My favourite meme that I have seen about procrastination is that it is ‘The art of ruining your life for no apparent reason!’ Whenever I say when I’m speaking to people about being organised it always raises a smile. It’s one of those statements that resonates with us all! But why do we procrastinate when we know it’s so unhelpful!? There are a number of reasons.
The Job Looks Too Big
If a task looks too big we are unlikely to have a single slot in out busy lives in which to undertake the task. If we can’t find a slot we put it off until we absolutely can’t put it off any longer and then we have to work late or pull an all-nighter. This is not a good approach! The secret is to break the task down into its constituent and smaller parts. The steps you will need to take to complete the big task. This makes it easier to slot each step into a pocket of time when we’re planning – allocating time to task. This means we chip away at the big task by doing each steps and this fuels motivation because we really feel then that we are getting somewhere.
The Job Looks Too Difficult
Sometimes we don’t have (or feel we have) the skills or the knowledge to do the task – or there’s ambiguity in the instructions. We put off asking for advice or acquiring the knowledge because we don’t want to look like we don’t know what we’re doing – then eventually – we look like we don’t know what we’re doing because the task didn’t get done! Always seek advice. That’s a much better strategy than putting the task off.
The thing we need to do is not causing us ‘imminence pressure’
“Oh that thing! That’s ages off yet!” Bet you’ve said that! We all have. And then all of sudden ‘ages off’ is tomorrow!
Planning brings the future into the present so we can do something with it and consider the enormity of the task at hand. We can then break it down into its parts and diary the parts. Sometimes we underestimate how long something will take – we do this a lot with big tasks the psychologists tell us – and then when we have to do it at the last minute we find we haven’t got enough time. Going through the process of breaking the task down helps us work out just how much time we actually need.
We don’t have what we need to get started
When this happens it’s usually because we’ve not planned effectively. The point at which you set about starting the task is not the time to make sure you have everything. You need to plan and organise so that you have what you need available to you at the point in time set aside to do the task.
You can’t plan and do at the same time – they require different sets of mental skills – time spent in planning is paid back when we get to the doing.
Tim S Grover in his book Relentless says this that seems to resonate with peopl…… Do the work. Every day you have to do something you don’t want to do. Every day. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable, push past the apathy and laziness and fear. Otherwise, the next day you’re going to have two things you don’t want to do, then three and four and five, and pretty soon, you can’t even get back to the first thing. And then all you can do is beat yourself up for the mess you’ve created, and now you’ve got a mental barrier to go along with the physical barriers.
Those who can achieve flow procrastinate less
Those who plan overcome procrastination. They have less ‘Boundary Moments’ – the point at which a decision is required. You’ve made the decisions in advance so can get to the doing of the next task without thinking ‘what next’. The less obstacles we put in our way – the fewer times we have to make a decision about what to do next – the less likely we are to procrastinate.
The key skill I advocate for people to engage with for being productive – and by that I mean living your best life (not just work!) – is planning. You will consistently fail to put yourself in the right place at the right time for the right task if you don’t plan meticulously.
Planning means that you are where you need to be when you need to be there and in the right gear for the task. Being in the right gear also helps you to relate effectively to those around you. As well as knowing the ‘what to do’ and ‘why to do it’ of self-care we need to think about the when and where of self-care. We also need to be mindful of the impact we have on the self-care of others – both positive and negative. Remember, when I say self-care I don’t just mean the stuff you do to rest and recover. I also mean the self-care you engage in by being ready for tasks. In the right frame of mind and in the right place. Free from distractions if that’s what you need!
I keep mentioning gears – so let me tell you about this model that I heard about from….theGiANT Liberator Podcast hosted by Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram. Find it here.
The Gears idea is not my idea. It is there’s. Although I’ve modified it slightly as I didn’t quite agree with a couple of points (despite their worldwide success!)
They suggest we spend our time in one of 5 gears – like the gears in a car. And it’s crucial to be in the right gear at the right time and in the same gear as those around us. So let’s have a look at what they say about the gears – slightly interpreted by me!
1st Gear: Rest and recuperation
In a car first gear gets you going from a stationery position. First gear helps you get started. Going into first gear will also slow you down (ask anyone who has gone to change into 3rd gear in a car and hit first instead!) And first gear give you lots of control. When you want to do a tricky manoeuvre you need to be in first gear. So this is the gear to be in to get started or to move into to slow down to rest and recover.
It’s so important not to see self care as a ‘fall out’ option – it’s not something we need to do when we’ve ran out of energy, resolve, or personal resources. It’s something we do to maintain those things as best we can and we have to go to it before we hit problems – it’s a whole life thing. So getting into first gear regularly is very important.
We need to rest physically and mentally as good rest restores our attention to task. The problem with rest is we don’t do it often enough. Caroline Webb suggests we need a pit-stop strategy. We need micro pit-stops – a few minutes here and there for a quick recharge. Then a medium size pit strategy maybe at lunch time to replenish resources for the afternoon. And then a macro pit strategy for evenings and weekends. What are you going to do when you have a pit-stop to recharge?
Being outdoors is good for beating stress. Research has shown that from a psychological perspective it can be more effective than indoor exercise particularly around managing every day hassles and feeling mentally well balanced. Being outdoors in the early morning sunlight primes the process for sleep at the end of the day. Walking for 30 minutes beats stress and means you’ve already had some great physical exercise without barely trying. Walking mindfully, and deep breathing, is good for you. Research with social workers who engaged in mindfulness showed a reduction in sickness and stress levels…. suck in that fresh air!
2nd Gear: Family and friend’s time
How we spend our time resting can be both a solo activity and an activity with others – rest is sometimes about actively engaging (trips out, going for a walk with others) as well as taking yourself away (journaling, meditation, walking on your own). Spending time with family is so important for our well-being and relationships. Been in 2nd gear when you’re with your family and they are in 2nd gear is essential.
In 2017 researchers Izenstark and Ebata wanted to see if time outdoors led to better attention on tasks and a strengthened a family bond. They selected mother-daughter pairs where the daughter was between 10 and 12 years old. Firstly, they were tasked with going for a walk outside or around shopping centre. Their ability to attend to a task was tested before and after the walk and then they were asked to play a game together that required teamwork.
