Ask Debra

Question: How do I manage my email inbox?

Answer:  My advice is to use your email inbox only for unread messages and messages that you need to act on today.  Don’t use it as a filing system or it will get out of control.  When you read email in your inbox, always do one of the following things:  (1) reply to it, then label it and archive it; (2) if it requires no reply from you but contains info you want to retain, label and archive it; (3) if it requires no reply from you and contains no info you want to retain, delete it.

I don’t think using the inbox as a tickler system is a good idea either.  If you need an email to come to your attention on a future day, either print it and put the hard copy in your tickler file for that future day or put a reminder note about it in your tickler file or on your calendar.

I have always adhered to a rule about responding to email within 24 hours.  One of the ways I stay rigorous about this is to limit my inbox to one computer screen.  If the scroll bar appears, I deal with enough inbox items to get rid of it.  This may sound like too much work on a daily basis, but it’s a lot easier than dealing with days or weeks of backlog.  Also, don’t read email constantly; instead, batch the task into 2-3 chunks of time each day to avoid getting seriously behind, to reduce interruptions and to save time overall.

Question: How can I achieve a work-life balance?

Answer:  This is a big question and it deserves more discussion than I can provide here.  So let me offer an overview and some links to additional resources.

I think the way to achieve balance is to have:  clear priorities, A+ organizational skills, and a productive focus on what matters most.  Balance is not fundamentally a matter of working less.  Instead, it’s a matter of spending as much of your time and effort as possible on things you enjoy and feel passionate about.  Because the other stuff won’t just disappear, it’s important to organize your time and effort, scarce resources both, so you’re not wasting them.  You need an honest view of what’s important to you and then the courage to define success for yourself and go after it.

Ask yourself what makes you happy, what inspires you and what are you good at?  Then make choices designed to give you more of these things and less of the kinds of things that don’t make you happy.  As a lawyer with young children, I knew I wanted to continue my career, but I also wanted to spend more than 30 minutes a day with my kids.  So I figured out which parts of child-raising were important to me as a mother and structured my time accordingly.  I didn’t need to see their first steps or hear their first words to take great pleasure in their development as walkers and talkers, so, for me, putting them in day care as infants was an easy and guilt-free choice.  But I did want to spend weekends with them, so I took them to the office with me when I had to go in, and I never scheduled social events that didn’t include them for Saturday or Sunday.

Similarly, I spent my time at work on projects and committees that would give me the best bang for the buck in terms of enjoyable work, visibility and giving the firm/company what it valued most.  The point is to get your choices clear in your mind, get comfortable with them, and then get on with things.  Get rid of guilt as an obstacle to going after what you want.  Remember, it’s not success if it doesn’t make you happy – no matter what other people may think.

Understand, too, that the balance won’t be perfect every moment nor does it have to be.  What counts is satisfactory balance over time.  Lose the “all or nothing” mentality.  Recognize organizational realities for what they are and get yourself in positions where they work for you, not against you.  Aim for improvement, not perfection.

Here are some additional resources:

Suit Yourself Essays:  Suit Yourself; What ARE Your Priorities?; It’s About Priorities, Not Time; Time and Commitment Are Not Synonyms

Productivity Resources:  Focus on What Matters Most; High Impact Performance Characteristics; Time Management 101

Question: I can’t seem to find documents quickly. What are some tips to help me locate information faster?

Answer:  Documents usually get lost for one of two reasons:  either you’re not naming and filing them in accordance with sensible, intuitive naming conventions and filing protocols; or there’s too much clutter in your office.

When you name an electronic document, name it something that makes sense and is descriptive and save it in the file, folder and sub-folder it where it belongs (which is where you and the people you work with will actually look for it).  The Agenda System has a wonderful feature for this – use it.  Even if you don’t have the Agenda System or something like it, you can use the basic features of Word to give you some of the same benefits.

Get the paper off your desk, out of your inbox and out of your life unless you really need it for what you’re doing right now.  For everything else, throw it out or, if you’ll need it later, date it and put it in your tickler file so it will come back to you when you need it instead of cluttering up your office in the meantime. 

Click here for more tips on minimizing clutter.

Question: Sometimes I get stuck on a project and can’t get my mind to think more quickly to get it done. Do you have any tips on what I can do?

Answer:  Breaking work down into specific tasks and then assigning timeframes for each task will keep you from being overwhelmed.  Think of it like eating a sandwich:  it’s really not comfortable or necessary to stuff the whole thing in your mouth; you’re much better off – and more likely both to finish and to enjoy the experience – if you eat it a bite at a time, with the occasional break for a sip of water or some conversation.

It’s also important to recognize personal productivity peaks and valleys and then use them intelligently.  Maybe you’re more alert and productive in the morning than in the afternoon or vice versa.  Use peaks to handle work that requires more of you.  Use valleys for easier work or work that’s more fun.

Finally, ask yourself why you’re getting stuck.  If it’s because the project isn’t really that important in light of other things on your plate, reconsider whether it’s what you should be working on right now.  If it’s because you don’t have all the info you need, get the necessary info first.  If it’s because you don’t really have the skills or expertise to do the project well, think about who does and how you can enroll their help.