Less-Is-More Blog by Pierre Khawand

It seems that many of the people we talk to fall in one of these two categories. Either they spend too much time on organizing (these are the persistent few) or they have largely given up on organization (the more common scenario) and they feel out of control most of the time. Is there however an optimum amount of organization that would be feasible for most of us and yet give us the best return?

This graph, which resembles to some degree the Results Curve(tm) graph that I have been teaching in our Accomplishing More With Less workshop and workbook, describes the returns that we get from the time spent on organization, and below are some related note:

• There is a minimum amount of organization that we all need, and without it, our lives are likely to be chaotic, stressful, and unfulfilled. 
   
• The minimum amount of organization is a lot less than what you might think, and if done strategically, it is likely to bring big returns. 
   
• There is an optimum amount of organization that if we go beyond it, we would be doing so at the expense of more important activities and therefore incur a very high opportunity cost.
   
• Both lack of organization as well as organizing beyond the optimum point are equally disadvantageous. While Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, authors of A Perfect Mess, suggest that disorder is far more advantageous than order (and that most organizational systems are a waste of time), I wouldn't go that far. I promote an optimum level or organization which I also believe is different for each person.

Your to-do's

1. Reflect on where you are on the organizational curve above and find out where you are on this scale. 
    
2. If you think you are under-organized, identify an area where some additional organization would give you high returns and act on it. 
    
3. If you think you are over-organized at the expense of more important initiative and activities, identify an area where you can reduce your effort and make room for more strategic things. 
    
4. Keep an eye on organizational tips and see what might work for you. Subscribe to this blog and to similar ones and contribute your comments and get engaged!
   

When technology gets in the way, work life can become inefficient, things can take longer, and most importantly the opportunity cost rises. Instead of focusing on the next marketing campaign, or strategizing on the next customer win, we find ourselves waiting for the computer to recover from a sudden crash, or being significantly slowed down by the computer poor performance-and resorting to restarting it all together which on my Windows Vista machine would take 10 to 15 minutes.

Will Windows 7 be the answer?

Apple users would say Apple is the answer, but if you don't to go that far and many of us can't go that far, I am pleasantly surprised by Windows 7, and so far it is demonstrating that it may be the answer. 

The upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 was seamless and it seems as if a new life has been injected into the computer. While I still need more time to confirm these findings, but I have to say that many of the performance issues and some of the awkward behaviors that Windows Vista displayed are no longer an issue.

Technology & productivity go hand in hand

In my work with business professionals, I emphasize that accomplishments are mostly the results of strategic thinking and channeling our resources in the areas that are most promising--among other things. In addition however, I emphasize that the way we use technology has a significant impact on how much we accomplish. My belief is that technology alone doesn't necessarily lead to accomplishments, however, technology is a key enabler when it is working well, and when it is not working well, it can be an obstacle. So yes, technology and productivity go hand in hand.

What could the takeaways be?

1. Reflect on your technologies and your tools and see if they are serving as key enablers or if they are becoming obstacles. 
    
2. Identify the areas where you can apply new technologies or tools and get the biggest returns. 
    
3. To help you identify the returns, take into account the opportunity cost. What would you be able to do if you weren't spending or wasting time in these technologies or tools. 
    
4. Put a plan for addressing one of these technologies or tools issues soon. This could be one of your holiday gift to yourself!
   

This is the first post in what is likely to become a series of reflections on the role of e-mail and Social Media today and the upcoming years.

After 15 years of internet, is e-mail hanging on by a weak thread?

E-mail is overused and even abused, and users' mailboxes are congested--worse than traffic in the busiest metropolitan areas of the world. People are tired of scrolling up and down the inbox and many stopped looking at, and not to mention responding to, e-mail messages except for the urgent messages from their bosses or customers. Reaching people via e-mail (unless you are their boss or customer) has become quite challenging. It is "extreme" e-mail fatigue that we are suffering from. So many things fall through the cracks and so many inefficiencies are invading the work place and our personal lives. Does this sound like "chaos"? Well it is!

Is Social Media taking over?

While Web 2.0 tools (such as blogs, wikis, and Microsoft SharePoint) are emerging as the better alternatives for collaboration and information sharing, in this post, I am interested in focusing on the Social Media platforms and reflecting on their relationship to e-mail today and in the future.

Social media is the new kid on the blog (relatively new compared to good old e-mail).  People are still excited about the Social Media platforms. Even though these platforms are quite busy, they tend to be less intrusive than e-mail, and they give users the ability to scan the feed casually and jump in and respond only when they desire to do so. The expectations are less while the reach is much broader. And these platforms provide messaging functionality (similar to e-mail and Instant Messaging) which seem to get more attention and better response time than the traditional e-mail. 

And now the questions about the future of e-mail and social media

• Where do you see the future of e-mail versus Social Media? 
   
• Will it get to our work life as well (having more structured enterprise Social Media platforms that would include collaboration and social media all in one within the firewall)? 
   
