* A book that teaches you how to take your life back, with Outlook
A few weeks ago I confessed my sins of e-mail disorganization. Several readers sent me ideas on how to tame the e-mail overload. Taking the advice to a higher level, productivity consultant Sally McGhee sent me a copy of her book, “Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized.” You’ve got to love a book that promises to put you in control again.
Sally McGhee is founder and managing partner of McGhee Productivity Solutions . Her company specializes in coaching busy executives and information workers to bridge the gap between technology and how to make behavioral changes to become more productive. Oh, she has found the right target in me!
When Sally and I talked, she told me software by itself doesn’t provide business productivity processes. Rather, workers have to develop and practice behaviors that keep them in control of the information they need to do their jobs and lead their lives. In particular, Sally and I focused on e-mail and how I can gain the upper hand in dealing with my cluttered inbox. The hard (but essential) part will be my behavior modification.
Sally wrote about Microsoft Outlook because she truly believes it is the best tool there is to organize information for both individuals and teams. If you use something other than Outlook, you can still practice what Sally preaches, but you might need to improvise if your tool doesn’t have the same features or functionality as Outlook. She also recommends that you use a PDA that synchronizes with your Outlook system so that you can take your electronic task list and other important files with you as you move throughout the day.
In her book, Sally writes, “On average, customers spend two to three hours a day working in e-mail and 60 minutes a day finding and filing information.” Her system promises to reduce those times to one to two hours a day in e-mail, and 10 minutes a day finding and filing information.
In dealing with e-mail, Sally has something she calls the Four D’s of Decision Making. She claims that using this model can help reduce the quantity of mail stored in your inbox by as much as 81%. (To attain such statistics, McGhee Productivity Solutions follows up every consulting assignment with a “results survey.” Six weeks after working with a client, the consultants measure real-life progress. It’s not uncommon for clients to report a significant improvement in productivity gains.) And the Four D’s are:
* Delete it.
* Do it if it takes less than 2 minutes.
* Delegate it, and if appropriate, track it.
* Defer it by putting it on a task list or transferring it to a specific time on your calendar.
Of course, you shouldn’t just randomly start deleting or delegating your e-mails. In fact, the chapter on the Four D’s in Sally’s book doesn’t even start until page 196. The first three-quarters of the book describe the McGhee Productivity Solutions’ Workflow Model and Integrated Management System. These chapters describe how to get organized in terms of getting all your information into one system, modifying your behavior to reduce interruptions and increase the time you spend on actionable items, and using a workflow model to process and organize e-mail.
I’m still reading Sally’s book and I can see many good tips in here. I just hope I have the discipline to apply her suggestions. Here are just a few that might give you the incentive to read the book and “take back your life”:
* Set aside specific times on your calendar to do your work and don’t allow interruptions during this time. Inform coworkers that you cannot be interrupted during this time unless it is an emergency.
* Ask to be removed from distribution lists of items that are not important to you. This includes asking colleagues not to “cc” you on e-mails that don’t require any action from you.
* Create mail folders pertaining to each of your major objectives and create sub-folders as needed. Store e-mails only if necessary within these folders – not in your inbox.
* If your company allows it, include your personal information in your single integrated management system so that your life – work or personal – can be managed from one place.
* Learn how to break your tasks down to small actionable steps and keep all your actions in one place. This helps you to prioritize your actions and make well-informed decisions about accepting or declining more tasks.
I’d like to hear from any readers who have already developed a disciplined approach to getting through the workday by using a productivity tool like Outlook. Give us your tips on getting started, and share the results of how your life has been changed. I’m hoping you’ll give me the incentive to get started myself. Write to me at Linda@currid.com
