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Four Hour Work Week in the Real World? Dream on

Flipping Heck! — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:43:04 +0100

I've recently started reading the Four Hour Work Week* (hereafter 4HWW to stop me getting RSI) by Tim Ferris and, even though I'm only on page 97 I'm already a bit annoyed by this book.

In the chapter I'm currently on, Ferris talks about regaining time by only checking email and voicemail at designated times of the day such as 12pm and 4pm - and he stresses not to check email first thing in the morning. Doing so will save you x amount of time per day - but would this actually work in the Real World? I can't see how it could.

Now, I don't know if it's the type of job that I'm in that's leading me to the conclusion I've come to, or the fact that I already manage my email perfectly well (to my mind anyway) but all I can see is that this would cause me so many more issues that it wouldn't be worth attempting in the first place.

Essentially the method is this: you set up an email autoresponder that lets the sender know that you only check your email at specific times and tell them if it's urgent to call a phone number; This phone number is set to permanent voicemail on which you leave a message telling the caller that you only check your voicemail at certain times and that if it's urgent to call another number; when the other number rings you answer it as it's "urgent".

We were discussing this at work yesterday lunchtime and I think a colleague of mine summed it up perfectly when she said "But your idea of urgent is probably different to their idea of urgent!"

Here's a couple of examples that highlight perfectly my concerns with this method of freeing up time:

A Customer drops me an email stating that the administration function of their website wasn't working and generating errors.

My Issue: The customer won't be able to add new products until this is fixed and therefore lose revenue from the site. This may mean - depending on the contract signed - that we (or I) are liable for any loss of earnings that stemmed from this bug.

4HWW Result: Customer sees the autoresponder and doesn't bother to call as to them at the time it's they don't think it's that urgent. Results in a loss of X number of orders, plus they can't do any work on the site at the time they put aside to do so. Further Result is a loss of faith in me and my company.

My Result: Confirm with the customer within 5 minutes what they're trying to do and clarify the issue. Look into the issue and fix it within 28 minutes (man, I'm good aren't I?). Results in the customer being able to carry on working quickly and no loss of orders. Further Result is that they know they can count on my and my account with their Emotional Bank Balance is increased.
Another Customer is trying to get hold of me regarding an issue they're having regarding a quote I sent to them.

My Issue: Something that probably would have taken 5 minutes in an email will now take 15 minutes in a phone call. That's 10 minutes of productive time lost. Multiply that across all calls I'd probably receive and you're looking at probably an hour a day lost using this "productivity" technique.

4HWW Result: The customer sends an email asking a question, sees the autoresponder and decides to call me as to them their enquiry is urgent. They don't leave a voicemail but instead call the "emergency" phone number which I answer. We discuss their question and then invariable move on to other - not necessarily related - issues. Results in lost time for both me and the customer, plus there's no "paper" trail to back up the discussion that was had.

My Result: Read the customer's email and reply saying I'll get back to them with the answer later as I need to look into something (irrespective of whether I need to or not). I can then schedule in a convinient time to send the email. Results in the customer knowing that I'm aware of the query and I'm looking into it and allows me to answer their question at my leisure.

Whatever way I look at it - and I did think about it a fair bit last night - I just can't see how this method of "freeing up time" could ever possibly save me any time at all; It would, in all probablility, lose me time.

Sure, this method of freeing time may work for some people but I can't see how this band-aid approach can fit all areas of work though the inference from Ferris is that it can.

There's been a bit of backlash over productivity recently (although it's mainly been centred around Getting Things Done other things have been slagged off as well (and I suppose you could say Merlin's little tirade was aimed at people like me). We all seem to be looking at some form of "cure all" for our lack of time and general disorganisation, and applying techniques like the one I've discussed here will never fix the inherent problem in our lack of productivity until we fix the most basic thing - ourselves.

Okay, I know this has probably come across as a bit of a rant but I don't see why using productivity techniques should so implicitly impact the people that pay your wages - your customers. You need to learn to manage yourself, not manage them.

I have a fear that this form email mis-management will begin to take hold. Dave Crenshaw uses the technique in his book The Myth Of Multitasking: How "doing it all" gets nothing done but for some reason the way he implemented it didn't get my goat as much as Feriss' method - which maybe due to the way the book's written.

We need to stop looking for this panacea of unatainable productivity and simple learn to manage ourselves effectively. No matter what these productivity "gurus" (or anything I say) can add an extra hour to your day. We need to stop blaming our tools, our schedules, our customers, workmates and the universe in general and realise that the ball's in our court. We need to make ourselves effective first, this is just reactive.

Fix the root cause of the issue. Anything else is just papering over the cracks.