Those who benefited the most were the mother-daughter pairs who had walked in the natural setting rather than in the shops. Positive interactions between mother and daughter improved after the outdoors walk. Attention was improved for the mothers during the nature walk and during both walks for the daughter. The nature walk created a positive impact on both cohesion and closeness. The mothers and daughters were unanimous – the nature setting was more relaxing or as psychologists call it – Softly Fascinating.
3rd Gear: Social Connections (Friends Family & Colleagues)
I’m thinking here of the time you spend with colleagues particularly, not doing the work but socialising. Time spent socialising in work settings or during breaks at work is really important. The relationships we have at work have an impact on overall quality of life but also on the psychological safety we feel in those places. That’s the ability to feel comfortable enough with a group of people that you bring your authentic self to the work you do. You feel comfortable sharing all of your ideas and are part of the team. That chat making coffee or at the water cooler is so important.
The connections we share beyond our most intimate family and with our friends are also important for our well being. The secret in the workplace is to not let people in 3rd gear get in the way of you when you are in gears 4 and 5.
4th Gear: Work Tasks
The ‘Work Tasks’ I’m thinking of here for 4th Gear are all of those things that you need to do that maybe connect you to other people or get things organised for the day. Your planning time, quick conversations with colleagues or your manager to check things out, emails, phone calls. Short tasks that you need to do to get things moving forward or to keep things moving forward. But not your ‘Deep Work’ tasks. They are for 5th Gear. You should start your day in planning mode – visualising you day, checking you have all the things you need to hand for all of your tasks, and at the end of the day making sure all is in order for tomorrow. This helps you connect at the start of the day with tasks you need to do and then disconnect from work at the end of the day – so you can leave it behind.
5th Gear: Deep Work
Deep Work is the work that needs your absolute focussed attention to the elimination of all distractions. Work that requires you to be in ‘flow’. Crucial here is right place and right time for the right task. You can’t do Deep Work if you are wondering whether everything is sorted for later or tomorrow or tonight or if there are unmanaged emails – that’s why you have to move through the gears in order. You can’t do Deep Work effectively if you are constantly being interrupted.
Gear Problems
Our relationships with people and tasks work best when we are in the right gear at the right time for the right task – and in the same gear as those around us and when in social environments or communal environments (workspaces or with family friends and colleagues) we are in the same gear.
Imagine you’re in 4th Gear – working on your planning or short tasks or 5th Gear Deep Work. Maybe you’re writing a report or you’re deep in reading something – getting stuff done – and someone enters your workspace in 3rd Gear (Social Connections). ‘How was your night’ ‘Did you see that thing on the TV’ ‘You’ll never guess what happened to me on the way in’ ‘do you want a coffee’. You have a choice – either stay in 4th or 5th gear and try your best to stay focussed (difficult!) or you change down to 3rd gear and match them causing you to stop work. Now – there are positives and negatives in every situation – I don’t knock work based conversations for beating stress – but there is an impact. This is particularly difficult in organisations that allow us to work flexibly. I’m a 7.30/8 person for getting into work – so by the time some of my colleagues arrive at 9/9.30 I’m at least in Gear 4 or even Gear 5. They are in Gear 3 hell bent on getting me to engage. The problem with human nature is that we don’t like to ignore people, so we change down and stop what we are doing – this means we take a productivity hit because of the actions of someone else. We need to be mindful of this.
Later in the day….. Imagine you need to be in 5th Gear because you’ve got some deep work to do – that report to write – and the chatter keeps dragging you back to 4th Gear or 3rd Gear. The irony is it’s often someone off-loading – often about how much they have to do and how they wonder how they are even going to get it done! They are not getting on with their task and now they’ve stopped you! Right place for right task! If you need quiet find quiet. My hope, as one of the consequences of this last year is that organisations can see that people do get stuff done when in other places. Deep work needs quiet. For some quiet is at home. Or maybe we need some sort of isolation booth in the office for people to deep work in. One thing is for certain, noisy open plan office environments are not good for deep work. They are good though for collaboration and idea exchange and professional support – so I’m not knocking them…. Right place for the right job.
Another example….. you get home and everyone else is in 2nd gear – family time – and your head is still at work in 4th gear – working mentally on all of those unfinished and unmanaged tasks – collision course! Right place for the right task – this is your time and your family and friends time. Maybe you’re at home and you feel the need to check your work emails dragging yourself into 4th Gear when you should be in 2nd gear or 1st. We need to think carefully about the message this sends to the people around us.
So, we need to move through the gears
You start the day coming out of a period of rest – you will have been asleep (Gear 1) – you may even do some Gear 1 activities when you start your day – quiet cup of coffee, or read a book, maybe some yoga. You may well then move into Gear 2 and connect with those around you before heading off to work where you will hit Gear 3 and maybe pass the time of day with colleagues. You will then need to move into Gear 4 – planning, emails, short tasks and then eventually you will settle down into Gear 5 Deep Work. You will move between 4th and 5th Gear throughout the day and slip into 3rd Gear for lunch. At the end of the day you will come down to Gear 4 and deal with short tasks that have accumulated while you have been Deep Working. You will change to Gear 3 as you bring your working day to an end, then into Gear 2 as you connect with family and friends and then Gear 1 as you rest. You might, on an evening or a weekend, drift between Gears 1, 2, and 3, but what is crucial is right gear for the right ‘job’. Right gear allocated to the right time, and being conscious of the gear those around you are in.
Structure is everything to generate flow. Flow is the art of being in the moment to the exclusion of everything else – with your family totally, with your colleagues totally, one your own totally for deep work or for rest. Planning and routine are the dominant forces in this area
Right gear – right environment – for the right task – at the right time
That takes planning
Set your Intention for the gear you are in – Pay Attention – Rest – Repeat
The message that I’m going to give you here is a simple one….
Keep engaging in the same habits and you’ll get the same results Engage in different habits you’ll get different results
Simple!
So if you are aceing all of your habits – good job! But maybe a little reflection on our habits at some point is good for us all. What are the things that are constantly getting in your way? What are the things you do that seem to keep throwing you off course? What might you want to change, what might you want to be different? What habits would make things better. Pick better habits and you’ll get better results.
