QuietSpacing

QuickTip: Manufacturing Time - A Two-Fer

Paul H. Burton — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:37:48 +0000

Running from meeting to meeting and phone call to phone call is very stressful and it can be very unproductive. This is often an area I work with clients on and what follows are some ideas on how to make your day both less stressful and more productive. (Note, if you aren’t in a position that allows you to make these changes, consider forwarding this post on to someone who is!)

Leave Time Between Appointments

Imagine a wake of papers drifting to the floor behind you as you charge off to your next appointment (physical meeting, video conference, phone call, etc.). That’s what’s happening to all the thoughts and ideas you had in the apppointment you just left as you race to the next one. They’re drifting into oblivion as you try to gain purchase on the upcoming subject matter. Worse, yet, you’re still thinking about those items as you enter the next meeting, resulting in loss of attention to the topic at hand. Two birds killed with one stone - with negative results.

Try inserting just a snippet of time between appointments - five to fifteen minutes. This will allow you to capture all those trailing thoughts into a physical or electronic form, give you an opportunity to catch up on other projects in the works, and provide space for you to take a deep breath before moving forward. The net result is lowered stress, increased productivity, and a greater sense of command over your day.

Reduce Appointment Lengths By 25%

Work fills the time allotted. Not truism is more accurate in the business day. Meetings, conference calls, videocasts and the like can seem endless, sucking down valuable time that is better spent getting things done.

Try reducing meeting lengths by 25% and see what happens. Reduce a 60-minute appointment to 45 minutes or take a 30-minute meeting down to 25. (Okay, that last is not exactly 25%, but you get the idea). You’ll find that people tend to focus more specifically on the topic de jure and cut through the side trips. If you don’t get everything done, just schedule another, shortened meeting! The worse case scenario is that you run a few minutes long, but, thanks to the first suggestion above, you’ve got some leeway there.

Manufacturing Time Is Easy!

The two suggestions above are quite simple to implement. Other people may need some time to adjust to the new formats - shortened meeting lengths and spaces between appointments - but you can see that they go hand-in-hand. The net result of doing both is that you’ve actually used the same amount of time more effectively and efficiently. Consequently, you’re more productive, in greater command of your day, and feel less stress.

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The Singular Power Of “One” - Debunking The Myth Of Multi-Tasking

Paul H. Burton — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:08:47 +0000

“Multi-tasking” is part of the modern-day lexicon. In spite of scientific evidence to the contrary, people who multi-task “well” continue to be applauded as truly accomplished magicians by those of us who struggle whenever too many things compete for our attention.

The Proof’s in the Pudding

The reality is that no one multi-tasks well. Of course, some are better at it than others, but everyone is always less effective when trying to accomplish more than one thing at a time. There are plenty of readers who will object to this position and begin citing examples of multi-tasking efficiency. To prove my point, try this simple exercise that I learned from David Crenshaw’s terrific book “The Myth of Multi-Tasking.”

Take out a piece of paper and a pencil or pen.
Think of a longer word, like “impossible” which has 10 letters.
On your paper create two lines of 10 dashes each, one over the other, like this:

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

Find someone to time you or time yourself.
When your timer says “Go!,” begin spelling the word “impossible” out on the top row while alternately indicating the number that letter represents in the word in the bottom row. It’ll look like this mid-stream:

I M P ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

1 2 ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

When you’re done with the exercise on this first pass, jot down how many seconds it took you to perform it.
Now, setup the exercise exactly the same way as you did the first time, thus:

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

This time just write the word “impossible” out straight through sequentially on the top line, then write the corresponding numbers each letter represents straight through on the bottom line, so that mid-stream it looks like this:

I M P O S S ____ ____ ____

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

This is a fairly simple example of doing two things at once - spelling and numbering. In the dozens of situations I’ve used this exercise it routinely takes people about twice as long to complete the first pass as it takes to complete the second pass through. The reason is simple enough, you have to refocus your mind on a different activity each time you switch between spelling and numbering in the first pass, but you don’t incur that “switch cost” in the second pass.