• Will the traditional "public" e-mail approach eventually go away?
  What do you think of this hypothetical chart showing how the time spent on e-mail (and therefore the role of e-mail) will diminish over the next few years while the time spent on Social Media will increase. E-mail me YOUR  version of this chart (training@people-onthego.com):

Graph: Hypothetical hours spent per week on E-mail versus Social Media!

In the past, it used to be e-mail and meetings that consumed everyone's time, and now it is e-mail, meetings, and social media, and not necessarily in this order. For years, in our workshops, we talked about the e-mail overload, and taught ways to overcome the e-mail overload, and now we are broadening the scope to include social media.

So how do you reduce the social media overload?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Be Strategic: Don't just be there, but be there with a clear purpose.
   
• Follow the relevant people: Those that add value and not just chatter. 
   
• Stay on brand: One of Jason Alba's advice that I keep re-iterating. 
   
• Reuse: Create high value content and reuse it in all platforms, you know they now all link to each other, so you can more easily leverage your content in multiple platforms. 
   
• Time yourself: Don't just be there indefinitely, make it 5, 15, or 40 minutes (again with a clear purpose) 
   
• Don't treat it like a homework (especially twitter): You don't have to keep up with what happened when you were gone. What happened before is mostly old news by now. 
   
• Remember that the time you spend on it needs to be proportional to the number of people you have in your network (otherwise, it is better investing time to growing your network).

Say "yes" to social media, "but" keep it well under control following the time management tips described above!

If we are unsure what to do, or hesitant to take on the next important and challenging task, consciously or subconsciously, what do we end up slipping into?

Into our e-mail inbox!

E-mail is "great" (or not so great) that way! It gives us this immediate satisfaction of getting something done and feeling good.  Does it sound like an addition? It is. And like any addition, the feeling good doesn't last too long, and we seek more of it to bring back that feeling, but what happens is that we get increasingly and chronically "e-mail fatigued."

So what can we do about it?

• How about becoming more purposeful and more intentional, and instead of resorting to e-mail (or Twitter-which is e-mail on steroid one might say), resorting to a few minutes of stopping and strategic thinking to really identify something meaningful to do. 
   
• How about we take on the challenging task first instead of e-mail first. Let e-mail be the reward (if it can be called a reward) instead of being the pre-requisite. When we take on the challenging task first, we learn and develop. We also prompt the issues and bring ourselves to face the issues. As a result we feel more accomplished and we contribute more significantly to our team and organization! 
   
• How about we disconnect for a bit (from e-mail, and even the web if applicable) and just focus on moving forward this important and strategic program or initiative. Adam. S. Christensen (our guest speaker, at the Gen X in Action webinar recently--recording available) said "I get the best work done when I am disconnected". Try it out and see for yourself!

Whatever it is for you (E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever else)  what are you going to do about it? Put it on the side for a bit, maybe even "disconnect", and get engaged into something more purposeful!

Environmentally aware consumers are producing less waste by practicing the "3 Rs": Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. When it comes to productivity and accomplishments, we can use these same guidelines and reap some enormous benefits:

Reduce = Reduce the scope

Follow the 80/20 rule which says "80% of our results come from 20% of our effort". Reduce the scope of most tasks by focusing on the core parts that produce the highest returns, and reduce or even eliminate the parts that are less impactful.

Reuse = Reuse what you do

Work on items that have multiple "applications" and that can be leveraged in many ways. If you are creating a marketing collateral for instance, could it be used on the website and on the blog. But don't stop here! Why not include an excerpt and a link to the blog entry in your newsletter. 

Recycle = Recycle the useful parts

Reflect on the projects and activities that you do, and see if you can identify components that can be repurposed. It maybe the actual content, the logic, or the process that can be adapted or re-engineered and then redeployed.

Try them out and report back

With applying the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle principles to managing your priorities and tasks, you are likely to discover valuable time management tips, streamline your getting organized effort, and even succeed at better managing stress!

Whehter your are delivering online courses as part of a corporate training program, a keynote speech at a virtual conference, or marketing and sales webinars to promote your products and services, here are some pointers for making your webinar successful:

Starting with some simple but important logistics

• Provide a support number, especially for 1st time users
• Provide a backup plan, like a recorded version
• If more than 10 or 15 participants, put people on mute
• Use the "raise their hand" and/or "chat/question" panels to manage interactions
• If you can, have a moderator (other than you) monitor/handle the audience questions

Remember that "Content is Still King"

• Content is still king, nothing will make up for mediocre content
• Live demos are much better than static slides
• Visuals like images and charts are far better than just text
• Let the session tell a story, and create some suspense whatever the topic is
• Include some polls, get some interaction going
• Make it short & sweet, 45 minute to 1 hour
• Include a short break if longer than 1 hour
• Talk with a smile and with energy, like it is the most exciting content and it is the first time you deliver it

And after the Webinar

• Get immediate feedback via web survey, or else you might never get it
• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!
• Adjust and do it again!

