“Never Check Email in the Morning” Part 3

This month I’ll break down Competencies five and six from the book by Julie Morgenstern.

Competency Five – Control The Nibblers
Nibblers are every day distractions that gnaw at our ability to concentrate, threaten our productivity, sabotage our plans, and steal hours from the day. Learning to deal with them in the moment and how to maneuver your way back to being into control will help you with your success.

#1 Perfectionism – when left unchecked, can lead to dangerous work standstills. It is a burden that can zap the joy out of work and create physical health problems, from increased anxiety to high blood pressure. Use selective perfectionism…apply perfectionism where it really counts – plans for clients, products that are sold, information distributed to the public, materials sent to the top 20% of your clients, and other projects essential to the revenue line of business. Use the 80/20 rule: Only 20% of your tasks need to be perfect; the other 80% can be good enough.

#2 Procrastination – unfocused wandering to avoid performing. This is a self-saboteur that is closely related to perfectionism. Try to identify the cause of your hesitation the moment it occurs. Don’t have an all or nothing approach. Thinking in shades of gray helps take the pressure off and will help you to move forward. Strategies to help you get moving: break your project down into smaller tasks; just get started doing something; do a fast and sloppy version; focus on the payoff; remember past victories; set time limits; or choose the best time of day for you.

#3 Interruptions – can pay a high price on your productivity. Anticipate interruptions, but learn to outsmart them. You can exert more control than you think. Know who is likely to interrupt, why, and your own tendencies to react. The author suggests keeping a log for a week. Plan time in your day for the urgent and important interruptions. Choose two or three people that can interrupt any time then defer the rest to a better time. Use catchphrases such as “I’m working on a deadline. Can we talk at lunch?” or “I’d like to help you out but this week is impossible.” Have your assistant screen your calls, visitors, and email. Begin a conversation with “What can I do for you?” or “How can I help you?” instead of “How are you.”

#4 Meetings – can be a large waste of time and takes time away from revenue generating tasks. Ask if your attendance is really needed. Can someone else go in your place? Can the meeting be shorter? Be on time and have a time keeper. Ask for the agenda of each meeting. Have stand up meetings to shorten the length. If a topic comes up that is not on the agenda, schedule a separate meeting. Don’t catch up the latecomers. Wrap up at the end of the meeting stating what was resolved and the next steps. Follow up after the meeting if necessary.

Competency Six – Organize At The Speed of Change
In order to seize opportunities and beat the competition, we must be able to separate information we need from what we don’t at lightning speed. The author has created ways to make quick, dramatic improvements in the least amount of time.

Keep the systems that work for you and identify problem areas. Critical problem issues are: you can’t find things; others can’t find things; you’re out of storage space. Next, prioritize to determine which problem has the biggest impact on your productivity. You may need to leave yourself a bread crumb trail by marking when and where the info is taken from so you know where to put it back; create a road map for others so they can find things; streamline your briefcase by dividing contents into two types – permanent and transient, clean out daily; rearrange your desktop creating an In Zone, Out Zone, and Working Zone; weed information as you go but know your company’s retention policy.

Competencies seven and eight will be covered next month. In the mean time, check out the Life of Learning Foundation.