Productivity Pit Stop http://www.productivitypitstop.com Get Even More Productive - Today! Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:50:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Email Triage and Surviving your Inbox! http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2010/01/21/email-triage-and-surviving-your-inbox/ http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2010/01/21/email-triage-and-surviving-your-inbox/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:42:09 +0000 admin http://www.productivitypitstop.com/test/?p=277 Your email Inbox can become a nightmare if you don’t clean it out everyday. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you do all the work sitting in the emails though, but that you at least apply a high level decision making process about the importance and relevance of every email and then decide what to do with it or “channel” it accordingly.

It’s like a clearing house…

Or applying “triage” to your Inbox.

By now you know I love to check the origins of words and triage is a great one and this is what it means:

TRIAGE:
1a : the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors b: the sorting of patients (as in an emergency room) according to the urgency of their need for care.
2 : the assigning of priority order to projects on the basis of where funds and other resources can be best used, are most needed or are most likely to achieve success.

Hey… this sounds awfully like working through your Inbox!

How will your daily life change if you apply “email triage” to your Inbox and sort your incoming mail into categories according to (and now I am freely paraphrasing the above definition) a system of priorities designed to meet their need for your attention?

Even… A system that will maximise YOUR chances of survival?

As I understand an application of triage on the battlefield, a wounded soldier is assessed and placed in one of three categories:

1. I need to work on you NOW or else you will die. Come here and let me work on you immediately
2. You will be OK even if I don’t attend to you right now so please go and wait the area designed for “ATTENTION LATER”.
3. You will die anyway whether I attend to you or not. Please go to the area designated for dying people. I can’t help you.

Same goes for your email! Just for fun I created three subfolders in my Inbox and called them:
1. Will die if not attended to right away.
2. “Will survive without immediate attention.
3. “For filing”.

Another (shorter) variation is:
1. Action NOW
2. Action LATER
3. File Away

Here’s how it works. I go to my Inbox and “triage” my mail. Emails that need my urgent attention are moved to “Action NOW”. Emails that can hang around a while are moved to “Action LATER”. Emails that I need to keep are moved to “Filing”. And the emails that “will die anyway” are DELETED (yes, rediscover your DELETE key!).

The effect of this is close to miraculous! After just a few minutes of concentrated thought and decision-making, your inbox is EMPTY! Yes, ZERO items!

Feels good doesn’t it?!

Then I “operate on” or apply my scarce resources of time and energy to the “Action NOW” crowd.
The “Action LATER” bunch can wait for…later. You need to clarify for yourself what “NOW” and “LATER” means in terms of time windows, and then work accordingly.

Why not try Email Triage for a week or so and then write to me and tell me about how you experienced it?
“Next email please!”

I wish you a fun and very productive week.

Kind regards,
Gerrit Cloete
082 737 3676 | (082 PERFORM)

]]> http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2010/01/21/email-triage-and-surviving-your-inbox/feed/ 0 Boundaries bring Calm – But stay in touch! http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/12/30/boundries-bring-calm/ http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/12/30/boundries-bring-calm/#comments Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:08:26 +0000 admin http://www.productivitypitstop.com/test/?p=177 It was low tide when I walked on the Sea Point promenade last Sunday. This allowed me to see a pool built between the rocks at Milton Beach.

As the sea was going about its daily duties of creating waves that crash into bits on the rocks, the water inside the pool remained calm – untouched by the turmoil in the ocean.

The walls of the pool and the calm water inside presented a very real picture of the benefit of creating a boundary between yourself and the rest of the world.

Within your boundary you can live and work in peace and quiet, untouched by the turmoil that happens around you. But you can’t (and should not) remain out of touch with your external environment, otherwise (like the water in the pool) you will go stale and become “unattractive” or “Stagnant”.

Just as the ocean at times overflows and refreshes the water in the pool, in the same way we should stay in touch with what’s happening outside our boundaries.

Don’t build the walls of your “pool” so high that you become totally isolated and disconnected from the rest of your world. Let the world in at the natural times.

Build your boundaries in the right place and at the right height and you will experience more calmness, focus and productivity in your everyday life.

Kind regards,
Gerrit Cloete
082 737 3676 | (082 PERFORM)

]]> http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/12/30/boundries-bring-calm/feed/ 0 Here are nine words that can change your life http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/12/20/here-are-nine-words-that-can-change-your-life/ http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/12/20/here-are-nine-words-that-can-change-your-life/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:41:05 +0000 admin http://www.productivitypitstop.com/test/?p=275 “You should only do what only you can do.”

Chew on that, and then apply it in your life and see how things change!

Kind regards,
Gerrit Cloete
082 737 3676 | (082 PERFORM)

]]> http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/12/20/here-are-nine-words-that-can-change-your-life/feed/ 0 Title of the Article would go here with prime keywords http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/28/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords-3/ http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/28/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords-3/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:57:31 +0000 admin http://www.productivitypitstop.com/test/?p=69 Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it!

]]> http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/28/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords-3/feed/ 0 Title of the Article would go here with prime keywords http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/27/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords-2/ http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/27/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords-2/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:56:59 +0000 admin http://www.productivitypitstop.com/test/?p=66 Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it! Concise, keyword rich summary really summating and selling the article to entice the user to read it!

]]> http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/27/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords-2/feed/ 0 Title of the Article would go here with prime keywords http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/11/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords/ http://www.productivitypitstop.com/2009/08/11/title-of-the-article-would-go-here-with-prime-keywords/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:00:24 +0000 Gerrit http://www.productivitypitstop.com/test/?p=28 The body of the article would then be published here in full. The idea of these articles is that they would be SEO targetted whose aim would be both acuqire good search engine rankings for the targetted keywords used and to attract those that read it to click through to one of the products on the site….

The body of the article would then be published here in full. The idea of these articles is that they would be SEO targetted whose aim would be both acuqire good search engine rankings for the targetted keywords used and to attract those that read it to click through to one of the products on the site….

The body of the article would then be published here in full. The idea of these articles is that they would be SEO targetted whose aim would be both acuqire good search engine rankings for the targetted keywords used and to attract those that read it to click through to one of the products on the site….

The body of the article would then be published here in full. The idea of these articles is that they would be SEO targetted whose aim would be both acuqire good search engine rankings for the targetted keywords used and to attract those that read it to click through to one of the products on the site….

The body of the article would then be published here in full. The idea of these articles is that they would be SEO targetted whose aim would be both acuqire good search engine rankings for the targetted keywords used and to attract those that read it to click through to one of the products on the site….

The body of the article would then be published here in full. The idea of these articles is that they would be SEO targetted whose aim would be both acuqire good search engine rankings for the targetted keywords used and to attract those that read it to click through to one of the products on the site….

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