Top line revenue can solve a lot of problems for an organization. The gross dollars brought in can simply make some problems evaporate instantly. However, with increased revenue, there is usually an accompanying increase in activity to generate and maintain that revenue. Often, this increased activity surrounding an uptick in revenue will uncover issues that if not dealt with, will result in problems such as, customer attrition, employee burn-out, intra-departmental wars and finger-pointing, and ultimately, the eventual loss of revenue and net-profits. As we grow this year and into the future, how can we set ourselves up for success? How can we prepare now to manage all of the necessary activity that will surely come our way as we grow?
Dateline 2002 – San Francisco, CA: I was the Director of Operations for my company’s San Francisco location. At that time, I reported directly to a former Special Forces military man named Bruce. He had a requirement at that time for all of his direct reports. On the outside, that requirement may have looked like micromanagement or busywork, however, over the years I have come to see that this requirement was about so much more.
Bruce’s policy was for us to send a copy of our task lists to him every week. Yes, every week. This mostly took the form of a list in Microsoft Outlook of all the items and projects someone was currently tracking. He was relentless about this. I dutifully sent mine to him weekly. I remember a discussion where we were discussing a particular project and I mentioned he should refer to my task list for the information. This was when he shared his reasons for the task list to me.
He explained that he did not want the tasks lists as a specific report of activity, rather he was interested in whether or not his direct reports were even tracking activity period. Bruce said, “Every operations manager and salesperson in this company should be tracking a minimum of 50 to 100 tasks and projects at any given moment.” He continued, “The last thing I want to hear when I ask about the status of a project is hearing the forgetful ‘ohhhh yeah…, that’s right...’ answer.” He said it like you could hear the person falling down the same crack that the task fell into long ago and landing with a thud at the canyon floor. Bruce went on to explain that he was teaching the team to get things out of their head and into a list that could be reviewed and provide them with reminders. He told me that one of the main problems that will happen when we fail to capture the important tasks in the chaos of our daily business, is that customers will “fall off the back of the wagon.” This was an important lesson for me, but I was to find out that lower customer retention is only one of the risks when things “fall through the cracks.”
Dateline 2004 – San Francisco, CA: By this time, I had begun to oversee operations in San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Obviously, I was dealing with a lot more activity as a result. It was during this period I learned another powerful lesson from a business developer we had on staff at the time, Kathryn Lopez.
Up to the point I began working with Kathryn, tag teaming appointments and supporting her operationally, I had smugly thought of my time management skills as quite effective and, looking back, I arrogantly thought my skills were a little better than most folks. Boy was I wrong. As I began to observe Kathryn, I noticed a level of discipline and preparedness I wanted to achieve. She was varsity squad. I was the JV water boy. What I remember most about those days working with her is that I was actually ashamed to be around her sometimes. Not that Kathryn was arrogant or aloof, quite the opposite was true. It was simply that she was always so prepared and always so organized – with all the necessary items at the ready that I felt small and ineffective standing there with my imitation leather portfolio. I thought I had it together, but watching her convinced me she was a time-management and personal productivity super woman. So, I set out to learn what she did and how she did it.
The most important skill I learned from Kathryn was to have a specific plan for each day with specific tasks to accomplish. Rather than being buffeted about by stimuli and daily chaos, she had a plan she followed each and every day. Sure, things “came up” and fires needed to be dealt with, but they never ultimately interfered with her accomplishing her goals for that day. Simply stated, she took a proactive approach to her time, instead of just reacting to the most urgent issue. In a simple and practical way, Kathryn printed a copy of her daily calendar for that day from Outlook. She carried the paper in a plastic folder throughout the day. It was her road map. Come hell or high water, she was going to get the things done she planned to do. In the worst case scenario, if something unforeseen came up, she would know whom to call or what to do to renegotiate her commitments to herself and others. Kathryn taught me to answer the question, “How am I going to spend my time today to achieve my goals?” In case you are wondering, when I’m in the field, I still carry a plastic folder with my daily calendar in it.