When thinking about developing a habit – Think trajectory as well as goal
We set goals quite easily but we need to plan how to get there. Habits help us achieve things. Habits help us achieve our goals (or they get in the way!) How you go about your business is more important than the goal (even though the goal is important). ‘I will run 3 miles’ is a goal – but you won’t ever do it unless you figure out what the process is to get there. You need to break the goal down into manageable steps and form habits to get you there. And if you engage in negative habits they’ll get in the way of running 3 miles.
Small changes over a period of time lead to big changes
Changes that are small and seem unimportant (going for a walk, eating well, drinking less caffeine) appear unimportant but compound over time – daily choices compound over time
Small – fairly inconsequential steps – lead to massive transformations. We needed to develop positive habits (and maybe hang onto one or two of the bad ones ;-)!) The problem is some of the ways we operate can have a negative impact on us overall.
Zoom out
The problem is when we’re stressed – when we’re up against it – we tend to have a narrow view of what’s going on – we focus on the single thing causing us stress. What we need to do is zoom out and look at the big picture. And when we stand back a clearer picture often emerges. When we stand back it allows us to think about a priority. It gives us the space to consider next steps. It gives us the chance to consider what we may need to change in our environment or in terms of our habits – what we need to change in ourselves. Looking at the bigger picture can help us overcome overwhelm as long as when we’re looking at the bigger picture we take what we find, break it down into what needs to be done, and then make a start.
Construct habits one step at a time – start small looking for small changes that will lead to transformation
So, what habits might we want to think about establishing – what things can we focus on that over time might transform how productive we are at life….
Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits
1. Be Proactive
The problem is that people are much more inclined to be reactive. Rather than plan, rather than control what they can, they just wait to see what happens and then react. One of the things we can do is bring the future into the present and consider it, so that we can, as far as possible, predict it. This has a fancy word. It’s called planning. ‘Control it or it will control you’ (David Allen – Getting things Done)
2. Begin with the end in mind
Where are you going and how are you going to get there. Visualise what you want to achieve this week, this month, this year… this life! This is rooted in your values. Covey talks about Personality Ethics – how you look from the outside – your image – your concern for how other people view you. He says that this is not what we should be rooted in but rather we should be rooted in character ethics – what we are inside. The fabric of our person, not what we look like to other people is what’s important. Values – your values – should drive your goals and your habits
3. Put first things first
There is a disconnect about how we talk about the things that we know are good for us – or the things that we want to do – and actually doing them. Most of know what we should eat and that we need to exercise but do we do these things effectively!? We procrastinate – which is the art of ruining your life for no apparent reason!
We allow ourselves to disconnect from the things that really matter From activities, family, friends and rest.
You need to figure out what your first things are by ‘Beginning With The End In Mind’ and then by ‘Being Proactive’ in pursuing your first things first. The science and the research tells us what the first things should be. Rest and recovery, sleep, exercise, nutrition, connecting with others.
4. Think Win-Win
Thinking win-win is about connecting things together (This is not quite how Covey talks about it – but similar). Combine things to encourage habits by connecting something you don’t like doing with something you do like doing – win – win. Instead of walking the dog on a morning – I run with the dog. The dog gets ‘walked’ and I get a run!
Or see planning as a productive process, not time wasted, but time invested It will mean that you feel more in control of the tasks you have to do and then when you get to the task it will mean you should have everything you need in place. You’ll be in the right place at the right time for the task you are undertaking. So stopping and taking precious time out will be good for you and will mean you get to stand back and take stock and then be better organised – win – win
Research tells us that unmanaged – incomplete tasks drain psychological energy and capacity but managed tasks – even when still not completed -have less of a psychological drain. This allows you to focus on the task at hand while the other tasks wait patiently for their turn. So spending that precious time in planning means you can leave behind the things that are waiting to be done and get on with the next thing you need to do.
5. Seek first to understand and then to be understood
By understanding the other person first, you will have taken time to build a relationship and you will be able to cooperate effectively in whatever you are doing. This will support a good working relationship or a good family relationship and will improve the emotional content of interactions.
Seeking to understand may be self reflection. You may be trying to know yourself better or understand what you may need to changed. Know yourself to lead yourself.
6. Synergise
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. In all the areas of self-care (physical, emotional, practical) small steps over time will lead to big changes and all of these things interact and support each other….. – you eat better – you feel more like exercising – you exercise – you sleep better – you sleep better you work better – you work better (more efficiently) you feel more able to rest – you rest better you feel more able to look after your nutrition or you exercise – and so it goes.
Also, collaborate – synergise with others. Work with your family on meal prep, buddy up for exercise, make a pact to take a lunch break and lunch together with a colleague.
7. Sharpen the saw
Self care is a necessity not a luxury. If you spend all of your time sawing down trees your saw will become blunt. If you don’t take time to sharpen your saw the trees will take longer and longer to cut down. We need to keep our minds sharp by resting and recovering effectively and by initiating good self-care.
Keep engaging in the same habits and you’ll get the same results
Engage in different habits you’ll get different results
Let me explain just what I mean by being productive!
The problem when I say ‘be productive’ is that most people immediately start to think about being productive at work, or maybe at study. But for me that misses out whole other parts of our lives where it is great to be productive.
You may think I’m mad when I say that we need to rest productively. Surely that doesn’t add up. Surely the point of resting is to be not productive. Well, maybe that is so in terms of how we think often think about rest. But how many of us try to rest, relax, and recuperate only to find our minds drawn back into what needs to be done in others places? How many of us try to rest in ways that aren’t helpful… or productive.
Let me give you an example of unhelpful rest….. I love to ‘rest’ by drinking a bottle of red wine …but ….I pay for it the next day. The rest I engaged in wasn’t productive. Yes it helped me switch off, it did help me relax. Alcohol does that. But was it productive? Now this is not a binary. It’s not as simple as – some things are productive (or helpful) and some things are not. In fact Professor David Nutt in his book ‘Drink?’, while being clear that there is no safe drinking limit (alcohol is for the most part not good for us) we all have a point where we get the benefits from it without the negative effects the following day. My point is about 2 small glasses of red wine. I feel relaxed and have no ill effects on my sleep or the next day. The problem though is that after 2 glasses of wine it’s so easy to have a third or fourth! Inhibitions and control obliterated – full-tilt wine drinking!
That’s my nemesis anyway. Yours may be different. You might ‘rest’ by engaging in social media and that is fine. I love social media. But, like the alcohol example, once you start mindlessly scrolling and not actually mindfully engaging you will ‘come up for air’ half an hour or more later and feel cheated. I know, believe me, I know!