* Affiliate Link

Tags: Email, Email Etiquette, Productivity, Getting Things Done, Rants

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What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

How not to use email at work: Sexist chap wants female skivvy. Er.. I mean flatmate

Flipping Heck! — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:00:00 +0100

I've written before about the need to be careful about what you send in an email at work but the story that I've seen in several UK national newspapers over the past couple of days really takes the biscuit.

Paul Eley sent what sounds like a harmless email around his workplace asking for a new flatmate. Nothing wrong with that in itself - until you realise that he only sent it to female colleagues and that the content of the email was, shall we say, inappropriate at best:

Hi Everyone

I am looking for a new flatmate as my old one has now left. Could you pass this on to anyone you might think would be interested.

I don't need any rent from any potential flatmate, so it will be rent free. The only thing they would pay for is their own food.

I am looking for a girl flatmate between 18 years old and 26 years old. Preferably someone who is very tidy and reasonable nice to look at.

Instead of paying rent I would expect them to do the following.

Clean the whole apartment once a week. Clean the kitchen every day and keep it tidy.

Do some of my washing and ironing. Occasionally cook for me on a week day if I am working late (nothing difficult something like sausages and mash).

It would not be a permanent arrangement because if I had a serious permanent girlfriend they would have to move out.

I would give them one month's notice so they had time to find somewhere else.

If you know anyone who would be interested let me know and I will meet them to see if I can get on with them.

Thank you, Paul.

My emphasis - for obvious reasons!

I'm not sure what this guy was thinking when he hit the "send" button, but the backlash was inevitable and he was disciplined for his actions. And rightly so when you realise that he also sent a follow-up email:

Additional things that I forgot to mention

Nice sea view, you can see from Herm to Cobo, can see sea all around Island east to West and see France on a nice day.
I will cook for them sometimes.
I will take them out to restaurants sometimes when I don't want to cook.
They can use internet on my computer as much as they want because it is broadband.
They can watch the TV in the lounge and I will allow them to watch what they want sometimes.
They can have other friends round as long as they are women.

They can have other friends round as long as they are women and only watch what he wants to watch on T.V

Er... excuse me???!

I think one of his colleagues sums up my thoughts on the matter quite well:

Nobody was sure if he was trying to be funny or not - it was either a bad joke or the most sexist thing ever written.

I'd personally go for the latter. And as for why his old flatmate left in the first place... well, I wonder why!

People need to realise that once an email's sent, it can't be retrieved and what sounds funny to you can be completely take out of context by some one else - and no emoticons and smileys don't help.

The best advice you can have when dealing with email? Never send anything in the heat of the moment. Write it, save it to your drafts folder and then read it again an hour later - never send it straight away. I'm sure if Mr Eley had done that then he wouldn't be in such a pickle.

Tags: Email, Email Etiquette

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As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Review: The Myth Of Multitasking: How & quot;doing it all& quot; gets nothing done

Flipping Heck! — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

I was lucky enough to be contacted recently by the folks at Wiley Publishing asking me if I'd like a free review copy of of "The Myth Of Multitasking: How 'doing it all' gets nothing done" by Dave Crenshaw. Well, you know me and free stuff so I jumped at the chance.

I'd seen a few interviews with Dave Crenshaw and reviews of the book but tried not to take too much notice of them as I wanted to form my own opinion of the book so when I picked it up I didn't really know what to expect.

And I have to say I was really impressed with what I read, it certainly changes whole management book genre for the better. Unlike the usual dry style "informational" style of most management books, Crenshaw gets his points across in narrative format which is a refreshing change.

The book centres around "Phil", a time management/productivity consultant; "Helen", a harrassed business executive and "Sally", Helen's put-upon subordinate. Through Phil, Helen and Sally's conversations, Crenshaw looks at multitasking and how - despite what we're constantly told - inefficient and damaging to productivity it is.

Multitasking is worse than a lie

Crenshaw states that when we're multitasking, we're not actually working on two things at once - our attention can't be divded that way, and he's right. Take me for example. As I write this, I've also got CSI:NY playing in the background. Whilst I'm hearing it and can sort of follow what's going on (someone's been shot with an arrow and some ofther guy was killed with glue), my focus is on my laptop. All well and good right? Well, not according to Crenshaw. What I'm actually doing is what he calls "Switchtasking" - the act of constantly moving the focus of our attention from one thing to another which comes with a cost. Every time my attention switches from my laptop to the T.V, this lack of focus costs time - I forget what I was going to write, lose my place and this therefore cuts down on productivity. I'd probably have written this paragraph twice as fast if the T.V was off (mind you, I wouldn't have written it I guess if I wasn't watching the T.V!).