Through Clarity Comes Focus

With the urban myth about multi-tasking debunked, we can now get down to business. And that business is how to truly increase your productivity and, in so doing, increase your command over your workload and your sense of success when getting more done. We all feel better when we get something done, so why not benefit from that result on the career side as well?

Attempts to multi-task negatively affect our ability to focus. Focus is at the core of productivity and accomplishment. The more we can focus, the more we get done.

Achieving and maintaining a high level of focus in the modern workplace is difficult indeed. Distractions and interruptions abound, many of them self-imposed. My work with clients often starts with unlearning numerous bad work habits that actually reduce focus and productivity even though they were promoted as more efficient! Let’s focus on those, if you’ll pardon the pun.

One is not the Loneliest Number

The exercise above points out that focusing on a singular task is more productive than trying to alternate focus between two tasks. If you have fallen prey to the multi-tasking myth but are now ready to move to a higher level of productivity and success, these suggestions will help:

Identify TODAY’S One Thing. Most of us have dozens of things on our to-do list with more coming in each day. Of course, everything is an “emergency” with an “ASAP” deadline. (Note, I have yet to find ASAP on any calendar, so I’m not sure how it can be a deadline, but that’s for another time.) A simple way to retake command of your workload is to identify the ONE thing that you WILL get done TODAY. You are determining that this is the very most important thing in your world for today. Hold yourself to that commitment and start knocking things off your list that you’ve been “meaning to get to” now for days, weeks, and months.
One Thing At A Time. This may be obvious, but if you want to increase your focus, then focus on only one thing at a time. You can accomplish this by doing several things to your workspace. First, clear a space on your desk (your whole desktop?) into which nothing but your one thing will reside while you work on it. Move your computer monitor away from this space so that it’s not a distraction or, if your one thing is on your computer, minimize all other screens and turn OFF your new e-mail alert. Finally, place your phone on Do Not Disturb and close your door. Now, you can actually DO one thing at a time! Of course, return voice mails and e-mails as soon as you come back online, but I’ll guarantee you that you’ll get that one thing done faster if you follow this simple procedure.
One More Thing. At the end of each day right before you close everything up to go home do One More Thing. One little thing - return an e-mail (ONE), a voice mail, put something away, send out a quick instruction. If you do that every work day of the year, you will do over 200 more things this year than last!

Recalibrate Your Behavior to Regain Command

Over the last 10 to 15 years, the pace at which we receive information has grown in orders of magnitude. The notion of multi-tasking arose as a method for handling all these inputs. Unfortunately, we’re just not wired that way and attempts to accomplish more than one thing at a time actually reduce our productivity and increase our stress levels.

Finding ways to increase our focus will not only increase our productivity, but it will return us to sense of command over our work and careers. Give the suggestions above a try and I wish you the best of luck!

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QuickTip: Fixing The Pavlovian E-mail Twitch

Paul H. Burton — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:31:04 +0000

Email has reduced us to the level of salivating dogs. Whether we are in the office, at home, or in the line at the grocery store, we are obsessed with checking our e-mail. Ask yourself, when was the last time you went 20 minutes without checking your e-mail or without thinking about checking your e-mail during a workday? My guess is that you can’t recall. I know I can’t.

I’m confident that the e-mail pioneers never in their wildest dreams thought we’d one day have state and federal legislation that prevented us from checking our e-mail (among other things) while driving! Do we need to be told that taking our eyes of the road while hurling two tons of metal down the road at 65 miles an hour is dangerous? Really?

Be an E-mail Support Group of One

But enough of that diatribe. Let’s turn back to some ideas on how we can each save our self from the strangle hold this new-age form of communication has on us. In my work with clients, we often linger on this love-hate relationship with e-mail. On the one hand, it’s a vital, and often effective, form of communication. On the other hand, it has created an expectation that people are always available and always responsive, a mindset that is nonsensical on its face. Yet, it persists.

