The blue line represents Quadrant 1 emails that need a response soon. This is in reference to Stephen Covey's suggestion to categorize work into one of four quadrants of urgency. I keep my general email inbox clean at the end of each day, moving emails that still need a response (usually requiring more than a few minutes of thought) into a folder called Quadrant 1. At the end of each day, I track the number of emails in this folder.
The red line is the callbacks or to-do items that are on my calendar or in my contact database management program. The unattended-to alerts I note at the end of each day as well.
As you can tell I'm currently not at a healthily contact pressure level. I would consider healthy more like 100 Q1s (or less) over 10 callbacks (or less).
How do I get myself out of this mess? This usually requires some extra time at the office with strict attention paid to doing the follow-ups that have built up over time. Unfortunately, this graph also sometimes discourages me from taking vacation or regret taking productive work trips, as I know they both set me behind.
I used Skitch, a screen capturing software program that partners with Evernote, to capture this image from Excel and add the notations you see. Skitch also makes it super easy to drag these saved images into Evernote for permanent storage.
I welcome any suggestions or tips readers may have to decrease my Contact Pressure or to change my workflow altogether.
I have been struggling with time management too. There are so many things to do and not enough time. We often say,"My plate is full." But when we go to a buffet doesn't our stomach get full long before the food is gone. So we need to find a way to only keep a manageable amount on our plates, or we will have a "stomach ache" which will cause our performance to suffer. I would suggest looking at what you have to do and either delegate or cut it out. Easy to say, hard to do.
ReplyDeleteLeave room for desert. :)