This week’s post is a little different. I’ll be sharing a video recording with you of a coaching session I recently participated in with my friend and colleague, Stacey Barr.

Stacey is a Performance Measure Specialist, Creator of PuMP and Author of Prove IT! and Practice Performance Measurement, about measuring workplace urgency. You can find out more about Stacey here.

In this session, Stacey facilitated me through two of PuMP’s KPI techniques, Measurability Tests and Measure Design, to help me develop some meaningful measures of workplace urgency.

Download Transcript

It was a fantastic process in learning more about how to measure workplace urgency and will be used to assist in the writing of my new book, working title, The Urgency Trap.

Enjoy the insights!

I’m a massive music fan and recount my childhood and life through the classics that I grew up listening to during the seventies, eighties and beyond. I get energy from listening to music, and often escape there when I need to recharge.  

I left my record collection behind in Ireland when I came to Australia in 1993. On a trip back a few years later, I found out that my best mate had sold my albums for beer money. Oh well, at least it was for a good cause. Since then I have rebuilt my collection, first on CD, but over the last few years using digital streaming.  Then modern subscription services meant I could basically rent my music. This has been brilliant because I could download obscure albums just for one or two songs at minimal cost.  As such, I have always been a strong advocate for digital music over old school records. 

In fact, even though I grew up listening to records, I just didn’t get the vinyl revival that’s been occurring over the last few years. Then things changed when my friends bought me a high-quality turntable for my 50th birthday. Within days I was hooked. I got it. I understood the difference and can now appreciate both ways of consuming music. 

What I realised is that while digital music is easy to access and play, the sound quality is just OK. Like having a quick after work beer with my mates.  On the other hand, vinyl is harder to access but has a much higher sound quality.  And it’s not just the quality, it’s much more of an experience.  More like a fine whisky consumed while contemplating life. 

I was reflecting on this recently as I listened to a new LP (U2, The Joshua Tree) and I realised that the analogy went further. The boys got me a quality turntable, but it’s not automatic. By that I mean that when the arm gets to the end of a side, it does not automatically go back to its resting place.  

It dawned on me that this was all part of the experience. Because it did not automatically return, I had to stay present, to stay engaged with the music. I could not just put it on in the background and go off and do something else.  

In a world full of instant gratification and constant activity, do we value our time less? Maybe. We are at risk of putting a premium on being busy, and not enough of a premium on being present and engaged. And too much urgency is one sign that this is the case. We are not making enough time to slow down and go deep on our work. Not taking enough time to plan and think. We have too many urgent things to attend to.  

I’m not saying that we should slow down altogether. I still love my digital music and listen to that most of the time. But I also carve out time to put on a vinyl and listen. Likewise, we need to get lots of stuff done, and deal with the urgency, but we also need to make time for the slower, deeper work. We also need workplaces and leadership teams that will permit this.  

Those of you who have experienced the Smart Work training will know that I advocate and use a date-activated task management system. This simply means I forward schedule my tasks in lists for today, tomorrow, this week, next week and so on, and I do this all with minimal fuss in MS Outlook. This works well for me most of the time and enables me to manage the things I need to do in a proactive way, rather than leaving things until they become urgent.

But every now and then I have a particularly busy period with training delivery or travel, and my ‘Today’ task list begins to pile up, often with lots of red, overdue tasks. When this happens, it can feel like a bit of a weight on my shoulders, which stops me from functioning as effectively as I should. So, this is what I do.

I devote some time to getting on top of my task list. This does not mean that I plough through it trying to get as many things done as I can. It means I make decisions. I run my task list through the 4D filter which many of you would be familiar with when managing incoming emails and communications. I review my task list and work out which ones I can Dump, Divert and Decide When, leaving just the ones that I feel I need to do today (Do it Now).

Dump
Looking at the tasks that have piled up in my list, I work out if I can kill any of them because they are not a priority anymore, they are not relevant anymore, or they have been completed in some way.

Divert
I then work out which ones I could divert away from myself. Which ones should I delegate to get them moving? Which should I push back and negotiate with others? It is amazing how many things creep into my list that on reflection are not actually the best use of my time. I just become a bottleneck for this work, which serves nobody.

Decide When
I then review what can be put off until another date because they are not pressing. I often use next week or next month as ‘horizons’ that I reschedule non-critical tasks over. This ensure I don’t forget them, but I don’t have to think about them now.

