Defining Your Finish Line

When you begin a project it is important to know what "finished" looks like. Otherwise there is no way to know when you are done or track your progress. 

Some projects are easy to define a finsh line for.
If you need to bake two dozen cupcakes for a pot-luck when you have 24 cupcakes ready to transport to the event your project is done. 

Library projects are often large and unwieldy and it can be difficult to know where you are headed or how close you are to a successful finish. This is where a bit of mental time traveling is useful. 

Let's say that the project you want to tackle is "the mountain of boxes of fishing and hunting books that a patron (Mr. Outdoors) donated to your library when he was cleaning out his attic last year." Right now this is a bunch of boxes that are piled in your workroom and are constantly in the way and make you feel guilty every time you see them because your patron's are often looking for books on these topics. Stop beating yourself up and envision the details of the ideal future for these boxes. 

It might look like this: All the books donated by Mr. Outdoors are processed for circulation (including donation plates in the front covers thanking Mr. Outdoors for his generosity); are fully represented in the library's online catalog; an article about the donation has been published in the library's e-newsletter; and the empty boxes have been recycled so you can move around in the workroom again. (I know, there will probably be a new pile in your way by then, but this is an ideal future!). That is the finish line for a full processing of the donated materials.

However, the finish line you choose for the project you are tackling right now may be closer than that. Consider this possible future: All the boxes have been emptied and recycled and the workroom space is clear again; all the donated books have been sorted into groups for the booksale, and for cataloging (with a note on the to-catalog items that they need donation plates for Mr. Outdoors) and are put away  in the normal locations for booksale items and materials-to-catalog. 

These two definitions of "finished" involve very different amounts of work--and time--to get there. 

Whichever definition of finished you decide on you will be able to recognize it when you get there. You will also have a destination to head for in your planning which can help prevent the project from getting totally out of hand. 

Now that you know where you are going you can map out a plan to get there. I will talk about what that might look like in a future post.

The power of 3

 "The Three Brothers," Yosemite Valley, California

 Recently I have been reading Chris Bailey's book The Productivity Project (see bibliography for details) and one of his "groundwork" elements is "three daily tasks." 

The idea is simple: every day before you open your email or start reviewing your messages, you write down the 3 most important things you want to accomplish that day.

I have been experimenting with this for the last few weeks and am finding it helpful. In my calendar I have been writing 3 work things (on work days) and 3 non-work things (everyday) that I want to accomplish. Most days I have gotten them all done. 

Like any useful list of tasks the things need to be specific and measurable -- "eat 5 servings of fruit and veggies," not "eat better." The things on my non-work list are often the same. For example, I like to start my day with at least 15 minutes in my sewing room so that has been on my list most days. I also have a big project I am working on at home that I am trying to take one step on each day, so those have been in the list. 

The work list is different every day depending on what project or issue has a deadline coming up or I have recently gotten input about that I want to act on.

It is definitely early days for this habit, but at this point it seems worth continuing with.

Wrangling Email - Habits

Sorting the Mail by Reginald Marsch

Maintaining 3 regular habits makes the infrastructure I talked about previously work to help me stay ahead of my email. 

#1 - Processing my Inbox

I empty my email inbox on a regular basis. This doesn't mean I completely deal with every email message, it means I look at each message, decide what action is required for it, and put it where it belongs so that action can occur. If what it needs done to it can be completed in less than 1 minute I usually go ahead and do it. I think of this as "processing" my inbox and I try to do it 2-3 times each day I am at work. 

The key to making this habit work is that it is a quick process (typically 15 minutes each morning; 5 minutes after lunch; and another 5-10 minutes just before I wrap up my workday). When I began doing this I would set a timer to keep me focused and avoid the trap of looking up from my inbox and realizing hours had gone by. Now I can usually stay on track without this task without the timer, but I still use it whenever I feel like I might get sucked into a vortex of email.

The infrastructure of categories and folders gives me the places to put messages so the action I decide they need can occur later. Here are some examples of various emails I might have in my inbox to give you an idea of the decision making process:

• An invitation to a meeting - if I want/need to attend I check my calendar, write the meeting there if I am free (yes, I use a paper calendar), accept or decline the meeting invite, and if the meeting link, agenda, or other useful info is included in the invite, I assign the message to the "waiting for" category so I can find it when it is time for the meeting.
•  An update from one of my staff about their schedule - reply to the message ("thanks for letting me know") and file it in the folder for that person (or delete it if it isn't something I might forget and need to check later).
• A request that I do something that will take more than a minute -- reply that I got the message and will take care of it and then assign the message to the  "deal with" category.
• A cc related to one of my projects -- if I don't need to do anything about it I just file it in the folder for that project. If I do need to take some action it gets flagged "deal with" 
• A message from a patron that I want one of my staff to follow up on -- I forward it to the staff person with a note telling them what I want them to do and delete the message (there is a copy automatically in my "sent" folder if I needed to go back to it for some reason).

