Coping with Email Overload

Harvard Business Review:

4:05 PM Thursday April 26, 2012

PETER BREGMAN

A few weeks ago, I returned from a week-long technology-free vacation with my family. No computer, no phone, no email.

email envelope (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I got to the office and checked my computer, I had hundreds of email messages waiting for me. ... Three hours later, my inbox — a week's worth of messages — was empty.

Contrast that with my experience the next day, and each day after that, when I've spent well more than three hours each day on email. Some of that time involved back-and-forth emailing, but still, the difference is dramatic.

screenshot of an email inbox filled with spam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I've come to the conclusion that I use email to distract myself. ... It's an ever-present, easy-access way to avoid my feelings of discomfort.

What makes it so compelling is that it's so compelling. I wonder what's waiting for me in my inbox? It's scintillating.

It also feels legitimate, even responsible. I'm working. I need to make sure I don't miss an important message or fail to respond in a timely fashion.

But it's become a serious problem. When we don't control our email habit, we are controlled by it. ...

Email pours in, with no break to its flow. And like addicts, we check it incessantly, drawing ourselves away from meetings, conversations, personal time, or whatever is right in front of us.

The 'new' email client (Photo credit: RafeB)

But it's not just the abundance of email that's our problem — it's the inefficiency in how we deal with it. Each time we check our email on the fly, we lose time pulling out our phones, loading the email, reading new emails without taking action on them, and re-reading those to which we haven't yet responded. Then, back at our computers, we re-read them again.

... According to USA Today the number of lawsuits filed by employees claiming unfair overtime is up 32% since 2008. The major reason for the increase? Email on devices like smartphones is intruding on our personal time.

The solution, I believe, is hidden in my post-vacation email experience.

Instead of checking email continuously and from multiple devices, schedule specific email time during the day while you are at your computer. All other time is email vacation time.

We are most efficient when we answer email in bulk at our computers. We move faster, can access files when we need them, and link more quickly and easily to other programs like our calendars. Also, when we sit down for the express purpose of doing emails, we have our email heads on. We are more focused, more driven, wasting no time in transition from one activity to another.

I bulk process my email three times a day in 30-minute increments, once in the morning, once mid-day, and once before shutting down my computer for the day. I use a timer and when it beeps, I close my email program.

Outside my designated email times I don't access my email — from any device — until my next scheduled email session. I no longer use my phone for email unless I'm away from my computer all day.

When the urge to check arises — and it arises often — I take a deep breath and feel whatever feelings come up. And then I focus on whatever I'm doing, even if what I'm doing is waiting. I let my mind relax.

Here's what I've found: I don't miss a thing.

In fact, it's the opposite. I gain presence throughout my day. I am focused on what's around me in the moment, without distraction. I listen more attentively, notice people's subtle reactions I would otherwise overlook, and come up with more ideas as my mind wanders. I'm more productive, more sensitive, more creative, and happier.

I
'm also going through my email faster and with more attention than before. I don't make those I'm-moving-too-fast mistakes like copying the wrong person or sending an email before finishing it or saying something hurtful. So I'm also more efficient.

telephone (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

But what if someone needs an immediate response? Worrying about that is precisely the kind of misguided rationalization that reinforces our addiction. ... I don't think anyone has noticed my mini email vacations because responding to an email within a few hours is perfectly reasonable. And, in the off chance that they need a response within minutes, they'll find another way to reach me, either by texting or calling.

Email is no longer an overwhelming burden to me. I'm spending an hour and a half a day on it, which for me is the right amount. You may need more or less time per day. Experiment and then schedule the appropriate time slots.

The hardest part is resisting the temptation to check during your off-email hours. My advice? When you have the urge to check your email, check yourself instead. What's going on for you? What are you feeling? Take a deep breath and relax into an undistracted moment.

For a brief moment in the middle of a hectic workday, it just might feel like you're on vacation.

PETER BREGMAN

Peter Bregman is a strategic advisor to CEOs and their leadership teams. His latest book is 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. To receive an email when he posts, click here.