So how to manage the duality that e-mail has created? My baseline response is that we need to release ourselves from its bondage and regain command of the tool. That’s a decision every user must make. Once made, slight changes in the way we manage e-mail are relatively easy to implement:

Settle on the Calendar or Tasks View. Most productivity suites, such as Outlook, Lotus Notes, and Google Apps, provide a group of interrelated tools with e-mail being one of them. There is usually also a Calendar and Tasks function in the suite, each with a separate screen or view. Because e-mail is a form of communication, I recommend that it be treated as such. Since very few people wait by the mailbox all day for letters and such to arrive, I believe that clicking to the Calendar or Tasks view of your productivity suite is a far better place to spend your time - looking at your appointments or to-dos. Surely, you must check your e-mail regularly - maybe even three or four times an hour - but there’s no reason to hang out in that screen waiting with baited breath for the next one to arrive!
Minimize The Screen. Like settling on a different view, you can also minimize the screen altogether. This is no different than closing your office door when meeting with someone. The message is not to interrupt you right now because you’re working on X. Again, you can check your e-mail as often as necessary, but you don’t have to open each and every one the minute it arrives.
Turn Away From Your Screen. Positioning your computer screen such that you can turn away from it when you are working on other things - like paperwork - is a terrific way to reduce the distraction caused by new e-mails dropping into your Inbox. Of course, I don’t need to tell you about turning off the new e-mail alert, right? But, then again, we did need that legislation…
Turn Off Your Monitor. If all else fails, take matters literally into your own hands and turn the monitor off! Besides, this is the greenest suggestion of the bunch as it uses less electricity.

Take Charge of Your E-mail; Set Yourself Free

When you decide that you control your e-mail instead of being controlled by it, you free yourself of its grip on your psyche. After you’ve taken that first step, you can implement any of the suggestions above to realize an immediate benefit from your choice.

Think I’ll go check my e-mail …

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PHBism: Personal Responsibility Is A Lifestyle Choice

Paul H. Burton — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:26:09 +0000

It is my humble opinion that much of the woes we suffer locally and globally today come from one simple fact - the abdication of personal responsibility. Color me a pessimist (I prefer “realist”), but no matter what woe befalls us, it always seems to be someone else’s fault or responsibility. Of course, when catastrophe strikes, such as the earthquakes in Haiti, we all seem to band together.

What I’m addressing is the less obvious and certainly more insidious - like our economic situation or efforts at social reform. For example, when times are good we don’t want anyone interfering with our success. But as soon as the applecart is upset, we all start pointing figures with our right hand and reaching out with our left, palm up.

The purpose of these short missives is not to chastise people or remedy faults in human nature. It is to ask you to stop and consider a single thought about how we choose to use the limited and fixed time we have together. The thought for today is that personal responsibility is a lifestyle choice. By taking the position that the results and consequences of the decisions we each make and the actions we take are our own personal responsibility, I believe we will experience two things:

How much value we can create. Taking personal responsibility generally causes people to slow down their thinking and acting. More thoughtful behaviors tend to generate better results. Value is either inherent or added. Someone who views their actions as their own tends to more clearly recognize inherent value and find ways to further the value that already exists.
How rewarding our life can feel. The sense of command and direction people feel who take ownership of their lives is empowering. Whether they follow their existing path or venture down a new one, those who take charge of things always get to drive.

The next time you launch into a diatribe about how the government is doing “X’ or big business is doing “Y,” ask yourself what you’re doing to change that fact. I posit that you’ll be surprised at what you might decide to do.

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QuickTip: The One More Thing Rule

Paul H. Burton — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:05:12 +0000

Several years ago, I was having lunch with a new client - the managing partner of a law firm - and we were talking about the struggle to just stay caught up with all the stuff coming at us each day. As the conversation continued, he mentioned to me that one of the little tips he’d developed was something called the One More Thing Rule.

Specifically, at the end of each day, right before shutting everything down and walking out of the office, he’d do one more little thing - return a quick call, send one last e-mail, etc. These little things literally took a minute or two, but in doing this one little thing, he was able get over 200 more things done each year. Yes, 200!

The Upside

I’ve incorporated this rule into my own workday and regularly recommend it to others. There are several direct benefits to this rule:

You get the aforementioned 200 extra things done.
You appear, and are, more responsive and effective.
You have a definitive way to determine when the end of the day has arrived.
You have one less niggly thing on your plate the next day.

The Downside

There are two risks inherent in adopting this rule:

You pick something that takes more than a minute or two and end up at the office much longer than expected.
You like the rule so much you fail to stop at just one.

