Join me this Thursday + working without email
Hi there,
In just one month (!) my book will launch in the US and UK. Many of you have already ordered it—thanks so much for your support.
This week I’ve got something fun in store for you:
Join me online for a one-hour live session on creating your Year Plan. This Thursday, January 13. You get a free ticket if you preorder the book and forward your receipt to me. Find out more here.
Working without email
I recently read Cal Newport’s latest, A World Without Email. The title wasn’t really doing it for me, so my expectations weren’t high. But the book surprised me.
Newport asserts that we’re all hooked on what he calls the Hyperactive Hive Mind: a way of working that revolves around non-stop conversation, fed by unstructured and unplanned messages. That’s now the norm. And not because it works well, but mostly because it’s easy.
The fundamental point Newport makes is this: Take charge of your attention. The difference between managing to do important work and not managing to do it lies in what we pay attention to. And to put it bluntly, we’re currently allowing our attention to be stolen away on a massive scale. It’s a reminder we can all stand to hear.
Though he doesn’t go all that deep into it in this book (which is fine, because Newport already shared loads of practical tips in his wonderful Deep Work), you can gain a lot by turning off notifications and limiting your availability. Try switching your phone to airplane mode for a while—fantastic!
Everything’s a process. So make it explicit
The tips he gives are sensible and a huge help, but you run the risk of getting frustrated if the folks you work with aren’t making similar changes. Your inbox won’t get any emptier just by keeping it closed most of the day.
Newport says 99% of Hive Mind messages are due to internal processes that aren’t clear. In short: Everything’s a process, but not always an explicit one.
Who decides what, and when?
How do we know who’s waiting on whom?
Clearly delineated processes make things visible, so we don’t have to disturb each other as much. That means more time and attention left for actual work. And not only that, Newport also points out that a clearly laid out process is a great way to get everyone participating on an equal footing:
When you reduce work to a state of nature by allowing processes to unfold informally, the resulting behavior is anything but utopian. Much as is observed in actual natural settings, in the informal process workplace, dominance hierarchies emerge.
Something to try this week
Do you work on marketing campaigns? Then you have a campaign process. Do you work to acquire new clients? Or work on projects with a clear starting and stopping point? Then you go through roughly the same steps each time, too.
Make a start this week on putting those steps into a simple checklist. The next stage could be to further clarify your working processes. And if you’re not familiar, check out a system like Trello or Notion—they’re great for taking all the briefings and other communication about a particular task, project, or potential client, and bringing it together in one place.
Have a good week and hope to see you Thursday!
Rick
produced by the language girl