Do it Now
Finally, I’m left with the things that I feel are a good use of my time today. This process often culls a task list of 20-30 tasks down to six or eight critical priorities. It feels like I have taken a weight off my shoulders, and I am better able to get what I need to do done.

So, if you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by your task list, take a few minutes to re-evaluate and make some decisions.

I recently avoided a potentially calamitous situation because I choose to operate in a proactive way. 

I’m checking in at Sydney International Airport for a long-haul flight to the US, and the check-in agent advises me that there is no visa attached to my passport.  That can’t be right I’m thinking.  While packing the day before I checked both my passport and the visa, and both were most certainly current.  In fact, my passport was new, and the visa still had about a year to go. 

What the check-in agent said next filled me with dread. “You need a visa linked to your new passport sir.  It’s not showing up in the system.”  With those words, I began to feel the cold dreadful stirrings of panic creeping up my legs.  It dawned on me that the visa I had was attached to my old passport, not this new one.   

So here I am at the airport, heading half-way around the world to work with a new client, and I don’t have a valid visa. 

Fortunately, this is a very common mistake travellers make, and my check–in agent was able to offer a potential solution.  “There is a Flight Centre office by check-in zone G.  They should be able to apply online for you.” 

So, with my heart in my mouth, off I went.  I explained my predicament to a lovely young man called Dan.  He said that while visas can take up to 72 hours, today they had been coming through in about 30 minutes. I asked him how he was so sure about this, and he told me I was the seventh person today so far with the same problem!   

What Dan said next made me feel SO HAPPY about my proactive ways. He said, “Luckily you’ve arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare.  Many people arrive so last minute that there is absolutely nothing we can do.”  

The thing is, it wasn’t luck.  Instead of sailing as close to the wind as possible, I packed the day before.  I made sure my calendar was clear on the day.  And I booked a taxi which I knew would get me to the airport three hours prior, as recommended by the airline.   

So, being proactive saved my bacon.  Thirty minutes later, I had my visa and off I went.  Being proactive meant that when I found myself in a highly urgent situation, disaster was avoided.  That pre-departure champers has never tasted so good!   Who knows how large the fallout would have been if I hadn’t made my flight?  I hate to think. 

So, how often do you sail as close to the wind as you possibly can?  And not just at airport on a travel day, but what about in the office? 

People often ask me the best way to manage their priorities when out and about or on the road. Most of us have phones or tablets that sync our email and calendars, and although these apps are always going to be lightweight compared to a tool like MS Outlook, they still do a reasonable job of helping us to stay on top of things when away from our desk.

The question of mobile productivity usually revolves around how to manage tasks and priorities on our mobile devices. The good news is that our devices will usually sync with our task list in Outlook, but which app you use on your device will depend on your organisation and the restrictions they might have in place. Here are some options:

Android devices 

For those using Android devices, tasks in Outlook will usually sync to the Calendar app on the phone. This does depend on the phone itself, but I usually find that there is a Tasks view in the Calendar that should automatically sync with your Outlook tasks.

iPhones and iPads

Reminders 

The default task app on the iPhone/iPad is called Reminders. The Reminders app has the ability to run several separate task lists, and one of them is called ‘Tasks’. This is usually the one that syncs with Outlook. In some organisations this syncing will be disabled for security reasons, especially if the organisation tries to keep everything that syncs with Outlook in a secure environment. In this case your email and calendar may have to be accessed through the Outlook app on the phone. The problem with this is there is no task function in the Outlook app. See next point if this is the case.

To Do App

For those using Office 365, you will have access to the To Do app. This is a part of Office 365, and you should find that your tasks will sync to this automatically, although you may have to install the app from your Office 365 online portal. One of the challenges with the To Do app is that it does not use Start Dates for tasks, so any tasks that you enter into the app will show up in a group called ‘No Date’ if you are using the Smart Work task system. It is simple enough to then schedule them properly when back at your desk. Otherwise, it’s a simple and effective task management app.

TaskTask 

This has been my go-to task app for a number of years. It is an app that you must purchase through the App Store, and it will not function in many organisations because of security restrictions. But if it does work, it is the best of the bunch. It is clean, simple and is the only app to allow you to access and see emails that are attached to tasks.