Intelligence Is Overrated: What You Really Need To Succeed

Forbes:
4/12/2012 @ 2:03PM 

Albert Einstein’s was estimated at 160, Madonna’s is 140, and John F. Kennedy’s was only 119, but as it turns out, your IQ score pales in comparison with your EQ, MQ, and BQ scores when it comes to predicting your success and professional achievement.

IQ tests are used as an indicator of logical reasoning ability and technical intelligence. A high IQ is often a prerequisite for rising to the top ranks of business today. It is necessary, but it is not adequate to predict executive competence and corporate success. By itself, a high IQ does not guarantee that you will stand out and rise above everyone else.

Daniel Kahneman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. Shockingly, only 15 percent is due to technical knowledge. Additionally, Nobel Prize winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.

With this in mind, instead of exclusively focusing on your conventional intelligence quotient, you should make an investment in strengthening your EQ (Emotional Intelligence), MQ (Moral Intelligence), and BQ (Body Intelligence). These concepts may be elusive and difficult to measure, but their significance is far greater than IQ.

Emotional Intelligence

Logo Connecting Emotional Intelligence (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

EQ is the most well known of the three, and in brief it is about: being aware of your own feelings and those of others, regulating these feelings in yourself and others, using emotions that are appropriate to the situation, self-motivation,  and building relationships.


Top Tip for Improvement: First, become aware of your inner dialogue. It helps to keep a journal of what thoughts fill your mind during the day. Stress can be a huge killer of emotional intelligence, so you also need to develop healthy coping techniques that can effectively and quickly reduce stress in a volatile situation.

Moral Intelligence

Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MQ directly follows EQ as it deals with your integrity, responsibility, sympathy, and forgiveness. The way you treat yourself is the way other people will treat you. Keeping commitments, maintaining your integrity, and being honest are crucial to moral intelligence.

Top Tip for Improvement: Make fewer excuses and take responsibility for your actions. Avoid little white lies. Show sympathy and communicate respect to others. Practice acceptance and show tolerance of other people’s shortcomings. Forgiveness is not just about how we relate to others; it’s also how you relate to and feel about yourself.

Body Intelligence

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 30: A man smokes amongst tar figures placed in the CBD to raise awareness about the damage smoking causes to the body at Martin Place on June 30, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. Each of the tar figures represent the profile of smokers, from the casual weekend smoker to the one with a lifelong addiction. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Lastly, there is your BQ, or body intelligence, which reflects what you know about your body, how you feel about it, and take care of it. Your body is constantly telling you things; are you listening to the signals or ignoring them? Are you eating energy-giving or energy-draining foods on a daily basis? Are you getting enough rest? Do you exercise and take care of your body? It may seem like these matters are unrelated to business performance, but your body intelligence absolutely affects your work because it largely determines your feelings, thoughts, self-confidence, state of mind, and energy level.

Top Tip For Improvement: At least once a day, listen to the messages your body is sending you about your health. Actively monitor these signals instead of going on autopilot. Good nutrition, regular exercise, and adequate rest are all key aspects of having a high BQ. Monitoring your weight, practicing moderation with alcohol, and making sure you have down time can dramatically benefit the functioning of your brain and the way you perform at work.

What You Really Need To Succeed

It doesn’t matter if you did not receive the best academic training from a top university. A person with less education who has fully developed their EQ, MQ, and BQ can be far more successful than a person with an impressive education who falls short in these other categories.

Yes, it is certainly good to be an intelligent, rational thinker and have a high IQ; this is an important asset. But you must realize that it is not enough. Your IQ will help you personally, but EQ, MQ, and BQ will benefit everyone around you as well. If you can master the complexities of these unique and often under-rated forms of intelligence, research tells us you will achieve greater success and be regarded as more professionally competent and capable.

Keld Jensen is an expert on trust, negotiation, leadership, and communication. To learn more, visit www.KeldJensen.com and sign up for his “Power Bargaining” newsletter.