According to Crenshaw there are two types of switching, Active and Passive. An Active Switch is when you actively make the switch to another task (like I just did by looking at the T.V as there was something interesting going on). Passive Switches are thing that you don't initiate - like the email notification I just received. Crenshaw gives a nice illustration on how the cost passive and active switches mounts up; even just over the course on an hour it's quite an astonishing amount.

Instead of beliving in the myth of multitasking, we should in fact be embracing "Background Tasking". This is the act of doing something whilst we're waiting for the antoher thing to finish like sending an email whilst you're waiting for a document to print.

Don't believe it? Try it yourself

Crenshaw provides exercises in the back of the book that were used by Phil on Helen and Sally so that you can follow in their steps and work out how much time you are losing by multitasking. The only thing I would have liked to see with these exercises is perhaps a link to a section of Crenshaw's site where he could provide downloadable versions of the forms. The books format doesn't really lend itself to photocopying and I think that getting people to create the forms themselves puts a barrier in between them just looking at it and actually going ahead and filling it in - I know it did me.

Will it catch on?

Unfortuately, I'm not sure it can - not to a massive extent anyway. We're so entrenched in the myth of multitasking in all parts of an organisation that it would be difficult to promote consistent changes across all areas of the business. Don't get me wrong, I think Crenshaws premise is sound and that his methods really would work - I'm just not convinced it could be rolled out across a large organisation like a system such as "Getting Things Done" could (and is).

Final Thoughts

This is a great book, and a really easy read - I finished it in a couple of lunch hours. It's well written and contains some great information and stats - although I did find the pull quotes a bit distracting.

Would I recommend it? Yes, for smaller organisations and individuals I think it would have a big impact on productivity and work/life balance.

If you're interested in finding out more, you can visit Dave Crenshaw's site or buy The Myth of Multitasking: How 'Doing It All' Gets Nothing Done at Amazon (affiliate link).

Tags: Review, Multitasking, Productivity

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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Facebook and Google vs Privacy

Flipping Heck! — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

<start rant>
I've started to become a little annoyed with the sort of information tracking that Google and Facebook seem to be doing at the moment.

Okay, I know by using their products and services I've agreed to whatever terms and conditions the decided to have at the time but it's beginning to irritate me that they want to know everything about me - and appear to know everything about me.

Take this recent Facebook ad that keeps getting chucked in my face.

Okay Facebook, thanks for reminding me - like my Dad doesn't do that enough already.

If it's possible, I think Google actually annoyed me more. All I did was open an Excel sheet in Google Docs as I thought it would be quicker and more convenient to do that than download it. What does Google then do?

Saves it for me.

Without asking.

If I wanted to save it, I'd have saved it thank-you-very-much.

Then it took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to delete the blooming thing.

I know I could stop using these, but they're so entrenched and prevalent in every day "Inetrnet" life that it's difficult to get away from them.

It would be rather interesting - and frightening - to see how much, and what, information just these two companies hold on me.

Maybe I need to stop using the internet and start wearing a tin-hat.

Photo by Desperate Dan

What do you think? Am I being paranoid or do we really need to start worrying about this?

</end rant>

Tags: Rants, Google, Facebook

This Post has been viewed 370 times
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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

DocStoc - Online Document Storage Now With File Syncing

Flipping Heck! — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

I was contacted by DocStoc recently asking me to take a look at a new piece of software they've released called DocStoc Sync. I've written before about DocStoc but if you're not familiar with their service, its essentially an online document storage site that allows you to upload documents and store them publically or privately You can also embed documents in webpages as you can with YouTube videos, which is excellent for showing presentations.

Anyway, on to DocStoc Sync. You simply download the program (which works for Mac or PC) and you can set it to watch specific folders or manually add files to your DocStoc account.

This will be really handy for people who are remotely working on projects with others, or if you use different computers in different locations. I know there are tools out there that are similar such as BaseCamp but these are actually quite bad at document management.

I have to hold my hands up and say that I've not tried DocStoc Sync yet as I personlly have no real need to share documents this way but I thought I'd bring it to your attention as I think it's definately something that others will find incredibly useful,

Have you tried it out yet? If so, let us know in the comments

Tags: Review, Downloads, Website

This Post has been viewed 374 times
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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Review: TUL.COM Online (comedy) Graphology Test

Flipping Heck! — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

I stumbled across a rather amusing website recently advertising TUL Pens. I must admit I'd not heard of them before but I am a bit of a pen fanatic so I thought I'd take a look.

Basically, you write down the phrase "I truly need a new pen" and then answer a short series of questions on how you've written the sentance and certain letters.

