How I became an Inbox Zero Superhero!
This is not the post I had in mind to be perfectly honest with you. However, it is the post that explains some of the recent ahem...low volume from The Property Voice.
One of the advantages of the lifestyle I lead is an ability to work from pretty much anywhere. All I need is an Internet connection and boom - I'm good 🙂
This is deliberate...I have chosen to lead a location-independent, mobile lifestyle or that of a 'digital nomad' to some extent. I know people that are hard core when it comes to being a digital nomad, so much so that they have a packing list consisting of 5 T-shirts and not much else, a backpack and a guide to where the best Internet cafes are anywhere in the world. Oh they also have a laptop...
I am not quite in that league, although I am on the move a lot and so living out of a suitcase is becoming more and more the norm for me. This type of lifestyle allows me to bring you this blog from pretty much anywhere. In fact, over the past couple of months I have sent updates from Rio De Janeiro, Florence, Rome, Geneva, Chamonix and some shall we say less glamorous places like Birmingham, Peterborough & Slough! It is pretty cool in that respect to be able to do this.
That said, I have spotted a weakness of mine especially over recent weeks. When away from a base station for too long I have a habit of stockpiling up my email. It tends to accumulate in my Inbox as I pretend to myself that I will get on top of it one evening, or set aside an hour or two to sort things out. My weakness it seems has been not getting round to doing that part.
Don't get me wrong - urgent stuff has been attended to but as time has gone by the number of emails sat in the inbox has slowly grown and had become unmanageable. To add to the confusion, I don't have just one email address and inbox...I actually have six (6)! OK, at this point I am also trying to figure out why I have six email accounts / address too!?
I am involved in several businesses and so have different identities for them - a 'portfolio approach' to my business life if you like. Sounds glamorous to say that I have an online retail business, I coach & mentor people, undertake business development projects and write on top doesn't it? Well, it kind of is glamorous to some extent but the flip side is that if you are not fully organised, very quickly things can accumulate and get out of hand. I went through such a period over the past 5-6 weeks as I combined travel with business trips and an unexpected hospital stopover to be with my daughter along the way.
One of the consequences of this 'nomadic' experience during this period was 'inbox overwhelm'. I had hundreds of emails - most marked as read but many just parked awaiting some definite action. I had to regain control and so over the past day and a half I grabbed the mouse around the neck - harming no live animals you understand - and cracked on in my quest for...Inbox Zero.
I have just managed it...despite the fact that the pesky little emails keep coming in of course but I have a solution to that too!
How did I do it? I adopted a more systematic approach.
In truth the system is still evolving and many better commentators on the subject may scoff at my baby-system but it worked for me...for now.
My Inbox Zero Hack:
First of all, I made a commitment to reach Inbox zero - I set myself that goal.
Second, I decided that the inbox was the wrong place to keep all of my mail - I therefore set up some rules:
#1 - If I can action what the email requires in 2 minutes or less, then I do it right then
#2 - If it is junk mail, I either unsubscribe, delete or file it under archive in the hope that maybe one day in the future it will be junk no more. OK, so this last point is a bit of a cop-out but at least it is out of the way. It is true that right now I am not that interested in London shows but I might be later in the year...so I stay on the ticketing website lists for now at least 🙂
#3 - I notice that I do a lot of reading...I mean a LOT. However, the truth is that I cannot possibly read all of what I get in to read and if you consider the fact that I also read on newsfeeds, forums and other non-email media as well as at least two books a month then my reading list had kind of gotten out of control. So, I set up a 'reading list' folder in my email client - it now has 53 items in it would you believe? Some are emails with stuff that I might be interested in, others are newslettters or links to articles that I am definitely interested in. I know - I will not read them all but they are in one central location and when I schedule my reading time - that's where I will head.
#4 - I sort of lied about the reading list folder...sorry about that. In fact, I also set up a separate reading list in Evernote, where I save links to web-based articles. I have another 53 links in there accumulated over the past day and a half (covering the c6 week period)...oops! Yes, I agree that it is highly unlikely that I will get to read all of those too but I need a source of material for my blog posts and general property education and other self-improvement goals - some I will definitely use for that. I will sift and delete these in due course but for now at least they are gone from the inbox.
#5 - I created separate 'to-do' folders in each inbox. These to dos are things that I need to attend to - I have around 48 emails in these to-do folders right now and whilst that sounds like a lot...actually it is a lot! I will wade through this over the rest of the week and my quest is to whittle that down to zero one way or another too.
#6 - With what is left there are only two more options I have - delete or save (or print & save really). I decide on a case-by-case basis to get through the rest.
#7 - I only check email each hour now...I am not yet brave enough to go to once per week or even twice a day just yet.
#8 - I realise that perhaps now is the time to delegate more...but who to? I do already outsource much of my property management activity and so in effect I delegate many tasks already but I have noticed that I am taking on more and more other activities and as such filling up my available time with more and more little jobs. I have therefore realised that I definitely need a 'virtual assistant' and I am going to get one...or even two, as Tim Ferriss suggests in the 4-Hour Work Week.
There you have it...my 8 steps to Inbox Zero Superhero!
I realise that today's post has little to do directly with property investment but it kind of does in a round about way. It is all about productivity. As if I needed to re-learn some of what I have written today, I had fallen into a trap - Parkinson's Law I believe it is called. The law is that work expands to fill the time available. I had become busier with my time but was not properly systematizing my routines. Actually, I was when at 'base camp' but I didn't have a portable system, or rather mindset, in place for when I am roaming.
I also realise that perhaps I was mixing up urgent & important activities with plain interesting ones - I mean, will I really read over 100 articles on top of all the other material I am consuming each and every day? I had to prioritize more than I was and so this was a useful reminder of that.
I can adopt the Kaizen principle of continuous improvement too. What can I do better than I am already? Systems and rules help to achieve this.
What about leverage? I am always talking about leverage in property investing terms (e.g. using mortgages) but the concept and principle of leverage can apply to many aspects of our life and work. We can leverage other people's time, skills, money, knowledge and contacts to name but a few. Now is the time for me to apply the principle of leverage much more widely to other parts of my business life than I have...and I won't feel ashamed for doing so either!
So, there you have it - perhaps an unusual post for a property investment blog but I hope you can relate? Maybe you can share your own 'productivity hacks', so that we can all learn to do more with less, be better organised or just feel a sense of calm in the knowledge that our inbox is at zero at least until the next time we hit send / receive 🙂
Are you an Inbox Zero Superhero?