What is the best productivity or time management trick you’ve learned?
I think learning how to use Outlook as an organizational tool. I keep my inbox empty. For me, there's something therapeutic about an empty inbox, because I have either taken care of the task or have assigned the task to a time and day. I do think that learning about how to put the task list on the calendar and being able to organize my tasks by day, for each week has been huge for helping me space out and time my day. Slowly, I've integrated it more and more. It's how I function. It's how I organize. It's how I communicate. Everything is in the calendar and the task list. I think that's probably my biggest trick, but sometimes I'm so done with email, and I see an email there and I will pick up the phone and call to have a conversation with somebody, and it's just great. It's revitalizing.
How do you process email?
I feel like, right now, all I do is email. So there are always emails to flag and to calendar when I'm going to respond to them. I usually start off the day and do a quick pass through. And in my quick pass through, I will delete the spam emails that we get, and I will flag the critical things without really taking care of any of them. So I'll go down the list first and then I'll go back up the list, so I'm starting at the oldest. When I start working my way up the list, I take care of the flagged items. I'll also take care of quick response items during that same sweep. Then there'll be a couple of items that are going to take a little bit longer. So I'll pass those in that first pass through and continue up the list, either organizing, or assigning a date and time to handle it, or I’ll resolve them. Then I'll go back through and at that point it's usually less than five. With those five, I will either try to categorize for that day or I might flag them and assign them to tomorrow.
How do you keep yourself from burning out?
You know, you sense when you're not being as productive as you can be. So there are times, even when there's something critical, that you have to turn off the email if it's 6:00 PM and you could have a nice meal with your family and go for a walk. I don't do that normally, but if I feel the burnout sitting right in front of me, I know it's time to turn everything off and walk away, and that it'll be there in a couple hours or it'll be there in the morning and it's OK. But honestly, that's something that I need to get better about doing sooner than when I actually feel the burnout setting in. I think I'm not gentle enough with myself on that one.
What seemed important when you first got the job that doesn’t now?
I think in the beginning it felt like it was expected that I knew how to do everything, and that's not as important now. Now it's knowing where to go to get answers.
What's the best lesson you learned the hard way?
That you can put yourself out on a limb for somebody else, faculty or staff, and the very next day, they will be mad at you for something else. So, protect your own energy. You can't give away all of yourself because it won't always be reciprocated.
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Something to think about:
“The easy conversation today becomes a hard one tomorrow.” — Shane Parrish
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The Rabbit Hole (resources, content, etc. that are relevant to the job):
If you’re not into the Tasks feature of Outlook, here’s an easy and effective way to add key tasks to your calendar: How to Use Outlook Calendar as a To-Do List (Tips & Tricks)
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