Last year, I saw a documentary called “Riding Giants” about surfing. It detailed the world of big wave surfing with all the danger, perils and terrific thrills involved. The cinematography is stunning. As these brave (and slightly insane) surfers ride wave after wave after wave of these monsters, one thing becomes apparent very quickly. You cannot control the chaos of these humongous waves, you can only hope to surf the blasted thing and not get pulled under. The waves never stop. And, unless a surfer is content riding little blips of water somewhere in safer, unexciting bodies of water, he or she is has got to learn some skills for surfing the Big Kahuna.
When surfing “big waves” it is not a solo act of paddling out and riding a wave. There is an entire support staff in and out of the water helping the surfers to get to and from the waves safely. The water crew (on jet skis) is in just about the same level of danger as the surfers. When the team is working together, the surfer successfully rides gracefully above the chaos and sharp coral beneath the waves and is safely picked up by the support crew in the water only to happily do it all over again. But, when something goes wrong, it goes very wrong, and quickly. Pinned underwater for long periods of time scraping against a reef, these daredevils experience the full brunt of going from surfing the wave to being overwhelmed by it. I learned a lot more from that documentary than when to say “dude” and where to catch a righteous gnarly wave.
Every day, we are bombarded with demands on our time. Surprises fly from the left and right while our planned activities are either pushed to the side or forgotten as we find ourselves flailing about in the water just trying to keep our head above the surface. Promises fall through the cracks. The urgent overtakes the important. We let people down with friendly fire and self-inflict wounds by creating the stress of last-minute work. We fall off the surfboard and into the crashing waves struggling to stay afloat. Sound familiar?
There are many techniques for “getting organized” or managing one’s time. But, when someone is drowning, he/she doesn’t need a 300 page manual on how to swim. The person needs practical, easy to use life-saving advice. What could we possibly do, today, to get back to surfing the chaos instead of drowning in it? I believe there are two simple practices that can help you spend more time ON the wave than UNDER the wave.
Habit #1 – Empty your email in-box every 24 to 48 hours.
Take a look at your email in-box. How many emails are in your in-box? 50? 100? 500? 1,000? 2,000? Over 2,000? What is lurking in there? There are only a limited number of things you need to do with an email and leaving it in your in-box isn’t one of them. When an email comes in, we have to answer one question, “What is it?”
Possible Answers:
• “I do not need to do anything with this email.”
ACTION: Delete the email.
• “I must take an action on this email by a certain time.”
ACTION: If it will take two minutes or less to complete the action, do it then and there. If not, place the related action(s) on your calendar to complete the action by the due date.
• “I must take an action on this email, but there is no specific time.”
ACTION: Put the action in a list of open tasks/projects you review regularly (at least weekly).
• “I must save the information in this email for reference on a specific project.”
ACTION: Store the email a temporary subfolder designated by Project (i.e. “Company X RFP”) as long as the project is active. Then, either permanently file it or delete it.
• “I must save the email for CYA purposes.”
ACTION: Store the email by tracking it in the associated account or contact. Or, if it’s personal, store the email in an appropriate CYA folder you can easily find when you need it.
Managing your deliverables by using your email in-box as a filing cabinet or “search and find” tool is dangerous. At best, you may be able to keep track of everything this way, but you are wasting way too much time hunting and searching for “that email with the _______in it." Worst case, you are forgetting about your deliverables until someone or something else reminds you of them or you stumble across them in the pile of email with an “ohhh…yeah….that’s right…forgot about that one…” moment.
This is dangerous surfing. If there are actions that need to be scheduled hiding in your in-box, why haven’t they been moved onto your calendar? If the email is of no use, why hasn’t it been deleted? Ultimately, there are two reasons why we let our in-boxes get out of hand and neither of them are laziness. The first reason is fear. Many who operate without a day-to-day proactive plan or a system to manage activities are simply paralyzed with fear by the thought that they might need an email and if they move it from their in-box, they will not be able to find it when they need it.
The second reason is that many people do not view the act of processing their in-box to zero as part of their work that needs to be scheduled. We scan emails throughout the day on our phones and react instantly to the urgent, but seldom do we set aside an hour or two specifically to process the day’s emails and answer the question of each one, “What is it?” Over the course of days, weeks and months of neglecting the habit of dealing with our in-boxes, they become bloated. For some reason, we have a habit of not looking at processing email as an important part of our daily work and therefore it often becomes an afterthought. Also, just moving the email into a subfolder of your inbox is not processing it. That is like rearranging a mess into multiple piles of mess. I am not a fan of subfolders in general, however, if you must use them, do not make the classic mistake of using the sender’s name to house all emails from “Jane Smith” or “John Doe.” At best, the subfolders should be classified by Project or Account.
