thinkproductive.co.uk » lee cottier

December’s monthly productivity tips! – Want to make next year great?

Graham Allcott — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:00:44 +0000

Graham Allcott

This month we’re focusing on the upcoming Christmas holidays. It’s a time for rest and reflection on a job well done this year, as well as thinking and visioning for what 2012 should look like.

Our gift to you! How to ‘Ninja’ your New Year’s Resolutions!
Click HERE for our cunning PDF toolkit to help you do just that! Use our CORD workflow model to work through all those new year’s ideas and come up with the attainable, sustainable masterplan you need for 2012. Feel free to share this around with your friends and colleagues too!

Tuck into some chocolate
Since for many of us Christmas is a time for indulgence and excess, here’s a chocolate-themed guest blog post: How to change the world with a bag of M&Ms! http://bit.ly/sm938u

Time to unplug… But are you addicted to connectivity?
Many of us have our emails travelling with us these days, even over Christmas (via smartphones, iPads and the like). This is a great time of year to address a BIG productivity problem: connectivity addiction. The truth is, our brains need a rest from all the emails and it’s time to take a stand! Here’s a video from our ‘Beyond GTD’ series, where Lee Cottier and I talk about this very issue: http://bit.ly/q59Gjn

Finally, time to say THANK YOU!
We’re so grateful for all the amazing relationships we’ve built up in 2011, as well as our growing following on Twitter, Facebook and the like. It’s a privilege to see the tangible changes people make as a result of our work and we love doing it too. A big influence on Think Productive as a company is Gary Vaynerchuk: American entrepreneur, social media expert and author of ‘The Thank You Economy’. So, to say thank you to Gary and thank you to all of you, here’s a link to a great video of his! This is his keynote from the Inc500 Conference earlier this year. He’s a compelling and entertaining speaker and whilst we love him dearly, this video does contain very strong language! Don’t say we didn’t warn you and I hope you enjoy it (especially the ending!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbHy7yESiyg

We wish you a season with as many of the following as you care to enjoy…

- Some amazing company
- Some great food
- Watching ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and remembering what’s important
- Revisiting childhood haunts
- Getting drunk and merry if that’s your thing
- Cosying up with a DVD, surrounded by empty chocolate wrappers
- And lots more!

Looking ahead to 2012…Why not come along to one of our public workshops?
Click on the relevant date below to book your place now – with our new 3 tiered pricing system. Fair, transparent and a fantastic return on investment.

The South West

Bristol
February 17th, 2012
June 15th, 2012
October 19th, 2012

The South East

London
February 10th, 2012
March 28th, 2012
April 26th, 2012
More 2012 London dates

The Midlands and the North

Birmingham
April 19th, 2012
November 23rd, 2012

Manchester
April 18th, 2012
November 22nd, 2012

Ireland

Dublin
Tuesday, 7th February 2012
Watch this space for more 2012 dates in Dublin!

See you in 2012!

Graham and the Think Productive team

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GTD vs. Inbox Zero

Graham Allcott — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:10:52 +0000

Graham Allcott

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_{If you’re looking for Email Training, our ‘How to Get Things Done’ workshops offer the basics on how to implement the ideas from the likes of David Allen, Peter Drucker, Tim Ferriss and many more! It’s available in-house to your company or also through our public workshops across the UK.

Time Management Training has changed! Click here to find out about our productivity-focussed Time management workshops, email training and facilitation training.}

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GTD and teams

Graham Allcott — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:00:57 +0000

Graham Allcott

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_{If you’re looking for time management training, our ‘How to Get Things Done’ workshops offer the basics on how to implement the ideas from the likes of David Allen, Peter Drucker, Tim Ferriss and many more! It’s available in-house to your company or also through our public workshops across the UK.

Time Management Training has changed! Click here to find out about our productivity-focussed Time management workshops, email training and facilitation training.}

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David Allen’s GTD & Wellbeing

Graham Allcott — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:00:39 +0000

Graham Allcott

In our “Beyond GTD” series, Think Productive’s Productivity Ninjas go beyond the basics and discuss some of the more advanced-level tips and tricks in implementing productivity systems such as David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ (GTD).

