did I bring my sunglasses? Check

• Tickets? Check

• Kids? Double check

• Baseball cap? Shoot…

Why do we reflect on what we need when it is already too late? It’s because we are always in a rush and don’t stop and plan ahead. With GTD, you have reflection built in with the weekly review. You also have a clearer head because everything you need to do has a process to follow and is being managed. By having a mind like water, you will naturally prepare for important things before they happen! Now if only I could remember to bring an umbrella when it rains…

Defining Due Dates

When managing tasks, it gets easy to just set due dates for everything. From experience, when we set arbitrary due dates, we wind up rescheduling them, or ignoring them, causing us to miss real due dates instead. What makes the GTD methodology so powerful is the understanding that due dates are promises or needs that need to be fulfilled. If we can’t fulfill them, we need to reach out to the person we made the promise to in order to renegotiate the due date. With this in mind, it is important not to set due dates unless they are real. If you are focused on getting things done, and complete tasks in context, tasks will get complete without a motivating due date. While everyone’s task management system is unique, I use flags to identify tasks that don’t have a set due date but have an implied “complete as soon as possible” urgency. That way when I am in context, I focus on those tasks first. I also try to complete those tasks within a week.

I’ve found this compromise of using flags to stand for items that are asap, but not with a specific due date, helps me manage my due dates without losing trust in their legitimacy. How do you make sure you get urgent and important tasks done?

Let Your Mission Be Your Guide

There are two major barriers that get in the way of your productivity: lack of momentum, and lack of direction. Earlier we discussed how to use short, low energy tasks to get back on track when you feel unmotivated. Today I want to reflect on how to get productive when you feel lost: revisit your mission.

When I am lost, I like to start at Horizon of Focus 5. This is what I want my legacy to be, or what I want people to remember me by at my wake. This relates to the idea begin with the end in mind. Often times when I feel lost or off track, I’ve stopped working towards my horizons and am stuck in the day-to-day tasks. This is what drains your energy. You aren’t doing anything that truly matters to you.

If you feel that you lack direction, or you are driving in circles, pull over and check your map. Where are you headed in 10 years? 20 years? What do you need to do today to get you there?

Just 5 Minutes Please

I’ve found that my most wasted time in my day are the five minutes before something is happening. Five minutes before a call, or waiting five minutes in a line. To combat this, I created a 5-minute perspective in OmniFocus.

Regardless of the tool you have, having a way to determine what tasks you can complete in 5 minutes or less is helpful to boosting your productivity. Good time management includes being early to meetings, good task management relies on you getting things done. So the next time you are early for a meeting. Grab your task list and knock off that small task. You’ll be thanking me later.

The Weekly Review

The weekly review is foundational to the Getting Things Done method. You can’t have a mind like water if you don’t trust your tools, and that you haven’t capturing everything. I conduct my weekly reviews on Sunday nights in order to sleep on where I want to focus for the rest of the week. If something prevents this from happening, it definitely hampers my productivity.

Here are the key steps I do when completing a weekly review:

1. Collect loose papers and materials: I do a lap around my house and car looking for scattered mail, pamphlets, magazines, stuff I bought at a store, etc. that require an action. I bring them up to my office (or write them on a post it) to put in my inbox

2. Clear my inbox: I then get all of my inboxes to zero (email, and physical) as well as my inbox in OmniFocus (task management tool)

3. Empty your head: I then stare at my empty desk and walls and just think… is there anything I should be doing? Is there anything I meant to do. What did I forget to do? By answering these questions, I usually generate a dozen or so tasks. Sometimes these tasks are new. Sometimes they are duplicates because I get paranoid (this usually happens when I slip completing weekly reviews consistently).

4. Review completions: I then review every task I marked complete since my last weekly review. This helps me generate next steps that I may have missed capturing, or may be triggered by something I read.

5. Review calendar: I then review all of my calendar appointments in the last three weeks to identify if there is anywhere for me to follow up on, or if I am still waiting on something. I then do the same thing for the next three weeks do identify anything I need to do to prepare for those meetings, or if there is something that wasn’t a priority earlier that is now becoming a priority due to a relevant meeting.

6. Review waiting list: I tag tasks I am waiting for others to respond or complete to “waiting for” and tasks that I need to wait until something happens “waiting.” I review these tasks and remove the tags if I need to follow up, or I mark them complete if I am no longer waiting and the task is complete or unneccessary.

7. Clear task inbox: I then clear out my task inbox again to prepare for the next step

8. Review project list: I review the tasks for every project and identify what is holding the project up. Is there a task I can add to get this project moving? What do we need to do to get it complete?

9. Review Due Soon: I take a couple minutes to review tasks that are due within the next three weeks. If it looks like a deadline is too aggressive, I may create a task to renegotiate the due date, or identify tasks that will help me meet the deadline depending on its critical level.

10. Review Someday/Maybe list: I look at tasks that are ideas and possibilities for inspiration on new tasks, or if the situation has changed and the tasks should now be a priority.

11. Brainstorm new tasks and ideas: I go back to staring at my wall or empty desk and dream about what I could accomplish. What to I want to do? What can I do? If the ideas are crazy, then I’ll just delete them in the next step or put them in someday maybe if it has potential but isn’t a “right now” idea.

12. Clear task inbox: I process my inbox one last time.

That’s it! It seems like a lot, but it only takes about 2 hours if my energy level is good and I am not distracted. These two hours make my week more effective, and more than make up for the time spent since it keeps me productive.

