Do you have a lot of messy work weeks? Do e-mails and meetings hinder you from a productive work day?
If so, I recommend an honest review of your work by what I will call the “principle of separation”. It’s like an orange. Separating an orange the right way leaves a beautiful wedge for eating. Separating it the wrong way leaves your hands sticky and everything messy.
There is something interesting I learned from Genesis chapter 1 that relates to how I go about my weekly planning. In this chapter, God separated:
- Light from the darkness – creating day and night (1:4)
- Waters from waters – creating the earths sky (1:6)
- Waters from earth – creating dry land (1:9)
- Vegetation – creating fruit, vegetables, and all kinds of plants (1:11)
- Stars, galaxies, etc. – Creating seasons, days and years (1:14)
- Sun and Moon – giving light to the earth (1:17)
- Sea creatures and birds, and all types of animals (1:20, 1:24)
- Humanity – giving dominion over the earth (1:25)
- Man and woman – to reproduce and support each other (1:27-30)
Separation did not “remove” anything. In fact, separation allowed each thing to fulfill it’s unique purpose.
When it comes to weekly planning, the “principle of separation” does not get rid of e-mails or meetings. It will not add or reduce the time you have to accomplish your goals.
The “principle of separation” empowers you to plan for the activities that allow you to be most productive.
Three routines had to change for me to make my weekly planning more beneficial.
Here is what the “principle of separation” looks like in my weekly planning at work.
- Friday afternoon (quazi-flexible) – I separate this time for clearing out this week and preparing for next week.
- Clear up papers and notes – I review notes from the week, track key items in OneNote, and get rid of unnecessary papers. Anything I need for the next week, I put that into a hanging folder I have labeled for each day of the week.
- Block time for projects – Block time or schedule meetings for next week to keep each project moving forward.
- Prep for meetings – Look at the meetings on next weeks calendar and block time to prepare for any meetings.
- E-mail time – review and respond to outstanding e-mails received through the week.
- Daily (pretty flexible)– my time is separated to include time for these things:
- Outlook Today – Microsoft Outlook is set to open with the “Outlook Today” view rather than e-mails. It shows my calendar and tasks for the next few days. Note – I do not start each day by reviewing e-mail.
- Folders – I pull out the papers in my daily folder, and compare them to what I need for the day to be successful.
- E-mail – I review and respond to e-mails. Remember, I don’t “start” with e-mail.
- Stop, Block and Roll – This process is for the unexpected, and about three minutes:
- Stop for a moment and consider what needs to happen
- Block time for it, either this week or next
- Roll with what you had planned or with the necessary modification for the unexpected event
- Monday morning (sacred) – This time is blocked to separate “daily work” from the haze that Monday’s often bring. Outside of emergencies, this time is non-negotiable.
- Review my weekly schedule and mentally prepare for the week
- Planning meeting with self/team (modified version of the 4 Disciples of Execution model highly recommended read):
- Celebrate – wins from the previous week
- Summarize – actions for the week
- Strategize – project based overviews (beyond this week) to make the projects successful
Your productive day started last week when you planned ahead!
The “principle of separation” has helped me leverage the daily influx of e-mail and meetings with the key things that need to be done.
COMMENT BELOW: What do you do to manage e-mail and meetings with the key things the must be accomplished?