It's actually quite amuzing but I was hoping I'd need the TUL Gel Retractable rather than the Dry Erase Marker!

Have a look at the TUL website and see what your handwriting (allegedly!) says about you. Remember "With the TUL Pen there's no wrong way to write".

And make sure you check out the "What is Graphology?" video - true genius!

Tags: Review, Humour, Pens

This Post has been viewed 372 times and has 1 Comments So Far
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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

5 Lessons Managers Can Learn From Running A Pool Team

Flipping Heck! — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:00:00 +0100

Okay, a slightly strange topic - and tangent - for me I know bt I've been thinking about this for a while now (no wonder my head hurts!) and I actually think that the lessons I've learned whilst running one of my local pool teams - Yes, they let ME be a captain, the fools!! - are quite relevant to the business world and teams in general so, if you'll bear with me, here are the five things I've learned from pool that I think will help you run your team.

Slight disclaimer, I'm not currently managing a team but I used to so that's how I know, okay?!

Photo Credit - Darkas

1. Always be on the look out for new talent

You never know when someone may shine so always be looking around you - at other teams and just in general. Sure, your team may already be complete but you never know when someone's going to move or - heaven forbid - leave.

Try to spot people early, and then keep an eye on them; take an interest and offer to help them. Plus, let them know that there's a space on your team for them in the future - this is one heck of a motivator and will work wonders in your favour in your favour when they actually ask them to join you.

If you act like a true mentor they'll be more willing to help you (and join you) at a later date.

2. Motivate your team to WIN

What's the point in taking part in something if the outcome isn't beneficial to everyone? This goes in line with Stephen Covey's "Think Win/Win" mentality.

But, don't forget that it's not "Win at all costs", doing that will foster resentment amongst team members. You need to think of them as a whole; every one of them has a vested interest (or should have - if they don't there's something wrong) in the outcome. You can't be seen to have a "favoured" member of the team - even if they are the best person there. But that leads us on to our next point...

3. Realise winning isn't everything

We all know that sometimes we do get into a no-win situation but don't place too much pressure on your team. Added pressure will begin to foster resentment amongst team members - especially if one isn't performing as well as the rest. If you take me at pool for example, I'm rubbish but the rest of the team love my enthusiasm and back me 100% - there's no resentment or back biting.

Even if you are losing big-time (tonight it was 4-1 at one point!) and it looks like a no-win situation, you still need to be positive and let you team know that it doesn't matter whether they win or lose they just need to enjoy themselves and do the best they can.

4. Know when to step back

If your team is running well as it is, do you really need to get involved?

If they've gelled, are doing well and are progressing of thier own volition - are you needed to step in and or interfere?

Also, you need to realise that if there's someone who can do something as well as, or as good as you, there's no shame in acknowledging that. More often than not I opt out of playing a pool game - even though I may win and I'm captain - in favour of someone else who may do better.

Self-sacrifice shows a real "team player" attitude and ultimately makes people respect you as it's not all about "You".

5. We learn from others better than we learn from ourselves

I have several shortcomings in my pool game that my team mates have commented on. Consequently every now and again we all get together just to practice all of our week points.

Don't make your team member's shortcoming's an issue - embrace them and help them learn from them. If your team is strong enough then you should all be able to help one another get better. Actively encourage others to share their own thoughts and experiences as it'll better the team as a whole.

Making your team open, transparent and trusting will have a direct benefit to all involved.

In Conclusion

People are a valuable resource - not just a commodity - and you need to realise that you as a manager don't know everything. Even though you may think you do.

Remember what they say, there is "No I In Team" - and there may be a "Me" before someone points it out - but then that's not actually a true team then is it?. You for an "I" or "Me" into a team and that'll be the end of it sooner rather than later.

Tags: Motivation, Teams, Management

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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Review: iGTD Task Management Application

Flipping Heck! — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0100

When I had the chance to review Smart-To-Do List recently, I didn't think I'd find another productivity tool that would work so well for me, the only reason I'm not using it day-to-day is that it's unfortunately Windows only.So, I continued the hunt and the next program I found was "iGTD" - from the website:

You are a busy person, aren't you? And there's an easy way to track all things that have to be done... and to get those things done! iGTD takes some concepts from Getting Things Done methodology and makes them easy to understand and use in your every day life. But it's definitely not limited to the GTD concept - you can really use it the way you want.

When I first fired up the program, the interface did look a bit confusing and certainly not as simple and clean as Smart To-Do-List but there are a lot of handy tutorials on the site - in fact the program has some of the best documentation I've seen for a while for a free program.