Here, our South West Ninja, Lee Cottier talks with Graham Allcott about some of the lesser-discussed themes in the GTD book and the GTD system’s ability to promote positive mental well-being. Many people think implementing GTD and other such techniques in the corporate world is all about the ability for companies to produce more productive automatons. In reality, that is rarely a motivation for our clients and the reverse is also true! Many of the companies with work with on productivity find that it’s the stress-reduction that systems like this can offer that provides a major part of the pay-back, as well as it promoting a healthier, clearer and more efficient way of working.

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_{If you’re looking for Time Management training, our ‘How to Get Things Done’ workshops offer the basics on how to implement the ideas from the likes of David Allen, Peter Drucker, Tim Ferriss and many more! It’s available in-house to your company or also through our public workshops across the UK.

Time Management Training has changed! Click here to find out about our productivity-focussed Time management workshops, email training and facilitation training.}

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The perils of over-capture

Graham Allcott — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:57:56 +0000

Graham Allcott

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Are you addicted to connectivity?

Graham Allcott — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:44:58 +0000

Graham Allcott

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When should you do your GTD Weekly Review?

Graham Allcott — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:47:51 +0000

Graham Allcott

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Make friends with your email again – AND get some actual work done

Lee Cottier — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:15:33 +0000

Lee Cottier

Author: Lee Cottier, Productivity Ninja
LinkedIn: LeeCottier
Twitter: @LeeCottier

Multiple studies of our email addiction agree – we’re spending far too much time just managing our inboxes, and not enough getting on with our “real work”.

For some of us that’s hundreds of incoming messages a day, and as much as 40% of our working hours spent just dealing with them (source). Just this month, a revealing LinkedIn survey (LinkedIn login required) showed that over half of us are ‘checking our emails’ in excess of 20 times every day.

All this is a massive drain on our attention, focus and energy, and a major barrier to being productive – and a big part of the reason why our niche Email Etiquette and email training workshops are so popular.

Here are some practical steps you can take to develop a healthier relationship with your email, and ensure you can win back enough attention and energy to actually get some work done!

1. Turn off notifications. Remove all visual and audio ‘you have new mail’ notifications. You did know that’s possible (and allowed) didn’t you?

2. Turn off email. Even better turn off your mail client completely most of the time. Yes I really did say that. For those of you who are worried the world might end if you did that, I promise you it’s quite safe.

3. Schedule time for email. Only engage with your email when you choose to, rather than automatically complying the instant it nags you to. We recommend defined times in short bursts, for example 5-10 minutes at the top of every hour, or longer 20 minute sessions 3 or 4 times per day.

4. Stop constantly checking. Instead ‘process’ your mail (more on what that is below), then get back to doing your actual work. As Merlin Mann (who coined the term ‘Inbox Zero’) says “stop taking orders and make the sandwiches”!

5. Use the tools. Learn how to use the features of your mail client to triage your mail for you. Filtering the lower importance and lower value email (which you can then review once per day), will help you to give your proper and prompt attention to those messages that really matter.

6. It’s an inbox not a data vault. Your inbox ‘should only be for things that you haven’t read yet’ (again that’s from Merlin Mann) – when you ‘process’ this mail your aim is to convert incoming mail into to-do list action items, calendar appointments, download and file attachments, etc.

7. Move it out. As soon as they’re processed mail items should immediately be moved out of your inbox: either deleted or archived, or if it does require action that can’t be completed there and then (in less than 2 minutes) to a ‘needs action’ or ‘needs reply’ folder etc.

8. Lose the pile. That last one’s really important so I’m going to say it again. Don’t just leave that opened mail sitting there in your inbox (or even worse flag it or mark it as unread again ‘so I know to come back to that one later’). After all, no-one keeps all the opened letters they’ve ever received and their envelopes in one massive ever growing pile on their doormat!

9. It’s not a to-do list. Stop using your email inbox as your to-do list (it’s horrifying how many people do this!). There are far more appropriate tools for this job, and it will reduce the temptation to keep your mail client open all the time, increasing its power to distract.

10. Feel the relief. Working this way will help you achieve ‘Inbox Zero’, which feels great, and is hugely important part of a robust personal productivity approach.

And remember, email addiction is just one (bad) work habit that might be reducing your productivity and effectiveness.

If you still need some help – why not sign up to one of our email training workshops?