We need to engage with our rest so that it’s productive. We need to plan what we are going to do and then engage in it mindfully. All that simply means is become absorbed in it to the exclusion of everything else so that we can switch off to all of the other things going on – take a rest from the rest of life in a way that is not detrimental to us later. Give ourselves some head space. Do something that enriches us not takes more from us. I’d argue that overusing social media (mindlessly scrolling), over eating, drinking too much, watching just whatever happens to be on TV rather than carefully choosing something… all have a negative consequence.
And that’s the thing with self-care. In fact that’s the thing with any action. There will be a consequence. This is why we have to personalise our self care. If you are happy with the consequence of your action (I mean truly happy!) then keep doing that. If you feel any sense of guilt or regret then you probably aren’t happy with the action. So change the action. Keep engaging in the same habits you get the same results. Change the habit you get different results says James Clear in his book ‘Atomic Habits’.
There was a study I read about some time ago. The researchers explored the difference between people who planned their weekends and then engaged in the activities they had planned and people who just did whatever came to them and drifted through the weekend. They found that people who had planned their weekends and did the things they planned felt a sense of achievement and felt rested (productive rest) while those who drifted mindlessly through the weekend felt frustrated that their weekend was nearly over and wondered what they’d done with the time (negative rest). The fascinating thing was that when they looked at what each group had done they had largely done the same things. Yet the planners had less of those Sunday night, back to work tomorrow blues, because they had productively rested.
Planning, as I say time and time again, is everything. Make a plan, deliver on the plan, repeat!
If you’ve heard me talk about self-care for well-being and productivity before you’ll have heard me say that self-care is about more than just bubble baths and candles…. Because it is! But…..
It
sometimes is absolutely about bubble baths and candles!
I was overjoyed to find out about a new local venture in Newcastle – Hot Wax. So, I hooked up with them to have a look at their candles which are made of soy wax. What’s that you may ask!? All you probably need to know is – as you’d imagine – it’s made from soybean oil. There are ‘green’ benefits to using soy wax. It’s made from plants, it’s a renewable source, it is clean burning so doesn’t release toxins, and soy wax candles burn 40-50% slower than paraffin wax candles so they are good for your finances. Who would have thought!
Eucalyptus is well known for its health benefits and is a prized fragrance of master perfumers all the world over. It has a fresh clean aroma which is sometimes described as minty, woody or citrusy. What’s not to like! And then you add in Rosemary! Magic. And it is. The candle smells great and fills the room with fragrance.
A study at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok put some science behind the magic when they found that there were benefits to inhaling the gorgeous smell of Rosemary that produced beneficial effects on mood! Northumbria University in the UK found that Rosemary improved contentedness. Being in good mood and content is something we’d all like to strive for as an outcome of our self-care!
So, you see bubble baths and candles do have their place in your strategy! What better thing than on a Friday night lighting a candle, putting some quiet music on, and clearing you head ready for the weekend. (Or any other night, or time of day, for that matter!)
Give Hot Wax a try and indulge in an olfactory experience! Or put another way – light a candle and smell something awesome ….and drift away!
It’s really difficult to figure out where to buy things for the best. Companies sometimes aren’t what they seem. How do you factor in all of the costs for a product? How do you figure out if a product is ethical or the company that produces it is ethical? And why am I talking about this on my self-care page?
Well, I think that self-care is rooted in values. Self-care is not selfish. Looking after yourself first is important but once you have that sorted then you need to think about looking after other people and things. The planet is high up on the list of things I want to look after. So as self-care, I feel, is about living a life that aligns to your values I want to do what I can to align what I can to my values as closely as I can. This is not going to be perfect and is a work in progress… so before you start with ‘ah but, yes but….’ bear that in mind. I still eat avocados. But have it under review while I figure what, if anything, I can do. They are really good for you (and lush) – so what do you do?
As ever my maximum is small steps over a long period of time have big impacts. So far I’ve started having my milk and eggs delivered by a local producer rather than buying from the supermarket… and a few other things. Let me tell you
My strategy is this. Buy local from independent retailers or producers. Then, buy from national independent retailers and producers. Then, buy local from larger organisations. Then buy national from larger organisations. Then global if ya gotta!
This lead me to discover a coffee roaster in a little village close to where I live. Fika! Matt and Lynn are the founders of the company because… as they put it…..
“we’re mad about coffee.”
They also go on to say “We also have great respect for the land and the people that farm it to bring the best quality speciality coffee to the UK. Fika means a social break in Swedish and our brand is inspired by Swedish folk art but our love for coffee actually originated from a six-year stint in Melbourne. We’re based in the fine cathedral city of Durham and are super excited to open the city’s first speciality coffee roastery so if you’re ever in town, please drop by or call in advance for a special sneak peek into the wonderful world of coffee roasting.”
And I’m currently trying the Fika East Timor – Cristo Liuria – which is devine. Click the link to find out more about East Timor and it’s coffee growers. It’s the kind of information that Fika provide alongside selling me coffee that I love as I can find out where my coffee is coming from and the positive impact (however small) my purchase may be having.
There’s also some great advice on the Fika blog about making your brew. Try this – To plunge or not to plunge?
So while I’m not exactly buying local – in the sense the coffee comes from Brazil and East Timor – I’m buying from a local company that strikes me as being interested in the growers with an ethical eye. My purchase is also stimulating the local economy rather than lining the pockets of some corporate giant. That makes be feel pretty good. Oh… and Matt and Lynn seem to be lovely people! That helps as well!
Every time I ask people to feed back to me after the sessions I do about self care and productivity about what they found most helpful they always mention the 2-minute rule. So… I always talk about it.
It’s basically this. If you look at a task and you think it’s going to take less than two minutes to complete then simply do it. Don’t delay, don’t put it off until later, just do it. You can actually achieve a lot more in two minutes than you think you can. If you have the time, sit quietly now for two minutes. It feels like forever! You could get a lot of small tasks done in that time!
At a session recently though someone suggested that the application of the two minute rule was in contradiction to my view that when immersed in Deep Work we should do it to the exclusion of all other tasks.“Surely the two minute rule contradicts this as if you come across something to do then you are suggesting I just do it”, the person said (I’m paraphrasing – but that was the gist of it I think). I answered something to the effect that the two minute rule was effective for emails and planning tasks and working through small tasks but not when engaged in deep work. I wasn’t satisfied with my explanation. I didn’t feel it was clear enough so I thought I’d write a blog.