The first step I took was to add a list of contexts. This was a little fiddly to get the hang of as the "Apple+N" key always adds a new task. I had been expecting that clicking on content list would "activate it" but you can add contexts by hitting "Apple+Shift+N" or clicking the "+" sign at the bottom of the screen.

Context List

After adding contexts, I then added my projects which was quite simple and a nice piece of functionality is that you can add sub projects:

Project List

You can then start adding tasks by hitting "APPLE + N" and assign them to contexts by simply pressing the arrow keys once the Context column is active. It's not as quick as Smart To-Do-List in terms of adding tasks but once you get the hang of it, it isn't too arduous.

Add New Task & Task List

There are a few more features in iGTD that aren't present in Smart To-Do-List such as 5 levels of priority, recurring tasks, "energy" required, start/due dates, and I think these are really handy - especially as I have some recurring tasks so now I don't have to remember to re-add them each month, iGTD does it for me

Task Priorities

Task with Due Date

As well as simple task management, you can add links, notes, contacts and tags to tasks as well. I've not yet figured out the use for tags but I guess it's Web 2.0 Standard functionality now isn't it?!

Add Notes

Add Links

As well as storing tasks, you can also post website links (from Firefox and Safari) and emails (from Apple Mail) in your task list by simply hitting "F6" (or Function+F6 on my MacBook)

Add URLS

You can view your added tasks by context, all contexts, project, to complete or completed

View All Contexts

Contexts can be printed out, or exported - although I didn't see an XML export so it means that your tasks are locked into iGTD

In terms of getting your tasks into iGTD, you don't have to add them directly via the program. There is a desktop widget that you can use, the program also integrates with QuickSilver

Dashboard Widget

iGTD with QuickSilver

All in all I'm really liking "iGTD" and the way it integrates quite well with everything even if it isn't overaly portable. Knowing me, I'll probably get bored with in in a while and try something else but there are still some features I've not looked into yet like Syncing with iCal, .Mac (No mention if it works with Mobile Me - but then does anything?) but no syncing with any form of mobile device that I can see - which is a shame as I could probably have done something with a bit of nifty XML parsing.

So, if you're looking for a simple Task management application with a GTD twist and you're on Mac, seriously think about trying "iGTD". Or maybe you think I've missed some other great program. Let me know in the comments or Contact Me.

Tags: GTD, Software, Review, Productivity

This Post has been viewed 377 times and has 1 Comments So Far
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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

What your email response time says about you

Flipping Heck! — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0100

I read an article in The Daily Mail called "Email etiquette: What your response time reveals about your personality".

From the Article by Liz Hull:

It's usually considered polite when a friend or colleague replies to your email promptly.

But such a swift response may have a downside - it may mean the sender is stressed or has low self-esteem, according to research.

Now, I'm not sure about you, but when I get an email if I have the time available (and I'm at a computer obviously!) I reply straight away as:

It's polite
I hate the inevitable follow-up "did you get my email" conversion/phone call/email/post-it

But then maybe that's because the article goes on to say:

Women, in particular, felt more pressure to respond quickly to a new email than men, she said.

I think the most worrying point of the article is:

The research revealed that employees working on a computer typically switched applications to view their emails as many as 30 or 40 times an hour, for anything from a few seconds to a minute.

Thiry or Forty times an hour? Do these people have no other work to do? Have they not heard of notification or setting up defined times to batch process email?

Check out the article to see some other slightly worrying stats about how people use their email. I'd be interested to hear how often and how quickly your reply to yours - let us know in the comments or Contact Me

Tags: Email, Email Overload, Email Etiquette

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What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

7 Habits: Habit 7 - Sharpen The Saw : Principles of balanced Self-Renewal

Flipping Heck! — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:29:44 +0100

Habit 7 is the habit that makes all others possible (Er, so why isn't this the first one then or am I being picky?). Basically "Sharpening the saw" is the process of learning, evolving and building on the habits that we've mastered; It's self-improvement and self growth in all areas of our lives.

This habit sees us applying learning and growth over 4 main areas:

Physical (excercise, nutrition, stress management)
Social/Emotional (Service, Empathy, Synergy, Intrinsic Security)
Spiritual (Value Clarification & Commitment, Study & Meditation)
Mental (Reading, Visualising, Planning, Writing)

In order to "Sharpen the saw", we need to practice improving the Physical, Social/Emotional, Spiritual and Mental aspects of our lives. Covey breaks this down into sections and gives us pointers on what we could be improving in each of these areas:

Physical

Looking after ourselves
Eating properly
Resting properly
Exercise - Covey puts a lot of emphasis on this, tying mental and physical activity together.