The true purposes of the One More Thing Rule are to get you just a little more productive and to give you an identifiable point at which to end your day. If you start diving into larger efforts or do numerous things, you’re defeating both the spirit and benefit of the rule. So, take care when applying this principle and you will reap the benefit of increased productivity and the reward of getting home to your family earlier accompanied by a sense of greater accomplishment.

Time for me to go home!

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Written Requiem For A Friend Recently Lost

Paul H. Burton — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:24:33 +0000

I attended a memorial service today for a friend who succumbed to the effects of mental illness. It was a staggering loss for his family and friends, me among them. Few knew of Jeff’s struggles, which made the loss even harder to bear.

Throughout the service, many people reflected on how Jeff impacted the world around him. Two themes emerged from this recounting and I believe we can learn from them.

Orient Your Life Around Needs Versus Desires

In all the years I knew Jeff, he lived a relatively simple life. He maintained a meaningful but not overly demanding career that revolved around both the outdoor recreation and retail worlds. His work served his needs, but did not overwhelm the things most important to him: his friends and family.

Jeff was married to a lovely and kind woman. After they got married, twins came along, with one suffering from a rare developmental disorder that required extraordinary attention. Jeff and his wife made sure those needs were met and that their daughter suffered as little as possible from the exclusionary effects of disability.

With friends Jeff was equally giving. Always ready to help others, he routinely volunteered time and assistance to those who needed help with whatever project was top on the list. In his broader community, Jeff committed time and energy to troubled youth. He met the needs of others, always with a warm smile and an outstretched hand.

In the last several years, I only saw Jeff once or twice a year. Our visits were often short, most lasting less than an hour during the rush of the busy day. Yet, whenever I walked into his shop, I was always greeted with that warm smile and a, “What’s up, Pablo?” Always. And then he’d make time to have coffee or talk for a few minutes - meeting my needs to hang with him for a minute or two.

Reflecting on those times with Jeff and hearing the stories others told, it occurred to me that if we focus on our needs - our true needs - then aren’t our desires met? I’m sure Jeff struggled mightily with his illness, but I believe that when he was meeting his own needs - being with and helping others - his desires were being met.

I’m going to think really hard about what my true needs are and see if meeting them does, in fact, result in my desires also being met.

Consider The Breadth Of Success, Not Just Its Height

Success is generally viewed as a height, often referred to in that form of measure - being “on top,” reaching “the pinnacle,” having “mountains of cash,” etc. As I experienced Jeff’s service today, I began asking myself whether success might have another dimension - one of breadth. Can success be wide in addition to or instead of tall? Can someone’s success be measured in terms of affect?

The answer, of course, is yes. There are many famous people who have postively affected the lives of thousands, even millions, and they have been recognized for their efforts. Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela are two that come to mind. But why not us mere mortals? In other words, should we measure and remain cognizant of how much positive affect is occuring when considering our own success or that of others?

The answer, again, is yes. But if it’s that obvious, why don’t we? And, more imporantly, how can we?

I don’t have the answers, but I know that when we lost Jeff we lost the personification of the breadth of success.

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QuickTip: Memories Are The Currency Of Life

Paul H. Burton — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:39:04 +0000

Like most, I’m staring down the long corridor of the new year. Numerous hopes and aspirations fill my mind as I consider what 2010 may hold.

Currently, I’m in the throws of two huge development projects. The first is the implementation of an SaaS ERP platform for our online kayaking gear business - www.outdoorplay.com. The other is the finalization of the QuietSpacing(tm) On-Demand streaming video series. Once the dust settles from those efforts, I’m sure there will be other matters needing my immediate attention.

In spite of the stress and frantic pace, I often remind myself that

Memories are the currency of life

Simply stated: We have now and we had before. (We hope to have later.) Some of what we do now is what we’ll remember later. Consequently, when viewed as a continuum, the things we do that create memories are how we will gauge the success and quality of our lives. The more good memories we create, the more successful and happier we’ll feel.

So, when you’re racing headlong into the day, the week or the month, take a moment once in a while to ask yourself what you’re doing to create the kind of memories you’ll look back at and smile.

