Characteristics of Gridlocked Systems

I’ve been reading A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin H. Friedman, in preparation for my doctoral dissertation. This book is about how emotional processes are what need to be engaged when thinking about leadership and change within an organization, not logic, reason, or methodology.

Friedman, in the first chapter on “Imaginative Gridlock” deals with the characteristics of a gridlocked system, and there are three:

1. An unending treadmill of trying harder;
2. Looking for answers rather than reframing questions; and
3. either/or thinking that creates false dichotomies.

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Write One Thing and Write it Well

I’m working hard on my writing.  It’s not yet showing up on this blog, but I’ve got two new books underway and then my doctoral dissertation that I will be starting in the summer.  So I’ve looking around blogs that focus on writing and one I like is called Write to Done.

I ran across this post this morning and thought it was excellent.  The details of each of the 9 points are found in the original post, so check it out.  Enjoy!

Write one thing today, and write it well. Here’s how.

1. Simplifying your writing.

2. Create a clear goal.

3. Set your goal the night before.

4. Focus on something important.

5. Block out time.

6. Pour all your energy into it.

7. Be proud of the job you’ve done.

8. Take time to review this accomplishment.

9. Prepare for tomorrow.

The System

We often find ourselves running from the system.  The system creates for us an unbearable expression of authority, crying to be deconstructed and reconstructed.  To do so would require the approval of those who operate the system and thrive in its authority.  Deconstructing the system affects control.  When you have fought so long for control, you do not easily give it up.

I found this past week a flawed system.  It needs to be deconstructed and reconstructed.  Power and control need to b in the hands of those who live within the context of the system, not those who hardly interact within it.

Being a systems guy, a macro-leader, and a believer in complexity (or chaotic systems), if I were asked my opinion of how to deconstruct the system, an opinion would be offered.

Dealing with Email

One of the blogs I really enjoy is the blog of Tim Ferriss.  He wrote The Four Hour Work Week and has great thoughts on productivity and lifestyle.  He’s the reason I began to use a virtual assistant.

I’ve read a couple of things about his email habits - he only checks email 2-3 times per day, makes general use of autoresponders, and several other good tips.  On his blog this morning he has a guest post from Leo Babauta entitled “10 Steps to Become a Email Ninja“.  I thought I would share this with you.

I don’t know about you, but I get dozens - if not hundreds - of emails a day.

Unlike most people, however, I’m able to process through them, respond quickly, and get my inbox empty in 20 minutes (checking perhaps 2-3 times a day).

In fact, I respond so quickly, and empty my inbox so quickly, that friends have called me an “email ninja”.

Let’s look at some simple strategies for being able to get your inbox to done in as little time as possible.

Pre-empt
The first stage of any email strategy is to stop any unnecessary email from getting into your inbox in the first place. When I said I get perhaps hundreds of emails a day, I deceived a bit - most of those emails never make it to the inbox. They go straight to the spam folder or the trash. You only want the essential emails in your inbox, or you’ll be overwhelmed.

1. Junk. I recommend using Gmail, as it has the best spam filter possible. I get zero spam in my inbox. That’s a huge improvement over my previous accounts at Yahoo and Hotmail, where I’d have to tediously mark dozens of emails as spam.

2. Notifications. I often get notifications from the many online services I use, from Amazon to WordPress to PayPal and many more. As soon as I notice those types of notifications filling up my inbox, I create a filter (or “rule” if you use Mail.app or Outlook) that will automatically put these into a folder and mark them as read, or trash them, as appropriate. So for my PayPal notifications, I can always go and check on them in my “payments” folder if I like, but they never clutter my inbox.

3. Batch work. I get certain emails throughout the day that require quick action (like 10-15 seconds each). As I know these emails pretty well, I created filters that send them into a “batch” folder to be processed once a day. Takes a couple minutes to process the whole folder, and I don’t have to see them in my inbox.

4. Stupid joke emails. If you have friends and family who send you chain emails and joke emails and the like, email them and let them know that you are trying to lessen the huge amount of email you have to deal with, and while you appreciate them thinking of you, you’d rather not receive those kinds of messages. Some people will be hurt. They’ll get over it. Others will continue to send the emails. I create a filter for them that sends them straight in the trash. Basically, they’re on my killfile. If they ever send an important email (which is rare), they’ll call me eventually and ask why I haven’t responded. I tell them that their email must be in my spam folder.