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The Long-Term Damage from Juggling Too Many Projects

strategy + business magazine:

Scrambling to shift scant resources in order to meet deadlines can have a chaotic ripple effect.

Title: The Effects of Schedule-Driven Project Management in Multi-Project Environments (Fee or subscription required.)

Authors: K. Yaghootkar and N. Gil (both University of Manchester)

Publisher: International Journal of Project Management, vol. 30, no. 1

Date Published: January 2012

Managers who try to meet important product development deadlines by shifting resources from other projects

Every project is implemented under three constraints, scope, costs and schedule. The diagram shows quality as the fourth constraint or as a result of the three aforementioned constraints Project Management (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

may succeed in the short term, this paper finds, but the continuous shuffling of resources and team members has a harmful ripple effect over time. Ultimately, the company’s ability to deliver projects reliably will suffer from this schedule-driven approach to project management.

The insight applies to any company that finds itself overextended in the rush to make good on multiple commitments. But it has particular relevance now, given the recent recession and the ongoing so-called jobless recovery, the authors write, because companies have few resources (for example, their highly skilled engineers are in short supply) and are reluctant or unable to hire and train new staff.

If product development and manufacturing firms are to survive in competitive markets, they must continuously tweak their offerings and create new products that feature emerging technologies and trends. As a result, these firms typically have many projects cooking at once, and have different teams sharing engineering and design resources, which can become overextended at peak times. They’re also under pressure to accelerate product development and reduce the time it takes to get their merchandise to market, especially for cutting-edge technology or in-demand goods.

Project Management main phases (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Accordingly, top managers often try to allocate resources from concurrent jobs to ramp up an important project that has fallen behind because of a late start or insufficient support, ... . And some projects are simply more critical to the business than others. ... Many contracts also stipulate penalties for delays.

But what is the long-term effect of this schedule-driven project management approach? To find out, the authors studied the product development division of a manufacturer of high-performance trucks, which embodied the challenges faced by many companies that work on several projects and deadlines at once. ...

Risk matrix for use with a small-scale project management methodology. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The company in the study builds about 100,000 trucks annually, mostly tractor units for semitrailers or rigs, but very few are identical. A top management team allocates the annual R&D budget to a number of initiatives to develop new business, and the approved projects share the same pool of specialized resources.

The authors conducted more than 80 one-on-one interviews, eight group presentations, a four-hour workshop, and an analysis of the firm’s archives, as well as making direct observations at the company from 2004 to 2009. Employees participating in the study had diverse job roles, including engineering designers and project and portfolio managers.

Project Management Lifecycle (Photo credit: IvanWalsh.com)

The resulting data was then fed into several computer-based models that probed the effects of schedule-driven pressure on long-term productivity. Specifically, the authors examined scenarios in which the time crunch resulted from a policy to complete business-critical projects by the deadline, regardless of whether they started late or initially lacked resources.

The simulations showed that as top management put pressure on a team to finish a project, the time lost on subsequent projects tended to snowball in several stages. First, as one project sacrificed resources, it also came under schedule pressure. Second, as the pressure ratcheted up on more projects, resources switched back and forth more frequently as managers struggled to prioritize. Third, productivity went down as the teams’ size increasingly fluctuated and employees logged long overtime hours.

Taken together, these effects “exacerbate schedule pressure in a self-reinforcing vicious cycle,” the authors write, “generating a persistent steady state that degrades the organization’s long-term performance in terms of its capability to deliver projects efficiently.” ...

The authors caution that the best practices in single-project management, notably up-front planning, can have limited benefits when top managers ignore the harmful long-term effects of systematically “hijacking” resources from concurrent projects.

“A badly implemented schedule-driven project management policy can lead to disenchantment among project staff,” the authors write, “who, disheartened with (and powerless to change) top management’s attitudes[,] have no choice but to get accustomed to reactive but ineffective project management practice.”

