This week I met up
with a client who had over 150 emails in their inbox waiting for their
attention. Just the thought made me squirm with discomfort! How can you possibly respond, action,
remember or even read that many emails? How can you honestly be productive with
that much content staring you in the face?
This situation reminded me of a common problem I would
witness with consulting staff time and time again. A month would not go by without someone in
the team getting themselves in a flat spin about the pile of work in front of
them. When my Consultants found themselves in this tough situation, stressed,
overwhelmed and really not knowing where to start I would do ‘desktime’. If any old staff member is reading this now,
they will probably be having a cold shudder just at the thought. They honestly
dreaded it at the time, but loved it afterwards because they came out clear,
focused and organised.
In any job, there are often so many tasks to do and all of
them can appear urgent. It is very easy
to get lost in the detail of emails, phone calls and ‘stuff’ that distracts you
from the bigger picture goals that you are trying to achieve.
Let me start by saying I am not a micro manager. I am not interested in looking over someone’s
shoulder, critiquing and controlling their every move. Who has time for a start? I learnt that
lesson early in my leadership career that carrying everyone else’s problems and
being a control freak is
a complete waste of time and effort as well as being incredibly ineffective.
However, there have been countless occasions where a senior
staff member, and often a top performer, can get inundated with work and can
become quite upset in not knowing where to start or how to tackle what seems to
be the impossible.
1. Clear the inbox
If you’re like this client and have an overload of emails,
start by getting rid of them. Clear the inbox! Being flooded with emails is
usually the downward spiral on a slippery slope to disorganisation and feeling
out of control. As a rule, my inbox will
only have enough emails to take it to the preview line, let’s say 10 – 12. This will usually consist of new emails ready
to be actioned, or something I need to refer to that day in terms of reference
information. That’s it. Everything else has either been actioned or
deleted. My motto has been do it,
delegate it, delete it, but don’t delay it!
2. Re-prioritise & Re-organise
One afternoon in early 2002, one of my consultants was in
tears in a complete panic unsure of where to start. I spent two hours with her at her desk going
through papers, trays, resumes, client files, emails and filing systems to see
where it was going wrong. It was a
painful exercise. She was completely
disorganised. I had to bite my tongue
and avoid the lecture of how did things get like this in the first place? That
wasn’t going to help. For her, it was
difficult as she felt being exposed like this made her incompetent. We agreed that the purpose of the exercise
was to help, with good intent, find a solution to avoid getting herself in this
situation again and to re-prioritise.
3. Clean Your Space
I have always maintained a clean work-desk policy in all my
roles. At the end of every day, I would
insist that all Consultants clean their desk.
This included empty inbox, files away, work in trays etc. Apart from
just liking things neat and tidy, there is method in my madness. A clean and organised workspace has the
benefit of feeling like you’re on top of things, being clear in what needs to
be done and not being distracted by mess.
There are of course obvious benefits like being able to find things, the
cleaners could actually do their job and clean as well as the confidentiality
of not having candidate’s personal details lying around.
4. Central List
Through these situations, I learnt that sometimes people
just need to go back to basics. I strongly recommend one list – a daily to do
list (see are you busy or just ineffective?) where every task or action is
recorded (avoiding sticky notes and electronic reminders). This way there is a central point and you
don’t need to rely on your memory (which rarely works). The inbox can be cleared when there is a
central list, your in-tray should match the list with anything that needs to be
actioned and the rest should be filed and out of sight creating a clear and
organised workspace.
5. Time Out & Clear Your Thoughts
When things just seem all too much, I am a big believer in
getting up from your desk, taking a deep breath and getting some fresh
air. A walk around the block, a trip to the
mall or grabbing a coffee can seem a bit trivial, but honestly it can work
wonders. Physically removing yourself
from a situation that is causing stress or where you can’t think straight is an
easy remedy to get some immediate time out.
I would often take a notebook and pen with me, to be away from the chaos
to refresh and rewrite my priorities to re-focus on what I wanted to achieve.
These tactics were consistently successful with Consultants
over the years as they found it helpful (and painful at times!) to have someone
external to sit with, to talk to and get some clarity around “ok, what are the
priorities again”. It got to the point where ‘desktime’ was even requested!
The client with the 150 emails argued with me, telling me
that you should keep everything. It is a
record and you never know when you may need to refer back to it. I don’t disagree completely ….. but hording
hundreds of emails in an inbox is a sure fire way to miss something important
or a quality service standard.
Instead of feeling swamped by workload and looming
deadlines…clear your head, desk and inbox, reorganise
and reprioritise so you can take
control.
Nicole Underwood understands what it takes to
create, build and grow a successful business. The essential ingredient is recruiting, engaging and retaining people.
Great people. Top talent. High performers. As a previous finalist in the
prestigious Telstra Business Women Awards, a regular blogger and entrepreneur,
Nicole works with organisations to improve through results through hiring and
keeping the right people.
www.nicoleunderwood.com.au
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