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QuickTip: Regularly Survey All That You Command

Paul H. Burton — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:30:24 +0000

I’m not that old. I grew up with microwaves and color television. When I started working full time, we had fax machines, overnight mail services and voicemail was gaining acceptance. However, as the world began to move faster and faster via technological advances like e-mail, the Internet and smartphones, our workflow processing behaviors took a turn for the worse.

The Way it Was and What’s Gone Wrong

You see, “back in the day” we started our days by looking at what had to get done … first. Then we started doing. Today, it’s the opposite. We jump to the doing - replying to e-mail and driving ahead - before considering what’s already on our plates.

The purpose of these old-school review periods was to organize and prioritize our tasks, folding into the mix our appointments and other things that needed our attention. Then we would move forward into the day and deal with what came our way. This surveying behavior was usually repeated around the lunch hour and just before going home. Functionally, we were keeping an eye on the big picture while dealing with the day-to-day details of our work.

This surveying process has largely been lost in today’s frenetic working world. We’ve become addicted to “right now” - checking our e-mail on our smartphone and constantly seeking updates on various things via the Internet. Most people have reviewed the latest e-mails that arrived overnight, often making commitments in response to them, before even reviewing what’s already on today’s to-do list! This mindset - needing to stay Über-connected and ultra-”responsive” - is dramatically affecting our productivity, as well as our piece of mind.

Retake Command of Your World

This is a subject deserving of much more than a mere missive on corrective action. Alas, I fear no one would read it due to the lack of perceived available time! Consequently, I’ll keep my directive short:

Review What’s On Your Plate Three Times Each Day - Morning, Noon and Night

This is just common sense, but it’s not generally followed very much anymore. All I’m suggesting is that people review the commitments they’ve already made before jumping in to the next batch of requests (e-mail, voice mails, meetings, etc.). The more you know about your existing level of commitment, the better-able you’ll be to accurately judge and manage new commitments. Moreover, when you start with “What’s on my plate?” you are taking command of your world. When you’re waiting with baited breath of the next e-mail to land in your Inbox, you’re at the mercy of others. It’s neither productive, nor enjoyable.

Just take a few minutes first thing in the morning, at mid-day, and just before going home to conduct a complete survey of everything on your desk or in your Inbox. Consider what, if anything, needs to be re-prioritized and feel good about the things you’ve checked off the list. In the end, you’ll see that this old-school behavior still drives terrific results in this modern-day world.

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Productive Leadership: The Anatomy of Effective Decision Making

Paul H. Burton — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:36:58 +0000

Before getting started on the substance of this post, I must give credit where credit is due. Much of the conceptual framework for this post is based on a fabulous article penned by Mary Goulet and published in Speaker magazine in April 2008. I found the content so compelling and clearly stated that I wanted to share it with my readers. Any praise you have for that part of this material must definitely be directed to Ms. Goulet.

The Difficulty of Making Decisions

We all struggle with decisions. Whenever there are options presented to us, we must always choose a path down which to go or fail to choose, which is still making a decision. The attendant risks of decision making engender stress and confusion in everyone - the more important the choice, the greater the stress endured. Yet, day in and day out, we continue to make decisions and weave our way through life.

What if there was a better, more straight-forward way to make decisions? What if we could greatly reduce the anxiety we experience when faced with options - both in our personal and professional lives? What if we could train ourselves to be more effective and efficient (and accurate) in our decision making?

The Body Parts Involved

Of course, all decisions are “made” in the mind. However, Ms. Goulet smartly identified three separate parts of the body that participate in all decision making - both euphemistically and literally. They are the Head, the Heart and the Gut. Though we could quibble endlessly about whether “gut” is really “intuition” and “heart” is really “emotion,” I like the sharp physicality of Ms. Goulet’s selectiosn and will stick with them here.

The Head

The Head brings analytical thinking to the mix. What are the facts and what do they mean in this situation? What else do I need to know about this decision? How will this play out and what are the risks of failure? What are the benefits?

The conscious mind loves to delve into these details and turn them around and around to see what shakes out. In fact, analysis paralysis - getting so caught up in the analysis that no decision is made - can result from too much “figuring.”