5. Publish policies. As most people who email me get my contact info from my website, I’ve created a set of policies published on my about page that are designed to pre-empt the most common emails. If people follow my policies, I will get very little email. For example, instead of emailing me to ask for a link, they can save the link in my del.icio.us inbox … for suggestions or comments or questions, they can post them on a couple pages I created for that purpose. I’m also planning on creating an FAQ page for more common questions and issues. These policies remove the burden on me to respond to every request - I still read the comments and questions, but I only respond if I have time. My inbox has been under a much lighter burden these days.

Processing the rest
So now that only the essential emails come into your inbox, the question is how to get it empty in 20 minutes? I should warn you that the “20 minutes” time frame is how long it takes me - your mileage may vary, depending on how practiced you are at the following methods, and how much email you get, and how focused you keep yourself. However, in any case, you should be able to get your inbox empty in a minimal amount of time using these methods.

I should also note: if you have a very full inbox (hundreds or thousands of messages), you should create a temporary folder (”to be filed”) and get to them later, processing them perhaps 30 minutes at a time until you’re done with that. Start with your inbox empty, and use the following techniques to keep it empty, in as little time as possible.

6. Have an external to-do system. Many times the reason an email is lingering in our inbox is because there is an action required in order to process it. Instead of leaving it in your inbox, and using the inbox as a de facto to-do list, make a note of the task required by the email in your to-do system … a notebook, an online to-do program, a planner, whatever. Get the task out of your inbox. Make a reference to the email if necessary. Then archive the email and be done with it. This will get rid of a lot of email in your inbox very quickly. You still have to do the task, but at least it’s now on a legitimate to-do list and not keeping your inbox full.

7. Process quickly. Work your way from top to bottom, one email at a time. Open each email and dispose of it immediately. Your choices: delete, archive (for later reference), reply quickly (and archive or delete the message), put on your to-do list (and archive or delete), do the task immediately (if it requires 2 minutes or less - then archive or delete), forward (and archive or delete). Notice that for each option, the email is ultimately archived or deleted. Get them out of the inbox. Never leave them sitting there. And do this quickly, moving on to the next email. If you practice this enough, you can plow through a couple dozen messages very quickly.

8. Be liberal with the delete key. Too often we feel like we need to reply to every email. But we don’t. Ask yourself, “What’s the worst that will happen if I delete this?” If the answer isn’t too bad, just delete it and move on. You can’t reply to everything. Just choose the most important ones, and reply to them. If you limit the emails you actually reply to or take action on, you get the most important stuff done in the least amount of time. Pareto and all that.

9. Short but powerful replies. So you’ve chosen the few emails you’re actually going to respond to … now don’t blow it by writing a novel-length response to each one. I limit myself to five sentences for each reply (at the maximum - many replies are even shorter). That forces me to be concise, to choose only the essentials of what I want to say, and limits the time I spend replying to email. Keep them short, but powerful.

10. Process to done. When you open your inbox, process to it to done. Don’t just look at an email and leave it sitting in your inbox. Get it out of there, and empty that inbox. Make it a rule: don’t leave the inbox with emails hanging around. Empty and clean. Ahhh!

Working with a Virtual Assistant

In a past post on the new year, I mentioned that I hired a personal virtual assistant. A couple of you asked me for more details and I’ve talked with folks on the phone and they have mentioned it. So I thought I would put together a post on the why and how of this to give you more details about the process.

Here’s why: I hate administration. I am not a details person. Big vision, big ideas, seeing the whole picture? That’s me. But making it work…not me. I can if I want, but it’s really hard work to be detailed oriented and to even remember to pay bills. That’s why my wife handles our finances. I can tell you what’s on my schedule in regards to meetings, but not much else; I’m a people-oriented person and those things stick out to me. That’s just who I am.

