Kelly Forrister is a Senior Coach & Presenter. She also runs and regularly contributes to GTD Connect, the online learning center for the David Allen Company. She’s worked with David Allen for nearly 20 years and is a fluent geek with GTD and technology.
A client recently asked us for our best practices around email communications, to share with their globally dispersed teams. They had learned the keys to getting inbox zero, but their productivity was stymied by the sheer volume of unproductive emails being sent around the company. These tips were born out of the shared practices we use here at the David Allen Company with our own staff, and I wanted to share them with the GTD community.
1. Appropriate Use — Match the message to the best medium. Recognize when email is not the best method of communicating. There are times when a face-to-face meeting is better than a string of unclear or sensitive emails going back and forth. Just because the topic started on email, doesn’t mean it should stay on email. On the flip side, are there meetings being held that could be more efficiently be done over email if you trusted people were getting to inbox zero on a regular basis? (See David Allen’s article on Getting Email Under Control for great tips on that.)
2. To: vs. Cc: – Be discerning about your use of To: vs. Cc:. Why? Ever receive an email where it’s unclear who has the action because everyone is in the “To:” field? We designate the To: field for who has the action (could be multiple people). Cc: is simply for their information–with no expectation that they will take action on the email, other than receive it. Personally, I find I am much more conscious about what I am asking for, and from whom, when I clearly delineate between who has action and who just needs to receive the information. And, I appreciate when that distinction is made for me in return. I’m still processing the email to get to inbox zero, but it’s very clear to me that no action is expected of me in return.
3. Subject Lines — Use clear subject lines that clearly describe the topic. I bet you’ve had times when you’ve done an emergency scan of your email (particularly on your mobile device) and appreciated having clear subject lines (versus the proverbial “checking in” or “update”). Also, don’t be afraid to change subject lines if the topic has changed and you want to make the it clearer what the email string is about. While it might have initially started as “checking in,” now it’s moved into the “Q3 budget”–change the subject line to reflect that.
Another spin on effective subject lines is to use code to indicate the end of a message, when appropriate. This kind of kind of code, such as “EOM,” can be useful for those times when you just need to send a quick bit of information back to someone and it can be done through the email subject line. For example, for short responses such as acknowledging with “thanks” or “I’m on it.” simply append your subject line with “EOM” after your text, to indicate “end of message.” What that means to the person receiving it is that everything that need to know is in the subject line and they can process it based on what they are seeing in the subject line, without even opening the email. For example: “Re: I posted Q2 spreadsheets to the database. –THANKS! GOT IT. EOM”
4. Reply to All — Resist the urge to simply click reply to all, if not everyone needs to receive your reply. Many clients tell us that their staff seem to use the Reply to All function because it’s quick and easy–not because it’s productive. On the flip side, if you’re sending emails to your designated groups, pause to consider if everyone in that group (and subsequent replies to all) really need to be receiving that email. Are their roles in the company relevant to the information? If you’re not sure, ask them. I bet they will appreciate being asked about what they are getting to help with their own email management. Another tip to avoid the Reply to All cycle is to use the Bcc: field for all recipients, when appropriate. That way only the sender will receive the replies.
5. Response Times — What are your agreed upon response times for internal and external communications? If that’s never been made explicit, there’s a good chance those who think it’s “asap” are feeling resentful about the ones who think it’s “when I can get to it” and think they are breaking an agreement. And the “when I can get to it” folks get annoyed by the “asap” folks who ask them in the hallway, “Did you get my email?”
At the David Allen Company, we have a standard to reply within two business days to all internal communications. And, it’s important to note that responding doesn’t mean completing the action. It may just be a simple acknowledgment of “I’m on it” so the other person can relax about it. Two business days is our standard that works for us. You may find you need a shorter or longer time period in your organization. The key here is not about the time, but having an agreement that’s explicit so that everyone is clear about the rules to play by.
I hope these best practices have been useful for you. I encourage you to take these ideas back to your team and organization. Get some healthy debates going about them! Adapt them to make them more your own.
—Kelly
Kelly Forrister is a Senior Coach & Presenter with the David Allen Company.
Many people have found this tip we share in our GTD & Outlook 2010 Guide to be super helpful for corralling the myriad of emails that need to be tracked as a “Waiting For.” You simply need to create a rule in Outlook to copy delegated items to an @Waiting For Support folder (create that folder if you don’t already have one.) Here’s what to do:
1. Select Rules button from the ribbon
2. Click Manage Rules & Alerts
3. Click on New Rule
4. Select Apply rule on messages I receive
5. Click Next
6. Check off from people or specific group. Then click on where people or public group is underlined and select yourself as the From contact (if you are not listed as a contact in your address book, you will need to create that first with the exact email address used by Outlook when you send email for this to work). Click OK. Click Next. [Read more →]
A great way to kick off the New Year is with a review of GTD’s five phases of Mastering Workflow:
For each area, ask yourself:
What’s working well for me in this area now?