Companies should be wary of rewarding top managers on the basis of their ability to implement short-term fixes regardless of their negative long-term impact on the company’s performance, the authors write. Instead, multi-project organizations should put in place rewards and incentives that ensure managers take a holistic view. This means understanding the importance of negotiating project budgets and allocating resources within planned timetables that don’t push back new projects.

The results also suggest that top management should work hard to keep some specialized resources available at all times in case of emergencies. As with “investments in product flexibility...organizations ought to frame an investment in free resource capacity as acquiring an insurance [policy] against future eventualities,” they write. “This investment will then pay off whenever a critical project [comes] unexpectedly under schedule pressure.”

Otherwise, the authors warn, organizations can get trapped in a “firefighting mode” whenever teams fail to spend time up front agreeing on parameters, discussing uncertainties, and planning ways to reduce risk. Constantly putting out fires in the production chain, they write, can become a “self-reinforcing phenomenon when teams are kept overloaded.”

Bottom Line:
Faced with deadlines and working on multiple projects, firms often shift resources among teams so they can deliver slow-moving but important projects on time. This schedule-driven product development strategy is detrimental in the long term, however, as the effects of continuously shifting resources among fluctuating projects degrade a company’s ability to meet deadlines reliably.

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4 steps to achieve any goal

CBS News:

By

Robert Pagliarini

You need to decide whether, based on everything you know about your partner and your marriage, you're willing to work toward rebuilding the relationship. If so, understand that doing so inevitably involves accepting some degree of risk - that you'll be hurt again. (Credit: MorgueFile)

(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY How would you like a shortcut to success? A strategy to follow that would help you get what you want in the most efficient and effective way possible?

... Get ready to learn a simple four-step strategy that will help you create your best life in the most streamlined way possible.

1. Know your desired outcome. ... Clearly, it is critical to know your desired outcome. ... Now is not the time to be casual, vague, or even humble. ... Get clear and get specific.

2. Take action. ... Simply do something -- anything, really. Don't fall into the trap of having to know the best action to take to get started because this will cause delay. In fact, it's a crutch many of us use so we don't have to get started. 

... We are afraid of doing something that may be wrong. Inspiration is fickle. You'll feel it one minute and then poof, it will be gone the next unless you nurture it with movement -- taking action and getting started. It's better to throw the gauntlet down by doing something -- even the wrong thing -- than staying in your head and losing the inspiration.

3. Focus on feedback. ... If you stay in your head too long and try to analyze every conceivable next step, you'll never know if your path is leading you closer or farther away. Taking action is how you get feedback. Take the step, because even if you are wrong, that will give you valuable feedback so you can adjust your approach.

4. Be behaviorally flexible. If you notice your actions are not leading you to your desired outcome (or maybe not as quickly as you wish), then you have to be flexible in your approach. It's not enough to just notice what you are doing isn't working; you have to shift your strategy. ... Stop, turn, and take a step in a different direction until you get closer to your outcome.

Whether you are starting a new business, in charge of a new product launch, wanting to re-connect with your spouse, wishing to get healthier, or hoping to create your best life, keep these four steps front and center, and they will help you achieve your goals faster and more efficiently.

© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

• Robert Pagliarini
  View all articles
  Robert Pagliarini is obsessed with inspiring others to create and empowering them to live life to the fullest by radically changing the way they invest their time and energy. He is the founder of Richer Life, a community of passionate people who want to learn and achieve more in life and at work. He is a Certified Financial Planner and the president of Pacifica Wealth Advisors, a boutique wealth management firm serving sudden wealth recipients and affluent individuals. He has appeared as a financial expert on 20/20, Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew's Lifechangers and many others.

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Diagnosing Your Top Team’s Span of Control

strategy + business magazine:

What is the right number of direct reports for any incoming C-level executive? A new diagnostic tool can provide the answer, based on each leader’s situation and strategy.

by Gary L. Neilson

Harvard Business School (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Choosing the right executive leadership team is one of the most important decisions that a C-level executive can make. ... In our article on top teams (“How Many Direct Reports?”Harvard Business Review, April 2012), Harvard Business School professor Julie Wulf and I advised executives to turn this logic on its head: “Start with the capabilities and roles needed to push your company’s strategy forward.” In other words, your top team’s members — drawn from some of your current direct reports, along with appointees to new positions that you create — should together be accountable for all the capabilities that shape your company’s distinctive edge and enable you to win in the market. ...