Habit #2 – Don’t put it in your head. Put it in your calendar.
Did you ever say to yourself, “I can’t forget to bring this __________ with me tomorrow” and place it by the door, or in your car, or in your briefcase? You are playing a trick on your brain by doing this. You don’t trust yourself to remember (and rightfully so) so you take control of the situation and your memory becomes irrelevant. It’s like one of those Sci-Fi movies where the lead character forgets everything each day and has to refer to a list he has left for himself to read in the future. Or, if you prefer Adam Sandler movies, like “50 First Dates” where the character “Luci” has her memory wiped each day and eventually she starts leaving herself instructions for the next day.
We are in the same situation. If you do this consistently and over time, you will achieve a state of workflow and productivity where you are truly surfing the chaos – and actually having fun. You actually start managing YOURSELF as a resource rather than being tossed about by the waves. What must you get done tomorrow? The day after? Next week? What actions must be taken on that project? What data entry needs to be in by next Tuesday? What phone call has to be made next Monday? Leave yourself a reminder for “future you.”
Take a look at your calendar (whichever kind you use). Is it empty? Are the only items on your calendar invites from other people? How far out have you planned your activities? Believe me, there is no surer sign that someone is just drifting along in the surf than an empty calendar. It says, “I don’t have a plan and I am just going to react to what happens next.” In other words, you’re shark bait.
If any input coming your way such as snail/e-mail, verbal requests, voice mails, action items from a meeting, your own thoughts and ideas, etc… has any kind of time sensitive NEXT ACTION associated with it, then it ultimately belongs on your calendar, not in your head. When a project (anything that has more than one action step) comes your way, you can book the necessary time for yourself to reach the necessary milestones along the way by their due dates.
One other thing to get out of your head is the items you are waiting on from other people to whom you have delegated tasks. Need a response to an email by next Wednesday? Put a reminder on your calendar for next Tuesday to check in with the person if you have not heard back from him/her. This one tip alone will save you countless hours of heartache.
There is a powerful interplay between planning your daily activities against your priorities. If you know what you have to get done and when you must get it done you have the power to make a choice when a new input comes your way.
• Say “Yes” to the input.
ACTION: Book out the necessary time on your calendar to accomplish the input.
• Say “Maybe” to the input.
ACTION: If you are already committed during the time you need to accomplish the new input, you can renegotiate your commitments to yourself and others by rescheduling items on your calendar. This is easier to do if you have clear priorities. For example, if an opportunity to bid a $5M project came your way, and you had the day planned to complete employee review forms, you may want to reschedule your review forms task. Or, if you committed to do a day of site inspections for your team, you may ask to pass the task to someone else or reschedule it. Here’s the key: Unless you already know what you are committed to, you can’t renegotiate the commitments.
• Say “No” to the input.
ACTION: If you cannot renegotiate your pre-existing commitments and your pre-existing commitments are a higher priority for you than the new input, you can and should say “No.” Whether your priority is entering payroll, generating revenue, fixing a chiller unit, or taking a vacation, you must weigh the new input against what is the best use of your time.
You may experience strong reactions from team members making the request of you. Sometimes, this is because they, themselves, manage their own activities from crisis to crisis, reacting to the next wave that comes at them. When you don’t drop everything and assist because you have prior commitments that are higher priority, be prepared to respectfully explain to the person that you have other deliverables that take priority and ask if there are options for you to help them within the next few days when you may have the time. I will give you one good measurement to decide when to say “Yes.” If the choice has to do with a direct revenue generating activity vs. something else, it is a clear priority.
If you get the hang (ten) of it, Outlook can be a very useful tool in managing your daily calendar. Here are some tips:
• All Day Appointment Section
In the very top portion of the daily calendar, you will find the section for “All Day Appointments.” This section is typically used for things like: Items you need to get done that day without a specific time, supporting information needed that day such as flight info, staff vacation reminders, directions to lunch meeting, etc…, basically, anything you need to remember and do for that day that does not have a specific time associated with it.