Spiritual

This is highly related to Habit 2 (Start with the end in mind)
Meditation
Self Discovery
Self Examination of our inner selves and motivations
This links back to our "Personal Mission Statement", we use this time to review and renew ourselves.

Mental

Growing rather than stagnating
Continuing to learn - doesn't necessarily mean a classroom or in a formal setting
Trying new things - pushing the boundaries, going past our "comfort zone"
Keeping a diary

Social/Emotional

This area leans more on habits four (think Win/Win), five and six
Centres around relationship building
Co-operating and making a difference
Creates Meaning and purpose
Serving the "Greater Good"

Bringing together the first 6 habits not only helps us to improve ourselves but other as well. Covey calls this "Scripting" which sounds a lot better than Covey's previous use of the term "Influence". When we "Script" people, we can begin to start moulding their outlook on life, giving them "Psychological Air" and building up our emotional bank balance with them. This moves the other person into our Circle of Influence.

Covey begins to wind down the chapter with a quote from Goethe which I think is quite an apt way to illustrate his points:

Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is.
Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.

We need to ensure that we balance our self-renewal and growth across all four aspects, negativity in one area impacts all of the other areas. Improving one aspect should have a positive impact across the other areas but we need to ensure that we don't ignore other aspects that we may not feel comfortable with. Covey calls this process a "Private Victory", which ideally should be practiced an hour a day, this then creates an "Upward spiral of "Learn - Commit - Do".

What I learned from Habit Seven

I have to admit, not a lot. I think the only thing that I don't look after properly in this habit is Exercise - I know I could do more but never seem to have the time or inclination!

What am I going to do about it?

Not a lot really! I think I'll keep on doing what I'm doing and maybe think about exercising a bit more!

Interested in this book? Buy the 7 Habits of highly effective peoplefrom Amazon today

Tags: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Motivation, Currently Reading, Review

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What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

Move over Entourage, Here comes Apple Mail!

Flipping Heck! — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:31:19 +0100

I've written before about my massive issues with Gmail and Entourage and today I finally gave up and decided to move to Apple Mail.

I had toyed with the idea of using Thunderbird again as I've managed to use that as a "Getting things done" tool quite successfully but I'm now playing with iGTD (more on this at a later date) to manage my tasks and iGTD integrates with Apple Mail so I thought I'd give that a go.

Why is swapping email clients never that easy?

My first problem was that I couldn't find a way of getting my contacts out of Entourage so I ended up manually copying them into Apple's address book. It was a pain but at least it meant that I could get rid of unused addresses (although I have since found something that says it can import addresses from an Outlook PST File - Look under the "Switching section).

I then set up my Gmail account - which seemed to go without a hitch (uh oh!) and the mails imported successfully using the IMAP settings I found. It was then I started fiddling....!

One Blog said that in order to get rid of the "Gmail" section (see the image above) and just leave the main "Inbox" to go to:

Preferences > Accounts > Advanced

In the Imap Path Prefix add the name of the account - in my case [Google Mail]. Doing this meant that none of the folders/labels would sync! It took me ages to figure out that it was the Imap Path Prefix to blame. Essentially adding this meant that GMail couldn't recognise any of the labels (displayed as folders in Apple Mail) and therefore couldn't sync. So, if you have that problem then you know what it is!

What? No handy notifications?

Entourage and Thunderbird both have the capability out-of-the-box to display little pop-up notifications when new mail arrives, Apple Mail doesn't have this support. What? Never fear, enter Growl.

Install Growl, and then in the extras folder, install the Mail notifier (you can also install an Itunes notifier from there as well) and when you receive new mail, a nofication box will appear on the screen. The default colours can be adapted but I found them all to be a little dark on by black wallpaper so I added a new "iPhone" skin. The install process for this was really simple too, just double click on the skin file, enter the Growl preferences (under the System Preferences pane) and select it. You can see a sample below:

Huh? No 3 column view?

In both Entourage and Thunderbird, I've previously liked to use a three-column view. This is especially useful on my MacBook due to the small screen size - especially if you have a fair few messages in your Inbox. In Entourage and Thunderbird, this can be done quite easily, again in Apple Mail, it's not so simple.

In order to add three columns to Apple Mail, you need to install a third party add-on called "Letterbox".

I can't tell messages apart, where are the lines?

In Thunderbird you can add themes which show alternate inbox rows as different colours. I've always found this to be quite handy in differentiating the different messages but Apple Mail can't do this without a few tweaks.