If you are a senior executive pursuing a coherent strategy, you need a span of control that is “fit for purpose.” Each voice at the table is a signal to the rest of the organization about what you consider important. Each represents a strategic capability needed to drive success for the company, or for the portion of it you lead.

choice and context (Photo credit: Will Lion)

... Identifying the right number of people, articulating the roles and functions that have strategic importance, figuring out who should be a direct report, and deciding whether you need an operations chief are vital decisions that impact your effectiveness. An important first step is determining the right number of team members. Booz & Company’s C-Level Span of Control Diagnostic Tool, at booz.com/c-levelspan, enables you to determine a target span for your top team, based on the criteria most relevant to your particular situation. This insight can replace some time-honored conventions that have little to do with your actual challenges. For example:

• The assumption that seven constitutes a kind of magic number, when the particulars of your situation may actually require a larger or smaller leadership team
• The common practice of using metrics such as the number of employees or total revenues of a unit to determine whether its head should be your direct report
• The belief that appointing an operations chief will buy you breathing room so you can focus on the big picture

These conventions are largely irrelevant when it comes to assessing your real needs, and they may draw attention away from the factors that matter most. For example, where you stand in the executive life cycle needs to be a key consideration. ...


Another key consideration is the amount of cross-organizational collaboration your enterprise requires. ...


This level of cross-organizational collaboration is also influenced by global reach. If your company has widespread business operations, with offices in a number of countries, it will require more integration and collaboration (and therefore a larger span of control) than if you do business in a limited number of locales.

You also need to consider the proportion of time you spend externally. ...

If you’re a CEO, you’ll also need to decide whether to appoint a chief operating officer. COOs are often put in place for succession reasons — the position is used as the grooming post for the next person to step into the top job. They have also served as span breakers, managing specifics so the CEO can focus on the big picture. Key considerations when deciding whether to appoint a COO have traditionally been the organization’s culture and the CEO’s individual style, although the most relevant consideration is whether you also hold the job of chairman. If so, a COO can make sense. If not, you may find the role less than helpful. A span breaker can also serve as a filter and a way of insulating the CEO from direct managing responsibility, as well as needed information. To make the right decision, you need to take all these factors into account.

As you work with the span-of-control tool, bear in mind that, in addition to being a diagnostic, it has been designed to help you learn. Answering the questions in the drop-down menus under each bar gives you a way to think about what criteria are most useful, given your particular challenges. The diagnostic is useful in helping you determine the target size of your leadership team. Its real purpose is not to give you a more customized number but to provide you with a way to assess what parameters should shape your decisions. ...

Some questions in the tool are more important than others in helping you determine the size and composition of your leadership team. We’ve designed the algorithms to reflect the relative importance of these factors, based on evidence of what has worked best for CEOs and other top executives.

Determining the right span of control — the right people, the right number of people, and the right structure — is vital to your success on the job, but it is only the first step. In implementing the right balance, even the most skillful executives can make mistakes. But a diagnostic like this can help you avoid many of them. Top team design is not an exact science, but there’s no need to fly blind. As you answer the questions and consider the results, you’ll get a clearer sense of what matters most.

AUTHOR PROFILE:

• Gary L. Neilson is a senior partner with Booz & Company based in Chicago. He focuses on operating models and organizational transformation and is a leader of the firm’s work on organizational DNA.
• Editor’s Note: This article, along with one in the April 2012 Harvard Business Review (“How Many Direct Reports?” by Gary L. Neilson and Julie Wulf), is drawn from an ongoing inquiry into the appropriate structure for C-level top teams. For more information, see Booz & Company’s diagnostic span-of-control profiler at booz.com/c-levelspan.

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