Happy Webinar-ing!

Something unique happens when we dive into and fully commit our energy to one task while letting everything else fade in the background. This forces us to go deeper and prompt us into moving the issues forward, into finding solutions, or even making breakthroughs. This is likely to unleash new levels of creativity, resourcefulness, and capabilities we may not even know we have.

"But why don't we do this more often (working on one thing at a time)?" one might ask. Maybe because, while committing to one task is liberating, it is also frightening at the same time. It is frightening because we would have to face the challenges and fears that come with this task--or project, or issue. This includes the fear of not knowing, the fear of failure, and the fear of success. This also means facing procrastination and acting against our strong tendency of taking the path of least resistance.

So what would happen if we commit to this "one thing at a time" and face the challenges and fear that come with it? This is what is likely to happen:

a) We learn more, develop more, and gain more experience. As a result, not only we feel accomplished--something we are largely deprived of in today's everything-overload era, but we are also likely to achieve greater results over time and reap the benefits.

b) We accelerate the progress and make things happen faster-probably much faster than what multi-tasking can ever buy us. We are likely to get to the core issues and get there much sooner. We are likely to prompt decisions and actions which we would otherwise avoid or delay. This means we shorten the time to market and capture the windows of opportunities. In other words, we gain time--the next best thing to discovering the "fountain of youth".

c) We set precedence. This task, project, or issues that we face will be now on the "I can do it" list. Our subconscious has witnessed it which is very disarming for any related doubts and negative self-talk. The world has witnessed it which means it is now on our track record. Next time, not only we are ready to do it again, but probably take it a step further. The process continues to feed on itself.

These are important ingredients for feeling good, feeling accomplished, and being happy. So happiness is "working at one thing at a time" and is a choice!

So how do you turn the above into action? Let me know by adding your comment below!

You have this report to write, or presentation to prepare, or project plan to put into place. It is daunting. Too many parts to it. Too many issues to think about. You find yourself deferring it and feeling a little anxious when you think about it. It is just too big of an undertaking, and/or a sign of procrastination, and/or a sign of wanting it to be nothing less than perfect . You end up delaying it until there is no room for delaying any further. Then it becomes a high pressure situation. In addition, work quality suffers. If other urgent demands come up at the same time, and they will, then you've got one of these "situations" on hand.

The power of working in iterations and helping better manage such a project or task could involve the following:

Iteration #1

Give yourself permission to spend, let us say 40 minutes, to do a brain dump relating to the project or task (let us call it project for now). Remind yourself that this is just a brain dump and not go into analysis or conclusions yet. Capture related issues, ideas, worries, whatever else comes to your mind. Don't worry about organizing or ordering yet. Include a list of potential resources that you may have access to or would like to have access to. Be creative! Be bold! Dare to put down freely what comes to your mind!

Iteration #2

Leave the above alone for a bit. This may be an hour or two, or a day or two, depending on the magnitude of this project. This will allow the mind to absorb the information and do its own background work on it. It may be quite beneficial to engage in some creative work or physical exercise type activities during this time.

Iteration #3

Take another stab at it. This can also be yet another 40 minute session. In this iteration, you may add additional thoughts, and your mind may have already come up with new and interesting ideas on how to approach the project. Capture them and then move into organizing your thoughts and get them ready to take action. This probably means breaking down what needs to get done into manageable components that you can then schedule on your calendar, and/or delegate to others.

Iteration #4

Now that you have a plan, start execution according to plan. If possible and applicable, involve others. Setup a dry run or a review session with the people who could provide meaningful input, and who might have some stake in the success of this project. Create a deadline that can help you focus your energy and motivate you to get things moving.

Iteration #5

Give yourself time to refine, gather more input, and go for the final victory.

Of course customize the above as you see fit. Don't forget to stop and celebrate victory against procrastination and perfectionism, before you start the next project or task!

You have this long to-do list, and items keep getting added to it, and the list gets longer and longer. So what do you do? Here are three suggestions that can help.

First: Acknowledge and accept the fact that this "overgrown to-do list" phenomena is a "reality" that is associated with today's information overload. It is a "reality" and we can choose to surrender to, instead of defying it. Paradoxically, if we surrender to it, and give up the idea and wishful thinking that we will do it all, we are likely to free up more of our energy and get more accomplished.

Second: Another way to look at it is to redefine your to-do list from being the traditional "rigid" to-do list that needs to get done, to being a "choice" list from which you choose what you will do. The key to success is choosing strategically what to do, and negotiating strategically what not to do.

Third: Create a new kind of list. The "not-to-do" list. These are items that you intentionally decide not to do.  Instead of dragging them along on your to-do list, and dragging along the guilt and negative energy associated with it, make that conscious decision of not doing them. Once more, choosing and negotiating strategically are key.

So "to-do or not-to-do" is the new question that you want to consider when faced with to-do items, and maybe some of these items that come your way, can immediately make it to the not-to-do list.