I reckon it is worth having a play with the apps mentioned above, and to work out which will work best in your situation. It can be really helpful to be able to see your task list when in meetings or travelling, and to add to it when you think of a new action.

I recently bought an e-bike – easily the best fun I’ve had in years. It’s been a while since I was on a bicycle. I grew up riding them in Dublin through my childhood and teenage years, but as an adult, cycling left me a bit cold. It was the hills that killed me, I absolutely loathed the effort it took to get up even the slightest incline and especially disliked having to get off and push. But an e-bike solves this problem as it helps you get to the top with a lot less effort.

For those not in the know, an e-bike is a bicycle with a motor that supplements your pedal power. It’s definitely not a motorbike. It has a motor, but it only augments your peddling, so you still need to do most of the work most of the time. It just evens out the harder parts, like hills, making cycling more enjoyable for novices like me.

Recently a workshop participant expressed concerns about making the move from his paper task list to using tasks in MS Outlook. It’s not that he was resistant to technology, or dismissive of a new approach. He had a considered and valid concern. He told me that the paper system he used, and had used for many years, forced him to re-evaluate his priorities each day as he rewrote his list and transferred any unfinished actions forward. He was worried he would lose this excellent discipline if he switched to a tool like Outlook which automatically rolls tasks forward if they’re not marked completed.

We talked about this, and how MS Outlook augments my planning and prioritising. It does not do it for me. Just like my e-bike augments my effort if I need some help. If you use powerful electronic tools like Outlook together with a good planning process, Outlook helps do the heavy lifting for you, and can also do things that no paper-based list can do (like attaching emails to your tasks). It helps “even out the hills” as it were.

So, if you’re using the calendar in Outlook to manage your meetings but are still hanging on to your paper to-do list, maybe now is a good time to embrace the electronic task tools also at your fingertips. But whether you are using an electronic task list, or a paper list, both need a strong planning and prioritisation process to ensure they keep you focused on the right things at the right time.

Right, now on your bikes and back to work!

Much of my time is spent helping people manage their email more efficiently. But, as I’ve said many times before, the point of this work is not just to help people get their inboxes under control. It is to help them get their heads out of their inboxes and into more important and strategic work.

I reckon managers and leaders need to spend some of this freed-up time engaging and influencing key stakeholders in their network, whether that be their boss, their team, or their peers. Great work gets done with and through other people. Mother Theresa once said, “I can do things you cannot; you can do things I cannot; together, we can do great things.”

But don’t be fooled into thinking that the time you spend in meetings with your key people is true engagement. Or time spent writing emails to them is going to influence or inspire them. Sure, you’re “interacting’” with them, but to truly engage these people, to build actual relationships with them, you need to carve out both the brain space and the time for more informal conversations that really get to the heart of issues and opportunities.

This is a concept I talk to a lot of leadership teams about. Reducing the amount of time spent in formal meetings, or in front of the inbox, and creating the space for more informal discussions is critical for success. Whilst this always resonates with senior leaders, I think it is relevant to all of us. No matter what your role, you will get more of the important work done if you a purposeful about truly engaging the people around you.

So, do you carve out the time and brain space needed to truly engage with others, or are you swamped by meetings and emails?

When I’m at my most productive, I’m focused and organised, and the world around me is friction-free. However, this was not the case recently when I tried to park my car before presenting at a team offsite.

My client contact had sent me a map of parking in the area of their new building. She suggested a car park in a neighbouring building which all seemed very straightforward.

I pulled into the car park entry and drove up to the boom gate. Only then did I see that the car park was pre-book only, which meant I was supposed to book online before arriving (Friction #1). There was no other way of getting entry. So, I had to back out, requiring the car behind me to back out too (Friction #2).

I grabbed my phone and went to the car park website. To book a spot, I needed to sign up as a member, which was not easy or straightforward (Friction #3). Eventually, I got my membership confirmation email and went to sign in and book a spot. It would not accept my password! (Friction #4). Finally, I downloaded their phone app, which did let me sign in. I booked a spot and off I went back to the boom gate.

Of course, it was not that simple. When I entered my code, the machine told me I had booked a time starting that night! In my state of stress, I had chosen the wrong time. Out I backed again (Friction #5). I calmly went online again, booked the right time, and headed back to the boom gate. This time it worked and I got in, making it to my presentation with just a few minutes to spare.

