received.
Ideal y, in your written notes you wil have kept your Action Steps separate from everything else. However, you wil stil need time for processing—going through al of your day’s notes and communications and distil ing them down to the primary elements.
For those who stil take paper notes and appreciate tangible project management, you wil want to use a tangible in-box—a general pile of stuff that has yet to be classified.
Most productivity frameworks—like David Al en’s Getting Things Done —suggest such a central clearing-house for al of the stuff that you accumulate but can’t immediately execute or file. This in-box is not a final destination, but rather a transit terminal where items await processing. During a busy day of meetings, you wil not have time to start taking action or filing things away.
How about al of the digital stuff that flows in every day? Your e-mail in-box is the primary landing spot, but information also flows into other online applications. While your tangible in-box, sitting on your desk, is singular, the digital equivalent is becoming more of a col ective. Ideal y, you should set your settings in social networks to forward messages to your e-mail in-box for the sake of aggregation. When you commit time for processing, you’l want to limit the number of places you need to visit. If you can’t aggregate the flow of e-mails and other digital communications in the same place, then you need to define the various pieces of your col ective digital in-box. For example, my col ective digital in-box includes my e-mail program (which receives messages from al other networks), a Twitter aggregator, and the in-box in my task management application (where I accept/reject stuff sent from my col eagues who use the same application—and then manage this information by project). When the time comes for processing, these are the three digital places I need to visit, along with the tangible in-box ful of papers on my desk.
As you can see, the “in-box” of the twenty-first century varies for everyone. You must concretely define your col ective in-box before you start processing. Peace of mind and productivity starts when you know where everything is. The combined in-box says, “Don’t worry, al of your stuff (and the Action Steps, Backburner Items, and References contained within) are in a defined place, waiting for you and ready to be sorted.”
If you live a digital lifestyle, your ability to process your in-box may be at particular risk without some sense of discipline. The reason: in the era of mobile devices and constant connectivity, it has become al too easy for others to send us messages. As such, our ability to control our focus is often crippled by the never-ending flow of incoming phone cal s, e-mails, text messages, and in-person interruptions—not to mention messages from other online services. Thus it is important that you avoid the trap of what I have come to cal “reactionary work flow.”
The state of reactionary work flow occurs when you get stuck simply reacting to whatever flows into the top of an in-box. Instead of focusing on what is most important and actionable, you spend too much time just trying to stay afloat. Reactionary work flow prevents you from being more proactive with your energy. The act of processing requires discipline and imposing some blockades around your focus. For this reason, many leaders perform their processing at night or at a time when the flow dies down.
Time spent processing is arguably the most valuable and productive time of your day.
While processing, you wil sort everything and distinguish Action Steps, Backburner Items, and References. With Action Steps, you wil decide what can be done quickly and what must be tracked over time by project—and possibly delegated. With other materials, you wil make judgments about what can be thrown away and what must be filed.
As you start to tackle your col ective in-box, you wil realize that
Ideal y, in your written notes you wil have kept your Action Steps separate from everything else. However, you wil stil need time for processing—going through al of your day’s notes and communications and distil ing them down to the primary elements.
For those who stil take paper notes and appreciate tangible project management, you wil want to use a tangible in-box—a general pile of stuff that has yet to be classified.
Most productivity frameworks—like David Al en’s Getting Things Done —suggest such a central clearing-house for al of the stuff that you accumulate but can’t immediately execute or file. This in-box is not a final destination, but rather a transit terminal where items await processing. During a busy day of meetings, you wil not have time to start taking action or filing things away.
How about al of the digital stuff that flows in every day? Your e-mail in-box is the primary landing spot, but information also flows into other online applications. While your tangible in-box, sitting on your desk, is singular, the digital equivalent is becoming more of a col ective. Ideal y, you should set your settings in social networks to forward messages to your e-mail in-box for the sake of aggregation. When you commit time for processing, you’l want to limit the number of places you need to visit. If you can’t aggregate the flow of e-mails and other digital communications in the same place, then you need to define the various pieces of your col ective digital in-box. For example, my col ective digital in-box includes my e-mail program (which receives messages from al other networks), a Twitter aggregator, and the in-box in my task management application (where I accept/reject stuff sent from my col eagues who use the same application—and then manage this information by project). When the time comes for processing, these are the three digital places I need to visit, along with the tangible in-box ful of papers on my desk.
As you can see, the “in-box” of the twenty-first century varies for everyone. You must concretely define your col ective in-box before you start processing. Peace of mind and productivity starts when you know where everything is. The combined in-box says, “Don’t worry, al of your stuff (and the Action Steps, Backburner Items, and References contained within) are in a defined place, waiting for you and ready to be sorted.”
If you live a digital lifestyle, your ability to process your in-box may be at particular risk without some sense of discipline. The reason: in the era of mobile devices and constant connectivity, it has become al too easy for others to send us messages. As such, our ability to control our focus is often crippled by the never-ending flow of incoming phone cal s, e-mails, text messages, and in-person interruptions—not to mention messages from other online services. Thus it is important that you avoid the trap of what I have come to cal “reactionary work flow.”
The state of reactionary work flow occurs when you get stuck simply reacting to whatever flows into the top of an in-box. Instead of focusing on what is most important and actionable, you spend too much time just trying to stay afloat. Reactionary work flow prevents you from being more proactive with your energy. The act of processing requires discipline and imposing some blockades around your focus. For this reason, many leaders perform their processing at night or at a time when the flow dies down.
Time spent processing is arguably the most valuable and productive time of your day.
While processing, you wil sort everything and distinguish Action Steps, Backburner Items, and References. With Action Steps, you wil decide what can be done quickly and what must be tracked over time by project—and possibly delegated. With other materials, you wil make judgments about what can be thrown away and what must be filed.
As you start to tackle your col ective in-box, you wil realize that
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