I had read parts of Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Work Week and saw a clip or two of him talking about outsourcing his administrative stuff to a virtual assistant in India for $5/hour. I thought, “Hey, that sounds like a great idea. I need to check that out.” So I did, and placed an ad on elance.com. Elance is a site where people who are freelancers bid on projects from folks who need projects done. I had used the site before for a logo, and had used the site to find someone to create executive summaries from big documents. I’ve had good success from the site. So I posted a project for a virtual assistant. And I waited for the bids to come in. Several did. Some were from overseas, but I really wanted someone who I could get during the day if necessary. The bids from Americans were higher than the overseas bid, but I chose a person from Michigan for the job. Her name is Erin.

Before I accepted her bid, I contacted her to make sure she was fine working for a pastor. I knew that I might ask her to do some “pastoral” oriented administrative stuff, and I needed to make sure she was comfortable with doing that. Her reply was that she was fine with it, and that she was a Methodist. So I accepted her bid and off we have gone.

I asked Erin to share a little something about what she does and why she is a virtual assistant. She said:

I could go on, and on, and on! Because I love it so much and benefits are numerous. Like you said in your last post your church is small and does not need a full or even part time administrator. Someone like me can step in on an as needed basis and stay out of the way when you don’t need me. No taxes, payroll, vacation, sick time, 401 k you just pay a small fee for services rendered.

When I started this business I tried selling this idea to my surrounding area. I live in a small town here in SW MI but I am within 20 minutes of South Bend, IN (Notre Dame), St. Joseph, MI (Lake MI), Kalamazoo (Western MI University) and so on…why wouldn’t everyone want this????? Well they didn’t. It was once that I explored the online world and “virtual assisting” that I started making a presence. I am assisting everyone from a business coach in Florida to a small bicycle touring company in Italy and I adore every one of my clients. I like that I can have a personal touch even though I may be several thousands of miles away from my client. When someone calls and says, “Erin my shower is leaking and I need it fixed” or “Erin I need 10 60 page documents printed and Fed Ex ASAP” I can make it happen and they didn’t have to take the time out of their busy schedules to get it done, that is what I am here for!

I live my life and proceed in my business with one rule always in mind, “Due unto others as which you would have done to you.” Taking care of peoples needs and getting satisfaction from it gives me pride that I never got from the 9-5 world.

So what does Erin do for me? She has organized all my personal and ministry expenses by category and month in a spreadsheet. I have a second email account set up so that when I get email receipts - which is where the majority of my expenses come from - a rule forwards them on to the second email and she will pick those up and put them in the spreadsheet. She acts as my assistant in scheduling. She also manages my calendar. Another thing she does is gives me a summary each week of three blogs I consider important reads. That way I don’t have to read all of their posts each day. She does that for me and I get a document each Friday with the summaries.

In addition, I will be sending her some of my sermons and she will transcribe them for me. Since I am preaching through part of my doctoral research, she will be giving me the foundation for my dissertation. Two weeks ago, I called her and asked if she did video work. She didn’t but was able to outsource the development of a video for a song I wanted to use in a sermon last week. As we speak now, she is doing some research for me from the Bible for my sermon this week. She is finding that really interesting. She’s reading passages from Genesis and 1 Samuel - 1 Kings to look at how the sin of Abram and David was passed down to their descendants.

Since I have offloaded things that I find either boring, am not good at, or that would just give me a little more time with people or in preparation, I’m more productive personally, and it has reduced some stress. It will also help me financially. For example, I spent WAAAYYYY more than I should have on books last year. I had no idea I spent as much as I did. Now that someone is providing that information for me, I’m better able to keep track of the budget. So what I may pay her will help me save money.

The best part is that she works when I need her, so I only pay her for hours worked.

You have to be able to let a person do things their own way. She might not do things the exact way I would do them, but that’s fine. It’s actually refreshing and stimulating creatively.

Would I recommend getting a virtual assistant? Yes, if you can find one you are comfortable with and does a good job. I would recommend Erin, but only if she can take your work without compromising mine :-D.

Outsourcing opens up a lot of avenues for you to accomplish more than you could on your own. Since I was a freelancer at one time in my life, and have been a contractor as well, it’s not that difficult for me to let go of that control. Some people can’t. But it does make you more productive in the long run.

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