Then there’s everything that happened when I tried to leave the car park. When I finally escaped, it felt like I had been through an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Now I’m an intelligent man, and well able to navigate in this technology driven world. So why did my experience have to be so hard and full of friction? I would suggest a poorly designed process or system, and not enough communication for new users. I’m sure it will be easier next time I go there. But the system was not designed to be easy to use, and you only find that out when you are already in the boom gate tunnel.

So, there’s my rant for the week. But it is more than that. This should serve as an opportunity to reflect on the processes and systems we use in the workplace, and to question whether they cause us friction when we are trying to get our important work done. Are you frustrated by poorly designed processes or workflows? Do your colleagues cause you friction when they send you emails, interrupt you, call meetings or collaborate on projects? Do you cause them friction?

There will always be a measure of productivity friction when we work in complex workplaces, but we should not be victims of this friction. We should show leadership when we spot unnecessary friction and raise it with our team. We should build a culture that constantly strives to remove the friction from our work so that everyone benefits and can work in flow.

The challenge can be that we are all too busy to do anything about these issues, so we all just keep busily working in a less than effective way.

So, what are you going to do the next time you get frustrated by unnecessary friction? If you cannot fix the friction, I have found writing an article is very therapeutic!

Many of you will know that I am a big fan of the ‘Inbox Zero’ way of working. A good friend recently challenged this idea and suggested that having an empty inbox was not necessarily an indicator of productivity.  

I totally agree. 

You can spend your whole day clearing emails and regularly get to zero.  But that does not mean you have worked productively.  For me, the point of operating with an empty (or near empty) inbox, is to free up more time and energy to work on the things that really matter.  

It is true that some people who get to zero regularly are more obsessed about clearing emails than focusing on what’s really important.  But the most effective Inbox Zero practitioners spend much less time in their inbox than their colleagues.  

They do this by becoming ruthless in their email management. Firstly, they reduce the email noise that comes at them every day. They get off lists, they proactively deal with junk, and they manage CC’s and Reply All conversations very carefully. They also become ruthless in making decisions about what needs to happen with every email. They don’t just leave stuff for later – they make decisions and put things in the most appropriate place, depending on whether it needs action, needs storage or needs throwing out. 

Finally, they ruthlessly carve out time every day to keep on top of the deluge. They know if they don’t, they become a bottleneck for others, and personally overwhelmed. But they don’t spend hours everyday doing this. They carve out an appropriate amount of time for email, and then get on with the real priorities. 

For many people money is an indicator of success. I don’t subscribe to this viewpoint, but I do believe money makes things easier. It gives you freedom to choose, which is its real power. Likewise, Inbox Zero is not an indicator of productivity. But it does give you clarity, focus and the freedom to spend more time on the things that count. 

Are you prepared to change your email habits to achieve this? 

It finally happened! I was asked at the checkout in my local supermarket if I had a senior’s card! How bad is that? I’m 51, but in my head see myself as a shade over 40. I keep in shape, and beside some follicle challenges, don’t think I look too bad for my age. But the young woman behind the counter had a different perception of me. To her, I was more like a shade over 60. Oh well, I had better get used to it, as it’s all downhill from here.

I have talked about your productivity brand in previous newsletters (see here). How you manage yourself, your time and your work portray a brand that others judge. I wonder if there is a gap between how you perceive your productivity brand, and how others perceive it? Do you think of yourself as really organised, whereas your peers think ‘Yeah, not so much’? Do you believe that you always work proactively, but others experience you as a bit reactive? Do you pride yourself as being on top of every detail, but your team see you as a micro-manager?

Building awareness around how others actually see you and your behaviours is critical if you want to perform in today’s workplace. The starting point is to take a good look in the mirror and ask yourself if your productivity habits are as up to date and effective as you might like to think. Is there room for improvement? What would it take for you to build a better productivity brand?

It might also be a good idea to ask a trusted few how they perceive your way of working. What do they feel you could tweak to build a better brand? Many senior executives contact me to undertake coaching or training because they have received feedback that their brand is being tarnished by a handful of unhelpful behaviours that are easy to fix.

Our workplace is constantly changing. The habits that held us in good stead ten years ago might not cut the mustard now. We need to keep evolving our systems, processes and habits to ensure we are working as effectively as possible.

Right, I’m off to work on some strategies to look younger again. I was thinking about some hair dye but realise I don’t have enough hair to make it work! Any ideas will be gratefully received.