I did find a tutorial for alternating row colours in Apple Mail however, the steps given didn't quite work for me so I've written out the way I did it here:

1. Install xCode from the installation CD you got with your Mac 2. Make a copy of mail just in case! 3. Right-click/Control Click on Mail 4. Select "Show Package Cotents"5. Navigate tp "Eng.proj" folder 6. Open "MessageViewerContents" folder 7. Open "classes.nib" in Interface Designer 8. Click on the top message area in the "fake" mail box, the Attributes Pane should now open (If it doesn't hit Apple+Shift+I) 9. Check the "Alternate Row Colours" box 10. Save and Close 11. Open Apple Mail and the changes should be applied

"Fake" Mail Inbox

Inbox Attribute Pane

Inbox before Alternate Rows

Inbox After Alternate Rows Applied

I need to label!

Apple Mail has an interesting way of applying labels, simple click SHIFT+APPLE+C and the colour pane will pop-up, you can then apply a colour to the selected message.

Label (top highlighted item) and Colour picker coloured item (bottom highlighted item)

The problem with this is that you may not get the same colour each time, for example you may want red for "Urgent", Orange for delegated etc. Enter Mail Label Script from the TwisterMC Blog. Simply install the script and you can you can apply set label colours to your emails.

Labels Scripts Menu

Over to you....

Is there anything else I should look at adding that will make Apple Mail even cooler? Let us know in the comments or Contact Me

Tags: Email, GMail, Entourage, Apple Mail, IMAP

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What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

New Productivity Blog Launched - SmartProductivity.com

Flipping Heck! — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:00:00 +0100

Scott Karstetter contacted me recently to let me know that he'd launched a new blog called "Smart Productivity".

Scott's GTD-esq task management program is a joy to use (you can read my review here), although it is Windows only (boo!), so when I heard he was launching a blog I couldn't wait to have a look.

Although it's in it's early stages, I can see Scott's blog as being one off the go-to places for productivity hints and tips from a software point of view - as well as here of course!

As Scott puts it:

The focus of the blog is to give tips and advice on software, GTD, to-do list hacks, productivity and life.

Some of the topics that will be discussed include software reviews, book reviews, interviews with productive personalities, lifehacks, and most of all, how to make your life better with technology.

So, head on over to "Smart Productivity" and add it to your feed reader, you'll be missing a wealth of information if you don't!

Tags: Review, Blogs, Productivity, Software

This Post has been viewed 368 times
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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

UK National Holidays - are we getting a bad deal?

Flipping Heck! — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:11:03 +0100

There was no post from me yesterday as it was a Bank Holiday here in the UK, which got me to thinking - how do we fare in terms of holidays compared to the rest of Europe/The World?

I was all prepared to say how hard-done-by we are but the research I did was quite enlightening. The main problem is sifting through all of the available information on the Internet to find the relevant stuff!

Please note that the following table is based on the data that I found and chose to use. There is actually quite a big discrepancy is the data available - not in terms of holidays allowed/given, but in terms of how long we work.

I've written before that we Brits often get a bum deal at work, and some of the studies I've found prove this - others say that we do as little as 34.5 hours a week! I don't know how there can be a difference of 14 hours, but I guess it depends on the data that you've got available and the type of workforce you're looking into.

Anyway, the chart below details working hours and National Holidays - it doesn't include any reference to paid holidays that you may be entitled to. For instance, I get 26 paid days leave a year with my current job (4 of those need to be kept for the Christmas period), in my last job I think I had 18!

The most surprising/annoying thing is the difference of holiday allowance within the UK itself. I've split England/Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland out to illustrate this. So you can see below that Scotland gets one extra day and Northern Ireland have two. That's not fair!

I've ordered the table by working hours rather than holidays as I was trying to see if the number of public holidays correspondeded with hours worked but, er, it didn't!

So, what do you think? Do we have enough holidays? Not Enough, or too many? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. I'd be interested to hear from my readers how many National Holidays you actually get per year.

Holidays/Working Hours

Country	Public Holidays	Average Working Hours/Year
USA	11	1804
Japan	15	1775
Spain	9 ***	1769
Australia	10	1730
Canada	15 **	1737
Portugal	14	1685
England / Wales	8 Days	1672*
Scotland	9 days	1672 *
Northern Ireland	10 days	1672 *
Switzerland	18 **	1659
Rep. Of Ireland	9 Days	1638
France	13 days	1546
Sweden	13	1587
Germany	9-13 **	1437

* Data Can't be split from data set used, plase see the UK Working hours spreadsheet for England/Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland split.
** Dependant on region
*** Plus regional holidays

Sources Cited

Holidays List - Wikipedia

UK Working Hours - Office of National Statistics (2003)

Working Hours Data taken from Swivel.com (2005 Data)

Tags: Working Hours, Holiday, Work/Life Balance

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What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next

7 Habits: Habit 6 - Synergise

Flipping Heck! — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:00:00 +0100

Oh dear, the title of this chapter alone had me cringing before I even started to read it. I detest management speak and jargon and this word really grated on me. But, being the trooper that I am, I got over it and read the chapter anyway.

