“The Main Thing is to Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing” (Stephen Covey)
Here’s my inbox this morning (click image to clearer pic). I wanted to share it with you because this is how I endeavor to begin every day. I was surprised, no shocked, when I inadvertently caught sight of the Outlook inbox of one marketing manager of a large telecoms company I sat behind at a conference this year. Inbox (12,200). 12,200 unread messages?
I’ve been there. Your inbox, like your suitcase, is a good window into how your life is organized. I’ve felt that sinking feeling when work began Monday morning and the Outlook bar would say “Downloading 1 of 454 messages”. I had days where I’d spent at least 50% of it answering, checking or writing email. I’d leave frustrated wondering why nothing had progressed but not before one last “send & receive” on Outlook.
Not only are we ill equipped to deal with incoming emails we’re ill equipped to send them. If we only sent relevant mail, our mail boxes wouldn’t be bursting at the seams with company memos, forwards and FYIs. How is that indicative of life? Well, if that’s how a marketing manager communicates with their company, how on Earth are they talking to the customer?
One thing I learned was that the longer I spent outside of the corporate world as an employee (and I had served my time in the world of finance & banking) the more adept my email skills became because I was no longer “infected” by the lazy habits of my co-workers.
The Accountant
Years ago, one meeting with a young accountant made an impression upon me. I was young and, to my knowledge then, in my 20s had never met an accountant before so I was curious to know what one looked like. After being greeted by the secretary I was ushered into his room. There he was, probably in his early 30s well dressed in a pin stripe suit as you’d expect. But where were the files stuffed with client notes and invoices? Where were the archive boxes? In fact, where was his computer? Just a glossy black mahogany office table, chair and silver framed photo of Accountant and his family. Nothing more…
Accountant impressed me because his office told a story - here was a man who was on top of his life. He wasn’t reacting to a co-worker’s urgent memo or downloading his emails. He wasn’t either sitting there on his Blackberry checking his Facebook status as we spoke or in the middle of a year-end sprawled across his desk. He was focused exactly on what’s important - me.
Next time you take a wander round your office, you’ll be surprised how - with a new perspective - each workspace tells a story. I’m pretty confident that you could plot the success curves of your coworkers simply by looking at what’s on their desk.
Bob’s Story
Years ago a young chap used to work for me. I won’t name him here except for the pseudonym Bob because that’s about as unlikely a name as he could have been labeled by his family. Every morning Bob came to the office greeted the team with the ritual morning handshake (which we instilled as a routine - try it) sat at his desk and pulled out a memo pad. While others were flipping open the notebooks lids, Bob sat quietly, chewed the end of his pencil and scribbled a few notes. Few - maybe 3 at most. Bullet points 1,2,3. After 5 minutes of contemplation Bob would finally turn to his coworkers and start talking to them “I’m going to meet Nokia today,” said Bob “are you including them in your quarterly briefing?” When, and only when, Bob had finished communicating his daily goals to the team did he open his notebook and do the email thing.
Bob was the ideal employee. In fact, so ideal that he left and went and started his own thing. Good on him, you can’t keep a good man down. If you asked me about productivity, I don’t think Bob was two or three times more productive than the “first check email” crowd, I think he was maybe 100 or 1,000 times more productive.
Small nudges
Small nudges make a big difference. Sylvan Goldman built a $400 million business by simply introducing shopping carts to the grocery store. Simplicity often breeds genius, genius that is unachievable when your day starts working on other people’s agendas. Take control, start with your inbox.