Finding Energy Through Completing Tasks

While it seems counter-intuitive, we mostly lose energy when we aren’t working towards our goals. The next time you are tired, pay attention to what you choose to do, or what gets you up and active again. You decide to take a break from working on a project for a few minutes, and you are exhausted. Then someone invites you to grab ice cream. You spring up and accept the invitation. It’s magic! You are now re-energized!

While your energy may ebb and flow, you can stay productive. Finding low energy tasks that still get you closer to your goals will both help you feel accomplished and re-energize you. So next time you are tired, grab your to do list and just do something quick and easy. Then try another… and another until you are re-energized. You may be surprised at the results.

Your Life Ambitions

For many people, Horizon 5 is the most difficult Horizon of Focus: Purpose and Principles (https://gettingthingsdone.com/2011/01/the-6-horizons-of-focus/). For me, it’s been the constant that has guided me throughout my career and life.

One of my main purposes in Horizon 5 is to help others reach their potential. This aligns nicely with my guiding principle that everyone has strengths, and if given a chance they can accomplish great things. This is what motivated me to get a degree in Music Education. I felt that I could make a difference in many people’s lives by helping them through music. When that path didn’t work for me, I had to follow another path. At this time, I hadn’t discovered GTD yet, but the theme continues.

I took a position in a call center, where I helped those around me continue to improve every day. When promoted to supervisor, this was a driving force that motivated me to put in extra hours every week analyzing team performance, and individual gaps that I could help with. This then led to my current position as a corporate trainer/internal consultant, where I made the most impact collaborating with various teams to help them discover and develop their strengths, and implement change initiatives that improved opportunity and ability for employees. This drove me to also pursue a Masters Professional Studies in Organization Development and Change. Earning this degree helped me develop my skillset to help drive organization change to help me improve opportunity for all employees.

Helping others reach their potential has always been a driving force behind what I do, and it continues to guide me in the major decisions I make in my life. After all, without a compass, it’s difficult navigating through the woods. Your life’s ambitions can be great or small, but being aware of them will help take you where you need to be.

If you haven’t established your Horizon 5, what is holding you back? Stephen Covey says “begin with the end in mind.” Figure out your end, and your chances of success will amplify.

Balancing Energy with Productivity

Growing up, I was always told to start with the hardest task first. While there are some benefits to doing that, GTD taught me to funnel my workflow by energy level instead. This has proved especially helpful adjusting to all of the stresses and changes we’ve seen at work and at home during the pandemic.

Every task is labeled either low energy, normal energy, or high energy. During periods of high energy, such as in the morning or mid afternoon, I try to keep my calendar open and focus on these high energy tasks. I try to save the low energy tasks for when I am exhausted, or don’t want to do anything… thus keeping me productive even when I am drained. If I am having a particularly rough day, then I may only focus on low energy tasks. I still feel accomplished, and I don’t force myself to complete tasks inefficiently due to mistakes I may make if I attempted a higher energy task.

Somen days I can’t balance my work with energy levels, and just need to get a project or a series of tasks done regardless. I’ll bite the bullet, and re-record or redo a task as needed until I get it right. That is the benefit of completing tasks at the right energy level. You are at your most efficient when you are in the right context and in the right mindset to complete the task.

My challenge is finding ways to re-energize when I need to complete more high energy tasks. How do you balance your tasks with your available energy?

Creating Life Balance

How many hours a week do you dedicate to work? To your personal life? To your passion? While many of us work to live, some of us find work in an area of passion… allowing us to put our energy behind both. If we’re not careful, this transitions into us living to work. Relationships get tarnished, our mental health breaks down, and we burnout.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

In Getting Things Done, you layout your priorities and goals using six levels of focus, ranging from day to day tasks all the way up to lifetime goals. By laying out this roadmap, you are able to setup milestones to work towards that keep you balanced and focused. 

Horizons of Focus:

• Ground: Actions you need to complete

• 10,000: Projects you need to work on

• 20,000: Areas of focus, such as what your job responsibilities are, family obligations, etc. This becomes the filter to decide which projects you keep, and which you remove

• 30,000: One to two year goals

• 40,000: Three to five year goals

• 50,000: Purpose and principles. This is how people will describe you at your wake.

The Horizons of Focus in combination with the other parts of GTD allow you to stay in the moment: whether you are working on tasks, or relaxing on the beach with your family. 

How do you keep your work from bleeding into your personal or family life?

I’ll Take a Large Popcorn: Staying in Context

On Monday, my wife and I splurged at the local movies theater buying a large popcorn and large soda. Even with today’s ticket prices, we still spent more on concessions than the movie itself. 

After all, watching a movie without popcorn is like eating a PB&J sandwich without peanut butter. Actually, running out of popcorn in the middle of the movie is worse. That is why I splurge for the large popcorn… even if I never finish it. This allows me to clear my head during the movie to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the experience.

What does this have to do with staying in Context as it’s known in Getting Things Done (GTD)? One of the main secrets in what makes GTD work is maintaining focus on the task in front of you and keeping a clear head. When you are working on tasks in the right context without outside distractions (such as tasks you didn’t write down, or your hunger for popcorn), you are at your most effective. It is the zen, or zone of GTD.

To be in the zone, you need to have everything you need to do in a system you trust to keep your head clear, and when you are working on your tasks, having everything in front of you that you need. Staying and working in context helps you produce your best work efficiently while helping you get things done.

When you are working on your tasks, what distractions take you out of your zone? Let me know in the comments.