For those not familiar with the ~~evil~~ word "Synergy", the definition from Dictionary.com:

syn-er-gy

- noun, plural -gies.

combined action or functioning; synergism.
the cooperative action of two or more muscles, nerves, or the like.
the cooperative action of two or more stimuli or drugs.

Hmm... I think we can discount the last two, don't you!

The start of the chapter explains how all of the previous habits build up to reach this point of where we can interact in a "synergistic" way with others as synergy, Covey says, is the essence of "principle-centered leadership".

Covey defines his idea of synergy in a different, and slightly more fitting way than the dictionary definition:

The whole is greated than the sum of its parts....
[so] One plus one equals 3 or more

Basically, synergistic communication and interaction is all about going off the beaten track and finding new ways of doing things.

At the start of the chapter, Covey is a little scary (to me at least) with the enthusiasm and vigour that he lauches into the subject which is a bit over the top for my simple British way of looking at things; but once I got over it, it actually started to sound quite interesting.

Basically, Covey's trying to get across the importance of co-operation - not just the act itself but the spirit of it - and how it usually only happens in unusual circumstances (like natural disasters, wartime etc).

This bit annoyed me a little. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe it's because I'm English, maybe it's because I live in a small tight-knit village community or work with a great team of people but I'm surrounded by co-operation. Constantly. And in all walks of life.

If Covey's correct in what he says that the majority of people never reach a co-operative stage consistently then that's a real shame in my view - but hey, I'm obviously one of the lucky ones!

That aside, Covey makes some interesting points as to what synergy is and how you achieve it.

You need to be authentic and genuine
You need to be open about your thought, feelings and fears
You need to be open about the thoughts, feelings and fears of others
You can't be judgemental
You need to thin Win/Win or Win/Draw

If you can achieve this, and begin to communicate synergistically, then the possiblities (in theory) are endless. Synergy breeds creativity of thought and acts as people become more open as they receive more "Psychological air".

An added benefit of communicating synergistically (to Covey anyway, I see it differently as we'll discuss in a moment) is that it increases trust levels. Covey explains this with a simple graph:

His linear approach doesn't quite sit that well with me. It's all too neat, simple and ordered when you consider how wacky and irrational we humans are.

If people are overly co-operative - and I'm sure you know the type; eager to please, drop things at a moments notice - whilst this is initially nice, it can:

Become rather irritating after a while
Make you wonder "What's in it for them"

Okay, I admit that this goes against the whole idea of Covey's "Synergy Habit" but I'm cynical so I can't help it. Here's my take on the trust/communication relationship:

I think there's a plateau of trust - sort of a maximum amount you can earn. Once you reach that level and keep on trying to pile it on and earn credits in your "Emotional Bank Account" it can begin to turn into feelings of mis-trust and even become a lose/lose situation again as you start thinking "Why are they helping me? What are they getting out of this? What will they want in return?"

This actually moves us quite nicely into Covey's take on "Negative Synergy" which is pretty much how I see everything!

Negative Synergy is where we assist people purely because we're in "cover my own arse" mode. We document everything, slag people off behind their backs and try to beat other people down. It's basically a false representation of Synergisting communication - you're acting it but you're not in the spirit of it.

If we've mastered the first 5 Habits, then we've moved above this negative synergy and can see the benefit of the whole rather than the one - or to quote Mr Spock from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan "The needs of the many outweight the needs of the few, or the one" (see how I managed to slip another Trek reference in? How Good am I?).

If we think, act and interact synergetically we learn to value and embrace differences. We may have a difference of opinion but still both be correct; it doesn't matter though as we're on the same side ultimately and those differences will lead to various opportunities to come up with solutions and lead us in new directions.

Tags: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Motivation, Currently Reading, Review

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Free Subscriber Download

As a valued subscriber of the Flipping Heck! Blog, you are entitled to your Free subscriber download of "Managing Meetings"

What the book covers:

What is a meeting?
Why do we need them? Who benefits from them and where did all the free doughnuts go?
Types of meeting
Oh yes, there are lots and lots. The question is, which one is best suited for your topic?
Before the meeting starts
Have you got everything you need? Hmm, I wonder!
During the meeting
What you need to know if you're running it, if you're the secretary and if you're an attendee
Bad Meetings
Meetings from hell - we've all been there!
After the meeting
Wrapping it all up and what happens next