There are times, like anything, when the application of an idea is helpful and times when it is unhelpful. The two minute rule falls into that category. I thought the best way to explain when to use it and when not to use it would be to take you through a typical day of mine and explore the application of this ‘rule’.
Start-up strategy
We all have a start-up strategy? Yes? This is the process that gets you going when you get to work. Just like a computer you need to be powered on and have your software loaded and get yourself ready for the day. My start-up strategy goes like this.
8.30 Open notebook to new page and write the date at the top then Open calendar. Work through the day visualising myself undertaking each task. In doing so I am connecting with the task and checking that I have everything to hand that I need for each task. This is a perfect opportunity to apply the two minute rule. If I find I haven’t got something I need for a task, maybe I haven’t created a Teams Meeting link or printed off some lecture notes or found a phone number I need, I apply the two minute rule and do it there and then. Anything else that’s longer than two minutes gets put in a time slot in my calendar (this doesn’t happen very often, if at all, as my planning strategy means that the big things required are all done)
9.00 Open Emails and work on getting my Inbox to empty. I work through my emails methodically one by one using the Do It, Delegate It, Defer It, Delete It process (see this link for more on this strategy). The Do It part relies exclusively on the two minute rule. Can I deal with this email in less than two minutes? If I can it gets done there and then. If it’s going to take longer than two minutes it gets deferred into my trusted system.
Working day
9.30 Clearing up and small jobs. This is a good slot for anything that might have fallen out of my diary scan and my emails. If something needed doing urgently I will have put it into this time slot. No two minute rule things here I’d imagine because this will be a longer task or tasks that needs doing
10.00 Deliver lecture. Off I go to do what I do. This is in many ways Deep Work. I’ll explain. Deep Work in the productivity literature is usually a job that needs you to be completely focussed to the exclusion of everything else and is usually best undertaken in glorious isolation – distraction free. Now that doesn’t define lecturing as you do it in front of people but I feel it is still a Deep Work task as it requires me to be completely in the moment to the exclusion of everything else. So no two minute rule activities going on here.
12.00 At the end of the lecture a student asks me for a tutorial. Yes indeed! Let’s plan that now. I have my calendar on my phone. Two minute rule applied tutorial booked. I could have said I’ll get back to you later with some times, but no, there and then – let’s get this sorted – done and forgotten about – my calendar will remind me of what I need to know.
13.00 Lecture Preparation (after lunch of course as a lunch break is so important – have a look here). This is Deep Work. I need to be in a quiet place and I need to be not distracted. I won’t be applying the two minute rule here because i will have switched my phone and emails to silent and I’ll be getting on with the task.
But disaster – there is a problem here. Our minds just don’t stay focussed on the thing we are doing no matter how hard we try. The more we do Deep Work and the more we train ourselves towards mindful behaviour the better we get at it but nevertheless sometimes something pops into our heads! This is what I refer to as a boundary moment. A point where we have a choice to make about how to proceed! What do we do! My brain has just reminded me that I was asked by my manager to email them the contact details of someone.
Now, that could be achieved using the two minute rule because it will take me less than two minutes to do that. But there’s a problem here because opening my emails and sending the information will only take that time up but I might see other emails that interest me – our minds are terrible like that – and I might end up replying because – well – I could do it in two minutes. We become trapped in our emails and the Deep Work gets interrupted and then, when we go back to the Deep Work, it takes (as an experiment conducted by Microsoft found out) 10 to 15 minutes to get back up to speed on the Deep Work task. So that’s not a good idea!
I could still decide to go and apply the two minute rule and get the email sent. It might be something really urgent and therefore the interruption may be necessary. I might have to accept the productivity dip.
But if it’s not urgent I should resist the urge to send the email now and continue with the Deep Work.
But problem number two raises itself! Every time I try to get on with the Deep Work task I keep thinking I mustn’t forget to send that email! Argh! David Allen calls these Open Loops. They just go round and round in your head taking up vital psychological capacity and distract you from the task in hand. Here’s what to do. Externalise your memory and make a note of what needs to be done in your note book that sits next to you all the time with today’s date at the top of the page. You sorted this out at 8.30 this morning during your Start Up strategy! Note: Send email to manager with contact details for Dave. This gets it out of your head into your trusted system so that you will be reminded to do it later. It does create a pause, it does create a shifting of attention, but you have minimised it as best you can. We can’t help these thoughts encroaching but we can decide how to mange them for the best.
15.00 Team Meeting. I class this as a Deep Work task as well. The meeting needs my attention so no two minute rule opportunities here. The same rules apply that we utilised when we were doing lecture prep Deep Work. As you go through the meeting take notes about things you need to to do so we can move them into our trusted system later.
Shut down strategy
16.00 Emails. This is the same process that we undertook at 9 a.m. Open up those emails work through them and get that Inbox to empty!
16.30 Planning. Getting in to empty is not just about that Inbox it’s also about that note book and all of the entries you’ve made as the day has gone on. You work your way methodically down the list and use the same Do It, Delegate It, Defer It, Delete It process that you used for emails. Note: Send email to manager with contact details for Dave. Two minute rule application! This is where that deferred task gets done in two minutes having caused the minimum of disruptions to your Deep Work. Then, go through the other tasks that you’ve noted in the same way. They either get done, get deleted, get delegated to others for more information, or get moved into your trusted system as entries in your calendar. Cross them out as you go – it’s soooo satisfying! Finally plan tomorrow. Have you got everything you need for everything you need to do. Get all of your ducks in a row.
17.00 Reflect on the day.What didn’t go so well. Could you have controlled something better or could you not have foreseen what went wrong. If you could have done something better jot down what you could have done. This helps consolidate your thinking. If you couldn’t have predicted what went wrong then let it go. It is what it is. Then think about the things that went well, and the things you got done. This is especially important if you have had a stressful day (….there are other sorts of days I hear you say!) When we are stressed we tend to take a micro view of our day, homing in on small details and this can lead to negative thinking. Get your wide angled lens on and take a birds eye view of the day and enjoy the things that went well…. and then Shutdown Complete.