There has been and will always be a place for analytical thinking. The most valuable application of this type of thinking is in discovering new things. In fact, I would posit that much of what is called inspiration is often the result of dogged analysis - How can I make this better? or What else could be done to improve this process?

The big risk the Head brings to leadership decision making is over-thinking the situation and engaging in inefficient (and often ineffective) analysis. Facts are facts. No amount of analyzing them will change them. All decisions are fraught with the risk of choosing the wrong option. An extended analysis of those facts/options does not measurably change the inherent risk in the choice. Fear must be overcome, not accepted.

The Heart

The Heart contributes emotion to the process. Our hopes, dreams, and desires all deserve a nod in most every decision - personal and professional. The problem with “listening to your heart” is that the Heart is fickle. Our emotions change constantly, day by day, minute by minute. If we actually listened to the Heart all the time, we’d end up with a different version of indecision - ping ponging back and forth between options.

The lack of clarity this communicates to others is very harmful in any group dynamic, either family or professional. It is also hugely inefficient as people begin reacting to one decision only to have a second, countermanding decision issue later. This occurs even within an individual as your efforts in one direction become largely wasted if a different direction is later chosen.

Success comes from moving forward in a single direction with a concerted effort. Succumbing to fickle emotion produces a lack of clarity and diminished results.

The Gut

This is the part of Ms. Goulet’s framework that I especially liked. For me, it turned on the proverbial light bulb. I experienced one of those epiphanic “Aha” moments that we all enjoy so much. Here’s what she said:

The Gut delivers the decision. There no fuss, no muss, just a decision. Many times it’s that very decision that the Head and the Heart are working so hard to overrule. In fact, much of the energy expended in decision making is actually the efforts of the Head and the Heart to change the Gut’s decision.

It can also be said that many of us lose the decision in this cacophony of noise created by the Head and the Heart! That is, the decision is usually short and sweet, terse even. Moreover, there are rarely fireworks involved because the decision is simply a choice. It’s not a discovery. Thus, all of the analysis and all of the histrionics associated with decision making can be categorized as subterfuge, an attempt to blur and obfuscate the underlying correct decision being proffered by the Gut.

Worse, though, are the consequences of falling victim to this game played by the Head and Heart. We’ve all made decisions we’ve regretted. Many of them were clearly wrong in hindsight. Yet, the logic or emotion at the moment of decision seemed so very clear! Our minds are powerful tools and they are weapons that we use against ourselves if care is not taken.

Five-Word Decisions

As stated above, most decisions are concise statements:

Let’s purchase it.
This is not a good opportunity.
She’s the right person.
I trust him.

In fact, by their very nature as choices between divergent paths, most decisions can be stated in less than five words. Consequently, we need to seek out the five-word answers our Gut is communicating to us whenever a decision must be made.

No fanfare accompanies these decisions. Yet, they are some of the most important decisions we make as leaders and humans. Getting caught up in the hysteria of decision making reduces our ability to make good decisions. Learning to listen to the Gut - that quiet, firm, clear provider of the path to take - takes some practice. The most effective way to do this is to clear your mind (and physical world) of all distractions for just a minute or two. Then, instead of “thinking” about the decision, listen for the Gut to give it to you.

More Efficient, More Effective and Less Stressful

The benefits of learning to hear, then trust, your Gut’s decisions means that you’ll make those decisions more quickly, which is more efficient. You’ll also make them more firmly, which is more effective. And, finally, you’ll make them with less stress because of the trust you have developed in your Gut.

Will all those decisions be correct? Probably not, but they’ll be as or more often correct than the current mechanisms you’re using to make decisions and it will provide the additional benefits listed above in the process.

Good luck!

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Six Tips To Higher E-mail Productivity

Paul H. Burton — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:29:18 +0000

This is a short segment of a presentation I recently delivered on how to improve your e-mail productivity. The topics covered include:

Turning off your new e-mail alerts.
Batch processing your e-mail.
Subject line naming conventions.
One subject per e-mail.
Reducing the use of Reply All.
Drag & Drop functionality.

I hope you find something useful - Watch on!

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