My listserv email is in a separate category so I don't have to wade through it when I process my inbox. If I have time after my new messages are processed I review it too and process it the same way as other messages. It is rare that I need to take action on any list-serv messages, but if I do they can be handled just like any other email. 

If I have been out of the office for a while (or if I have fallen off the wagon and got behind on email processing) I schedule an hour or two to process my inbox so I am back on track.

#2 - Deal with "Deal With"

At least once each work day I try to review everything in my "deal with" category and either finish what needs to be done or add the project or task the email represents to my to do list. Once the email is dealt with (or turned into a task or project) it is either deleted or filed in the folder it relates to. If the action will need to be followed up on later that follow-up task goes into my task list or calendar, I don't leave the email in the "deal with" category. I personally find this the most challenging of the 3 habits to stay on top of.

 

 #3 - Review "Waiting for"

Once every week or two I review all the "waiting for" emails and either delete them (meeting links for meetings that are over for example); send a follow-up email to whomever I am waiting on to do something; or file them in the folder they related to. If "waiting for" is still the appropriate status for a particular email I leave it as it is.

 

Sometimes I am able to maintain these habits better than other times. However, they can all be "caught up" on if I get behind. They are also all habits that will reward any time I am able to put toward them because resolving even a single email is forward progress. 

Wrangling email - Infrastucture

Mailbags at the US Postal Service, 1913

Staying on top of email is a sysyphean task. However, doing so can make a huge difference in how smoothly--or not--your day goes. That said, it can also be a huge time-sink that keeps you from focusing on your projects and goals and actually getting anything done. 

I have found that a combination of infrastructure and habits help me to stay ahead of the deluge. This post will cover the infrastructure and I will talk about the supporting habits next time.

What I mean by infrastructure is the way I have set up my email software (I use Outlook). There are 3 main elements to my email infrastructure: folders, categories, and rules. Setting it all up can take a little while, but once it is in place it will do a lot of work for you and making modifications is pretty simple when what you need changes.

Folders

I have created folders for my various projects and for things I may need to refer back to (parking info, payroll announcements, and each of my direct reports, for example). I have read in various places that you don't need to create folders because you can just keyword search when you need to find an old email, but I have not found that to be the case. For that to work the email you are seeking has to include the words you remember. Whatever the email actually says in it I can find it in the folder for the thing it connects to for me. Having used this system for 20+ years I do have a lot of folders. I have an "Archive" folder where I move folders I think I am done with and then I clean that out periodically (when my IT department starts to complain about file size). 

Categories

Outlook lets you define "categories," that you can name (and color code if you want). I use these primarily to keep track of what emails need to have done with them. The real power of these comes from combining them with rules. I have my inbox message set up to sort by categories which are collapsible so I can have it show me only uncategorized stuff unless I open a particular category by clicking on it.

• "Waiting for" is stuff that I am holding on to until something (that I can't control) happens (agendas and links for upcoming meetings, stuff I forwarded to someone else for clarification, etc.).
• "Deal with" is stuff I need to do something about (more about this when I get to habits) 
• "List-servs" are messages that come from distribution lists I subscribe to -- these could be specific lists with their own category, or a catch-all, depending on how frequently you need to catch up on your various subscriptions. 
• "Notices" are messages that I get which tell me that some outside system has work it wants me to do. I name these for what the system is--our purchasing system for example which sends me an email notice when there is a transaction for me to approve--so I can tell at a glance where my attention might be needed. 
• The final type of category I use is basically a sub-section of "deal with" but is things I want to easily batch together when I am ready to do them. Messages people have sent me with "website updates" is an example.
  

A typical day in my inbox

Rules

Setting up rules is what makes the Outlook categories and folders really useful. Anything that you want to happen the same way every time a message arrives with particular attributes can be made into a rule that the software will follow to sort your incoming email.

• I have rules created that when an email comes from a particular address (like a listserv subscription, or a system notification) it is automatically assigned the category where I want it.
  
• I have rules created that move emails from particular addresses directly into a folder (so they never come to my inbox at all). I use this for the notices that come automatically from systems that I am the back-up administrator for (like a listserv someone else manages). The messages don't take up any of my time because I never even see them, but if I am called on to help out they are all in one place and I can easily look at them and see what needs to be done.
• I have rules that automatically forward messages from a specific address and a specific subject to a co-worker who needs to see them right away even if I am not available. 

 

Setting Expectations

I have always been a person who likes to know what's coming. 

I'm a planner. I'm a list maker. I love starting a project with a new notebook.

I drive my sister crazy with my tendency to discuss things--pretty much all things--in copious detail. 

I am also a librarian, and have been for more than 30 years now. 

This blog is a place where I plan to consider various aspects of planning and productivity, especially as they relate to libraries. These are topics I read about a lot because I find them fascinating and because I am always looking for tools I can use to accomplish all the things I want to accomplish. Some of those are library-specific things, some are more personal goals and interests. I will be talking about all of these in this space.

If this sounds interesting to you I hope you will join me in this journey and perhaps we will both learn some new ways to make our lives better and more productive.