Like any technique it only works in the right circumstances. The two minute rule needs to be used when it is appropriate and not used indiscriminately when it will interrupt your Deep Work. Unless of course the thing that popped into your head is so important that you should interrupt what you are doing and get it done!
It’s a subject that comes up time and time again when I talk to anyone about productivity and workflow. How do I get through my emails!? I have 1000 emails in my Inbox and I don’t know where to start! Help! What do i do! So, here are some things to think about.
Your email Inbox is a capture tool not a storage solution
Ok, so, your Inbox is an input device. People send you things to it when they want you to do something, or they need some information from you, or they have some information that they think may be of interest to you (or they are covering their backs by cc’ing everyone in the world into an email that is only relevant to a few but it means later down the line they can say, ‘well I did tell everyone’. Such emails are what your Delete keys live for!).
It follows then that if your Inbox is a ‘capture – input’ device and not a storage solution you need to clear it out regularly or you will lose sight of what it is ‘it’ is capturing on your behalf. This leads to emails disappearing off the bottom of the screen never to be scrolled to again until you get a withering email from John in Accounts Payable asking if you can respond to his email from a fortnight ago. When such a thing happens you have done two things (minimum). You have eroded your professional status as John in Accounts Payable now thinks you’re a bit useless and John in Accounts Payable has had to take time out of his day to chase you up so he now has more to do than he should have. And then John in Accounts Payable says to all his colleagues the next time someone from your department doesn’t return an email, ‘well you know what they are like in ‘insert your department/profession here’ they never get back to you‘. So now you’ve eroded your professional status, the status of your department/profession and wasted John’s time.
As my favourite productivity guru David Allen says – you must – every day – get IN to EMPTY. That includes your Inbox.
Managed but not necessarily done.
Getting in to empty doesn’t mean that everything in your Inbox is done. No, No! It just means that it is managed and is in your workflow system somewhere where you will find it when you need to do it or think about it. There is strong research evidence to suggest that unmanaged tasks have more of a psychological drain than incomplete tasks. If your tasks are managed, clearly defined, and in your workflow system then you are not left wondering what there is to do lurking in those unmanaged emails. You might look at what is to do and think – how am I ever going to do all of that – but at least you know what it is. You have controlled it rather than having it (namely in this example your Inbox) controlling you psychological. And John in Accounts Payable stands a chance of getting his email!
The first time is the hardest time.
If you are pondering getting your Inbox to empty for the first time then you are likely to feel overwhelmed. I hear reports of people with 8000 and more emails in their Inbox. Each one of those is draining to one extent or another your psychological capacity if for no other reason than you always thinking, ‘I must get that Inbox clear’. Imagine starting everyday, when you open your email, not being confronted with that Inbox but being confronted with an Inbox that only contains emails that have arrived since you last looked at it! It’s like magic! It’s like Mickey is about to burst out of the Disney birthday cake with celebratory balloons!
But where do you start?
This is a difficult one and you are probably not going to like some of the answers but…. you will love the outcome when you empty your Inbox on a daily basis and listen to all of those other people saying, ‘I wish I could get my Inbox empty’, and you think, ‘Hey! I do! That’s not me’.
Firstly, I am confident, especially in this modern workplace we exist in, that if an email is older than about 3 months your response to it is probably useless or worse embarrassing, that it took you a quarter of a year to respond. Now – I think you can probably delete them but…. but given that you felt immediate panic as you read that …I’m not going to ask you to!
Create a folder in your email programme. In Outlook it’s in New Item/Folder. Just in case you haven’t found it yet 😉 Call it something like ‘Older than 3 months’. Drag anything older than 3 months into this folder and breathe. You can go back to it and work though it if you need/want to. But, I’m confident there’s probably nothing in there worth worrying about. John in Accounts Payable wouldn’t have waited 3 months. (If moving everything older than 3 months is freaking you out you could go for a different numbers of months). This is how I started when I wanted to Reset my emails and… I never when back into that folder… ever.
Next you are going to have to find some time to work through the last 3 months worth of emails. Here’s something to keep in mind. Lots of the things in there can probably be deleted because even 3 months is a long time in the workplace. I guarantee as well that there will be lots of things left lying about in there that you’ve actually done and they just need filing.
Don’t do anything yet. Find a space in your calendar when you can dedicate a good period of time to this task. I’d suggest giving yourself a day. Here’s one of those things you might not like. I did mine on a Sunday. In my time. And I did this for three reasons. I genuinely felt that this was my mess so the fact I had to sort it out in my time – well – that’s just the way it was. But secondly and much more importantly – the feeling that I had opening up my email on the Monday morning after I did it was amazing! Finally – Sunday is going to be a day when you won’t be interrupted. You can just get on and do it and get through it. You pick your own slot that fits with you.
If you don’t want to do that or you really can’t find a half day or a full day then you are going to have to diary out an hour periodically to work away at it. This is not as effective in my view but if it’s what you have to do then it’s what you have to do. It will take you longer in the long run because there is a ‘start-up’ time to get up to speed and remember where you were up to every time.
Let’s go!
Ok, so we’ve got our time set aside and we are going to get Inbox to empty for the first time. It’s going to be amazing! Personally I would start at the top with the most current emails. This way you see the last thing in the thread and may find you can move or delete groups of emails in one go if you know the task or conversation is done.
Before you start create some folders in Outlook. Create a unique folder for all of the projects you are involved in and all of the groups you attend. Try not to go too mad – you don’t want hundreds but enough to be able to store emails under a sensible heading.
Also, while we’re doing this I find another few folders useful. I have a folder called Needs Action. In fact it’s actually called ***Needs Action*** for two reasons. It makes it stand out and, because (if the folder is in your Inbox) it is sorted alphabetically so folders named with symbols at the start appear at the top. (It works the same in normal folders – so things you want to find quickly can appear at the top!) I also have a folder called ***Need to Read***. This folder is less urgent than Needs Action but is still important. I then have a folder called Mailing Lists and i have filters set up to direct any mailing list emails to this folder. And! Finally! I have 5 folders – One for each day of the week.
Here we go! Use this approach below when doing this Reset process and also when dealing with emails daily.
DO IT. Apply the two minute rule. Can I do what this email is asking of me in 2-minutes. If I can then I’m just going to do it and once I’ve done it I’m going to move the email into which ever folder is appropriate (or delete it if you are completely done with it). Try this – you will be surprised how much you can get done in 2-minutes.
