3 things you can do with an email that not everyone knows about:

1) Create a calendar event
Drag the email to your calendar icon in the lower left-hand side of Outlook. This will allow you to block out time to execute the task in the email. Use this when an email requires 30 minutes or more of your time. If the email has an attachment, copy that first, and paste it in the calendar item once you have created it.

2) Create a contact from an email
Drag the email to your contacts icon in the lower left-hand side of Outlook. This will create a contact with the information.

3) To create a task from an email
Drag the email to your task icon in the lower left-hand side of Outlook. This will create a task using the subject line of the email. If the email has an attachment, copy that first, and paste it in the calendar item once you have created it.

Here is a link to find out more about LeanMail and to register for our Free LeanMail introductory workshop.

Michael Hoffman

If it isn’t obvious yet, 60-minute meetings are not very practical. 

The problem is that we can’t go from one 60-minute meeting to another without a break to enter notes and physically get to the other meeting.  (Much better to do right after the meeting than hours or even days later when so much has been forgotten.) 

Even on-line meetings necessitate some time to transition from one meeting to the next.

50-minute meetings are much better than 60s because they give you that all important 10 minutes to digest, record-keep, and transition; and it’s really easy to do.  Having a bit more of time-constraint also helps people keep to agendas. 

I’ve been having 50, 25 and 15-minute meetings for over a decade and never once has anyone objected, so give it a try.

Here is a link to find out more about LeanMail and to register for our Free LeanMail introductory workshop.

Michael Hoffman

Probably the biggest challenge novice LeanMailers face is writing proper Next Actions (NAs) that make an impact on your brain. When your NAs are generic, your brain struggles to remember what the NAs pertained to. The result, then, is an increase in time-spend, not a decrease — without any return on investment

The reason

Generic NAs don’t hook into your memory, which means that you spend time writing them without receiving time-savings in return. Good intentions going in, but pure rubbish going out.

This is easily solved by getting a better understanding of, and putting more focus on, the WHAT of your NAs. (Remember that a NA is made up of a Who – What combination.

Words like: action, apply, read, follow up, (verbs in general) are not hooks that snag your memory. You need Whats, which are typcially nouns.

Are you saying that we can’t use verbs 

It’s not that you can’t...

1. Sort:

In the Prioritize view, Delete, Archive, assign High or Normal priority. Do this quickly like dealing playing cards. Answer mails that take less than 10 seconds. When you are finished sorting, your view will change to Plan. 

2. Straighten:

Now that the waste is removed, non-actionable emails are archived, and emails needing action are prioritized according to the Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule, add Next Actions (NA’s) and Due dates (When) to put everything in its proper place. Do this deliberately, concentrating on creating brain-hooks by ensuring that the “What” clearly describes what you need to do (avoid generic terms like read, follow up, call, act on, etc.) Do not forget to act upon anything that takes less than 2 minutes. When you are finished sorting, your view will change to Today. 

3. Shine:

Review what you have in front of you today. If NAs are...

Sneak Peek - InstantArchive

Categorization

When we categorize emails, we are doing so in order to be able to locate them quickly and easily. Beginning with that end in mind, since all your mails will be placed in one folder, we should not be thinking in hierarchies (folder in a folder in a folder…) when we create categories; instead, we should understand that we are affixing one or more meta-tags (like #tags) to emails.

With a hierarchical mindset we would be tempted to create complicated multi-word categories like:  Customer – West Coast – Acme tools.

With a meta-tag mindset, we would be thinking more universally.  We might attach two different categories, like: Acme tools (the name of the company), Ball peen hammer (the tool they ordered).

In a hierarchical approach we organize from general to specific.  In a meta-tag or category approach we think of the characteristics that would best help us locate the mail at a later date — afterall,...