• Activities
Each day, your calendar should contain those activities you plan to accomplish that day. The day should be planned out to the point that you do not have to think, you only need to “do.” It’s almost as if you step outside of yourself to manage yourself in the third-person. What must you do to fulfill your job description? What are your priorities? What absolutely has to get done? Put them on your calendar and book the time to accomplish them – no matter how trivial or insignificant you think the task is. If you spend more time “living” in your email inbox than in your calendar, that is a dead giveaway that you are reacting to the waves rather than surfing them. This produces a culture of busyness instead of a culture of results. The stressed out employee in a cold sweat, putting in the extra hours may look noble from the outside, however could it simply be that the person is just plain drowning in the waves and those flailing limbs are just a desperate attempt to keep from going under rather than a smart, hard-working employee with his/her nose to the grindstone?
Right now, just think about tomorrow. What do you have to get done? Most people can identify one or two major tasks off the top of their head. What about the rest of the day? Would you be comfortable showing your daily calendar to your manager? Remember, you are important! You are a valued member of a team. Therefore, manage yourself like a precious resource with a truly limited amount of time. Then, don’t blow the appointment off you made with yourself when you make a commitment to yourself in your calendar. Get it out of your head and you’ll get things done.
• Recurring Items
If you do something each day, week, every third Thursday, etc… then set up a recurring appointment on your calendar to remind you to do it and make sure you have booked yourself out to do it. If you get an average of 100 emails per day and if you only spend an average of just one minute per email as you process it, that’s about an hour and a half of your time. Think that’s too long? I would bet my paycheck that folks with the 2,000 item inboxes spend at least triple that in searching for information and dealing with last-minute emergencies, dropping the ball – or asking people to resend the information.
Lack of planning not only affects your productivity and stress levels, it ripples through the water and affects your whole team. Like the surfers in “Riding Giants,” if a surfer goes under the water, his/her rescue team must risk their own lives to enter the dangerous waters to pull him/her out. Rescuers have often been injured worse than the person they were attempting to rescue. Like the old adage says, “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” If your administrator is in a particularly salty mood, could it be that you tossed him/her a last minute work order request that you have had sitting in your email box for a week? If your customer service rep looks a little miffed, could it be that he/she made a scheduling request to you four days ago and the customer has not been called yet?
The bottom line is that we always do that which we consider to be most important. Read that again. It’s a loaded statement. I have led a few strategic planning sessions for various groups and non-profits over the years and one exercise I lead the group through is the “Importance to Time Ratio” exercise. I ask the individuals to list, in order of importance, the top 10 most important things to them right now personally and professionally. Then we go around the room and talk about the top few on everyone’s sheet. Inevitably, “Family” is usually number one or two on everyone’s list. Next, I ask the group to go down the list and place the amount of hours they average per day on their top ten. Then, like dominos, you can see the ripple go around the room. Most people discover that what they consider to be most important is not getting the time that something “important” deserves. Saying, “My family is the most important thing to me” can only be true when we have a choice between investing our time with them versus something further down on the list and we choose “family.” Otherwise, we are only saying family is important in our personal lives. We always do that which we consider to be most important. And, as you have probably surmised, there’s another application for all of this. You can and should apply all of these principles to your personal life as well.
Over the years, I have gotten much better at surfing the chaos. Sure, I still fall off the board and miss a wave or two. Worse yet, I still put my team in jeopardy from time to time. But, I can say without a doubt that I am spending far more of my time on my surfboard than in the water. I try to learn from the falls and I want my team and family to hold me accountable so that I can get better and more efficient at getting things done professionally and personally. If you struggle with a bloated in-box and a calendar that looks like a ghost town, consider implementing some of the tips shared in this article. If you are already a personal productivity Jedi, consider reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen to fine tune your skills. We need all the tools we can get because knowledge and productivity workers are inevitably headed for the big water where the waves are gnarly and the coral is razor sharp. It’s going to be a wild fun ride for those who can surf the chaos. See you on the waves!
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