DELEGATE IT. Delegation is not just top-down. Delegation here means that you need something from someone in order to complete whatever you are being asked to do. You email them and then you are done with that email for now. You have delegated the next action in the process to them. How much you want to keep an eye on the other person and the response you need defines what you do next. If it’s of low importance you can move the email into one of your folders. You’ll be reminded to do the next thing when the person gets back to you. If you need to keep an eye and make sure that you do get a response you could move it into ***Needs Action***. Part of your email strategy is going to be to check the emails in your ***Needs Action*** folder periodically. If it’s mega important you could put an entry in your calendar on the day you want to chase the email up to tell you to do that.
DEFER IT. If the task is simply too big to do in 2-minutes and you don’t need something from someone else then you need to put a task into your workflow system into a date and time when you will deal with the task. I have a couple of strategies here. The task goes into Date/Time if it’s date and time specific or there is a sense of urgency to get it done. If it’s something I need to get done ‘sometime’ it goes into Daily Tasks (that’s the bit at the top of the Outlook Calendar/Google Calendar). When you create the task in a day you just tick the ‘All-Day’ task box. This means to me – I need to get this done and I might have a chance of doing it on that day. At the end of every day any tasks in my ‘All-Day’ tasks get moved into a different day when I might get the done. I have a 3 moves and you’re out rule. If I move a task 3 times it gets a date and time slot to make sure it gets done.
Also utilise that ***Need to Read*** folder for stuff that’s interesting… papers, web sites, videos (I know you don’t read them but you see what I mean!). Pop something in your dairy once a week that nudges you to go and have a look and actually read something!
Once you’ve Deferred the Task into your workflow system you need to move the email. You can use your ***Needs Action*** folder or a more elegant solution is put the email (assuming you need information that’s in it to do the task) into one of your daily folders. If there’s not much information in the email you need you could cut and paste it into the Notes section of the task and ‘file’ or delete the email. I leave little helpful notes in the task for myself like Write Report for Jane – see email in Daily Inbox – so I know where to go for what I need. The key is – don’t leave it in your Inbox!
I’m confident many of the emails you will have to work through when getting in to empty for the first time are emails that should have gone into your workflow system in this way but you’ve left them in your Inbox in the vague hope that you’ll spot them again at some point and maybe do something about them! ‘Hope is not a strategy’ as John Calvin Maxwell said.
Finally DELETE IT – if it’s of no use to you or you’ve read and thought ‘interesting – thank you’ but you don’t need it anymore delete it. Or at very least file it in your ‘That Was Interesting’ folder.
Proceed until your Inbox is Empty!
Now comes the easy part…..
How to keep ‘In’ empty
First rule! Email is an activity that you need to do in a focussed way not just something you do when you get a chance. You are going to do emails at two key points in the day. First thing in the morning and last thing at the end of the day. Once you get into the habit of this ‘first thing in the morning’ gets easier and easier as the only things that have arrived are the things that arrived late in the day after you went home.
Set aside however much time you think you need. I set aside half an hour in the morning an half and hour in the afternoon. You may need more or less. But you need to do it in this way or you will only complete this task in between other tasks. I’m confident you will have so much to do that this primary method of communication in the office environment will play second fiddle to other things if you don’t specifically allocate time to it. You’ll end up with an Inbox that is out of control with thousands of emails in there… Oh! hang on a minute….
If organisations want us to communicate primarily in this way then it needs the appropriate attention. (I also check my emails just before or just after lunch for about 20 minutes if I have the time).
When you are not actively dealing with emails close your email down and switch off alerts. There is lots of research evidence to suggest that responding to emails when trying to do other tasks slows you down on the other tasks. There is also evidence that even just knowing there’s an email there drags your attention away from focussed work.
So at your allotted time every day you use the ‘do it, delegate it, defer it, delete it, approach’ above (this is also a David Allen trick – I love David Allen!) and get your Inbox to Empty. If you miss one of these slots because of other things then doing it when the chance comes around next time in your diary becomes doubly important. My advice is protect this email time with your life (well… not quite… but you get what I mean) or your email will escalate out of control very easily. So, put this in your calendar as a repeating event. DO NOT leave it to chance! Put it in your calendar.
Writing things down gives momentum to the task (honestly! – well researched) and the calendar entry will nag at you to do it. Schedule longer on a Friday afternoon just in case things have got a little ‘untidy’ so that you can get it sorted. I also have a weekly entry in my diary on a Wednesday (that’s when it works best for me) that says Check ***Needs Action*** folder.
And then keep going….
I’m not going to lie – it’s a tough task. We get far too many emails which is why Inboxes get out of control but the essential thing is ‘Control It or It will Control You’ (David Allen again!)
I came across this book referenced in another book and then did a little digging to find out more about Thomas Mitchell, Farmer. Because his book ‘Essays on Life’ written in the early part of the 20th Century is a little gem – full of words of wisdom.
[From: https://thomasmitchellfarmer.wordpress.com/] Just before the First World War destroyed a generation and divided Europe for almost a century, a farmer in a remote part of Scotland sat down at the age of 43 to write his thoughts on how to live a good life. He records the values of his time and his own take on them. His is now a voice from the past that demands our attention, not necessarily to emulate it but to encourage us to consider what we have lost and gained.
He was Thomas Mitchell.
In the first essay in the book he illuminates us on the Art of Living. Because it is an art! I feel, and always have, that we are creative animals. Art is unique to us as a species and packed full of meaning for life. And life is embodied in art. Artistic endeavour and its output tells us so much about who we are. So there is an art to living.
Usefulness
Mitchell suggests that there are some key things. The first is usefulness. He says that we all have a purpose – something useful we can do that contributes not only towards our livelihood but also to our fellow ‘man’. Even when we do not choose the work we do he suggests we must do it to the best of our ability. If we carry the spirit of usefulness into daily work the this lends a dignity to work that imparts pleasure.