What would I like to improve upon in the coming year in each of these areas?
How I could support myself more in that?
Acknowledge yourself for how far you’ve come. Be realistic in your commitments about where you want to be. GTD is a journey…
Happy New Year!
There is a plethora of discussion about the tools people use for GTD, but what were your wins around changing your productive behaviors and habits in 2011?
What are you doing better than in previous years? What’s more habitual for you? What’s easier for you now with the GTD methodology? How far have you come from when you first started with GTD that you could acknowledge yourself for?
We’d love to hear from you!
An easy way for me to explain the “Doing” phase of GTD is to simply say “trust your gut/butt/intuition/hunch/heart.” There is gold in that, and ultimately that’s what it will come down to. But how do you even get to the point of trusting whatever part of you makes a trusted decision? Here’s where the “ecosystem of GTD” starts to make more sense:
Capture everything that has your attention (Collect)
Make decisions about what it means and what you are going to do about it (Process)
Park those decisions in trusted places (Organize)
Step back to reflect on those choices from a clear, current, and creative place (Review)
So that you can make the best action choice (Do)
So how will that help narrow down a To Do list the length of your driveway? You’ll want to pull in the Criteria for Choosing model: [Read more →]
David Allen calls the Weekly Review the “critical success factor” to GTD. Why? It’s the glue that keeps it all together. It’s also one of the steps people tend to resist the most. Here are some keys for getting the most out of the Review phase to keep your GTD system humming along.
WHAT TO REVIEW:
There are 11 steps in the GTD Weekly Review. David Allen recommends leading yourself through this every 7-10 days to get clear, current, and creative.
Get clear – ensure all your “stuff” is processed
Collect Loose Papers and Materials
Get “IN” to Zero
Empty Your Head
[Read more →]
Organize, by far, is one of the most talked about parts of GTD. And why not? It’s all about cool gear! With GTD, choosing your tools is up to you and there’s incredible freedom in that. David Allen is not telling you what tools to use, but how to use your tools. So let’s dive in to look at what’s helpful to know about this phase.
WHAT TO ORGANIZE:
Organizing identifies the various placeholders or “buckets” where actions and support material are stored that you’ve processed. David Allen has also described organizing as simply “things are stored based on what they mean to you.” The four primary action lists are:
Organizing also includes setting up your workspace, a reference system for non-actionable information, and incubation systems (Someday Maybe and Tickler Systems) for possible later actions.
We’re continuing our series on the best practices of GTD’s five phases of Mastering Workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do. Let’s look closer at the Process phase.
WHAT TO PROCESS:
Processing is the core fundamental thinking that defines the meaning of each item collected. Outcomes and next actions are determined for actionable items, and the non-actionable items are identified as trash, something potentially actionable in the future, or reference material. This decision process transforms unclear stuff into defined work.
Download a free version of the GTD Workflow Map illustrating Collect, Process, and Organize or view the classic version on page 32 of the Getting Things Done book.
KEY PROCESSING QUESTIONS:
1. What is it?
2. Is it actionable?
3. What’s the desired outcome? If it is multi-step, write it on your Projects/Outcomes list.
4. What’s the next (physical/visible) action? Write it on the appropriate Next Actions list. [Read more →]
How well do you know the GTD’s five phases of Mastering Workflow? In case you could use a refresher, we’re going to do a five part series on the best practices of each phase: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do. Let’s start with Collect!
WHAT TO COLLECT:
Every commitment unfinished is an “open loop”; and when it is tracked in your psyche, instead of your system, it will require energy and attention to track and maintain. Once the open loops are captured, you can manage completion by using an external system that takes much less energy than keeping it in your head. Every commitment unfinished requires management in a trusted system until it is done or discontinued.
COLLECTION SUCCESS FACTORS:
Capture it all (Get it out of your head)
Every open loop must be in your collection system and out of your head. Keep collection tools nearby so that no matter where you are, you can capture anything that has your attention. The result of this practice is to have everything out of your head. The less you track in your mind, the clearer you will be, and the more important and functional the collection tools will become, which allows for your mind to be optimally clear. This will make your collection tools more important. [Read more →]
Question: How do you handle reading material? I have magazine articles, web articles, books, newsletter special articles, blog interesting articles, etc. Do you input them into “context” just like any other task?
Senior Coach Kelly Forrister: I consider reading materials fall into two categories: nice to read and must read. Nice to read is like a newsstand. I can read it or not. Those are not tracked on any lists. they are organized into a plastic folder called “Read/Review”. For must read items, those are tracked on my Next Action lists, just like any other action I am committed to complete. Those are organized based on where the reading takes place (@Office, @Home, @Anywhere or @Computer). The reading is typically stored in a project folder if it’s related to a project, an @Action email or hard copy folder, or I simply paste the URL if it’s a website into the note field of the next action in my list manager.