Happiness
The second element to the art of living is happiness. This is something of a current theme for me [more here] as I feel happiness in a particular form is liberating and forms the heart of a well lived life. But happiness is not to be found in things or in the excitement of ‘this or that’ but rather in the steady metre of life. The living of a good life day by day is one that resonates with values of humility, common good, and the joy of the current moment. There is a desperation that we cling onto that we hope will bring us happiness in living for future events rather than living now. Mitchell suggests that the secret of a happy life is ‘the art of extracting comfort and sweetness from every circumstance. The world is to us’, he says, ‘is pretty much what we make it.’ Are we a person of things rather than experiences. Are we a person of ‘it will be better tomorrow, it will be better when I’ve…..’ or are we a person of ‘what can I make of this moment.’
Take care of yourself reminder handwriting on an isolated sticky note
Character
Mitchell goes on to suggest that character, the distinctive mark that gives you your personality, is crucial. We are influenced he says by what we inherit but this only gives us a tendency towards a way of being and doesn’t define us. Our infancy and childhood shape us and the habits we form throughout life shape our essence. One element of character he points to is the ability to speak for yourself and think for yourself. Not to simply be buffeted around by the opinions of others. We should be tolerant of the opinions of others and reflect on them but ultimately make up our own minds on the right course of action. I am led back here to the roots we establish in the world by virtue of our values. They will give us our compass.
Self Control
The penultimate principle of his Art of Living is self control. Mastery of self and particularly of the emotional self I have always felt is crucial. This is something I talk about a lot and is Daniel Goleman’s idea that we can be competent and effective ‘pilots of our lives’ if we are emotionally intelligent and therefore exhibiting self control. Every pleasure, Mitchell observes, that is pursued to excess becomes harmful. And here we are in an age of far reaching mental unrest because, I feel, we can indulge ourselves in all manner of things thrown at us in the name of capitalism and consumerism. Pleasures, he goes on to say, are essential but if we exercise no self-control towards them they may produce ‘ill-health, misery, and weakness, in body or mind’. How true.
Self Respect
The final element is self respect. This to me taps into the foundation of self-care. You must have respect for yourself so that you want to take care of yourself. It is of little value if you show your respect for others and neglect your respect for yourself as, eventually, you will not be available to the other people, either physically or emotionally, to show them the respect they also deserve. This starts with self-respect not with respect for others – that comes second. Mitchell notes that self-respect is a regard for your own name and reputation. If we are to maintain our reputation we have to strive to do things at work, at home, or with friends, (or anywhere!) as well as we can and that starts with being ready for the task and being ready for the task starts with self-care.
I recently came across a podcast that shared some words of wisdom from 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, by Kevin Kruse.I’ve picked a few to write about that i thought had resonance for me and could be applied to the sort of things I think about in relation to productivity.
Time is an asset
Time, Kruse says, is our most valuable and also our most scarce asset. I like to think of time like money. You can either invest it, spend it, or waste it.
Investing time means using your time to take care of yourself – investing your time in you. Spending your time means giving it up in the pursuit of undertaking a task – maybe something you get paid for doing or something you have to do that you don’t get paid for. You have to find harmony between these two things – invest sufficiently so that you are not overspending. A lack of investment and overspending of time leads to negative feelings such as feeling overwhelmed. When we invest in rest we prepare ourselves for the exertion of spending our time. Just in the same way as when we invest (or save) our money we prepare ourselves for spending it.
The other thing we can do with time is waste it. Do I have to explain that one? I don’t think I do. But I would say is that when we do waste our time we’re left feeling bad about things because we think of all the things we could have done. Just to be clear though when I think about wasting time I don’t mean time we spend in rest even if that is binge watching Netflix. If you have set your intention to that and you have engaged with it and it is restful then that is an investment. It’s more the mindless scrolling through social media or drifting aimlessly through a whole weekend that I mean.
Make sure you plan.
Plan your weekend then engage in it. Plan your working day then engage it. Get into micro planning. Have a daily startup plan. Have a working day startup plan. Have a working day closedown strategy. Plan these things to make best use of your time. Assuming you sleep for 8 hours a day you have 960 minutes each day to go at. Make sure you invest or spend them all and don’t waste any. You don’t get them back!
Work from your calendar not a to-do list
This is something that David Allen also says. He says to do lists don’t work. We tend to make them when we’re out of control and we are never sure that everything is captured on them. And… we never get to the end of them before moving on to something else, hitting a crisis, and writing another to-do list. Kruse says that 41% of the jobs on a to-do list don’t get done.
Stick strictly to a schedule. Everything you need to do goes into your calendar. Everything. That way you can plan every day. I do this in the morning at 8.30 and on an afternoon at 4.30 and then a bigger planning session on a Friday to plan the week ahead (and sometimes further). After you’ve planned you pick up whatever task is in your calendar at whatever time and do it knowing that you will have put the right thing to do at that point in your calendar. The less choice points you give yourself the less you will procrastinate. Never (unless you are in planning mode) think what am I going to do next. Plan then do. When you are doing this….
Batch your work in themes
The productivity literature refers to this as ‘chunking’. Put tasks that require the same set of mental attentions together. Here’s what I do. I thought about my job (I’m a lecturer and writer). My work breaks down into three sets. I am always either talking (lectures, meetings, conversations with colleagues), writing (blogs, lectures, book chapters, video scripts), or I am reading (minute notes, books, research papers, text books). I try as far as I can to group tasks that fall into these groups together. Once I switch on the parts of my brain it takes to do these things, the longer I can keep them switched on, the better. When I read I start slowly but the longer I read for the faster my reading speed becomes. Chunk similar tasks together as much as you can.
Say ‘No’
Saying ‘yes’ to something means you will have to say ‘no’ to something else. There are only so many minutes in the day. The problem is saying ‘yes’ makes us feel good! But just because someone knocks on your door doesn’t mean you have to open it. While I think we should all work hard and step up when there’s something to do – don’t go jumping in. Think. Ask yourself – am I a good person to be doing this – does it fit my skill set. Ask, does this support my immediate goals – what do I need to do that needs to be done – does this new thing fit in with those things or is the time frame long enough that I can get to it after I have achieved my immediate goals. Don’t just say ‘Yes’ then think about these things! Because you’ve already said ‘yes’ so it’s too late now! Act in haste repent at leisure as my Mam has often said to me when I’ve just acted in haste!
Spend you time wisely.
Say ‘no’ when you should (and when you can ….sometimes we just have to suck it up). Plan your time meticulously – it’s precious – and make the most of every minute by chunking similar tasks together when you can.
