by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Habits, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 18 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: 9 Rules to Deal with Email Overload – Part 1
— From 9 Rules For Emailing From Google Exec Eric Schmidt, online article by Time.com (September 24, 2014), based on the book How Google Works, by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
Aaaaah… email… that wonderful means of communication that enables us to reach anyone, anywhere, instantly. It has revolutionized our world. It really is fantastic: the way in which we interact with one another, the instant delivery and response times, the ability to attach files… everything about it is awesome, except for one thing: email overload.
In this miniseries I’ll be bringing you a few of the ideas that exist out there to make our email life easier, more effective, and more manageable. There has got to be a way to deal with email overload that satisfies both the need to communicate and the need to free ourselves from the burden of being tethered to it all the time.
While I receive a lot of emails, I’m sure it’s nothing compared to the overwhelming amount that Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg executives from Google, receive on a daily basis. That is why I believe they have a lot to say when it comes to handling email effectively and efficiently.
According to Time.com, in the book How Google Works, authors Schmidt and Rosenberg share 9 rules “for mitigating that sense of foreboding.” Without further ado, here are the rules:
1. Respond quickly.“There are people who can be relied upon to respond promptly to emails, and those who can’t. Strive to be one of the former. Most of the best—and busiest—people we know act quickly on their emails… [not just] to a select few senders, but to everyone. […] Being responsive sets up a positive communications feedback loop. […] These responses can be quite short—’got it’ is a favorite of ours.”
2. When writing an email, every word matters, and useless prose doesn’t. Be crisp in your delivery.“If you are describing a problem, define it clearly. Doing this well requires more time, not less. You have to write a draft then go through it and eliminate any words that aren’t necessary.”
3. Clean out your inbox constantly. “How much time do you spend looking at your inbox, just trying to decide which email to answer next? How much time do you spend opening and reading emails that you have already read? Any time you spend thinking about which items in your inbox you should attack next is a waste of time. Same with any time you spend rereading a message that you have already read (and failed to act upon).”
In here, the authors talk about implementing the OHIO acronym: Only Hold It Once. What this means, they say, is that “when you open a new message, you have a few options: Read enough of it to realize that you don’t need to read it, read it and act right away, read it and act later, or read it later.” And they advise, “Choose among these options right away, with a strong bias toward the first two… If you read the note and know what needs doing, do it right away. Otherwise, you are dooming yourself to rereading it, which is 100 percent wasted time.”
In this fashion, the only items that remain in your inbox are those that require further or deeper action. And the authors suggest cleaning it every day—ideally—or leaving in there as few items as possible: “anything less than five is reasonable.”
Please come back tomorrow for the remaining rules on this great list. Slowly but surely we will win the battle of email overload!
ACTION
TODAY: Pick one (or more) of these rules to apply today to the way you handle email.
FUTURE: Start by incorporating one of these rules for handling your email. Then, once you’ve got that all figured out, add another one, and so on, until you’ve got your email under control.
Know someone who needs a bit of help with email? Please share these rules via email, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 38 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: 9 Listening Skills Every Leader Must Develop – Part 2
— From Relationships 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by John C. Maxwell
In yesterday’s post, we started to look at the nine listening skills every leader must develop. Despite them sounding and being so simple, those skills should not be dismissed, as they are what makes for a wonderful experience both for the listener and for the speaker.
Let’s continue learning the skills that John C. Maxwell offers in his book Relationships 101 so that we can become top-notch listeners:
5. Check your emotions. “Most people carry around emotional baggage that causes them to react to certain people or situations. […] Anytime that you become highly emotional when listening to another person, check your emotions—especially if your reaction seems to be stronger then the situation warrants. You don’t want to make an unsuspecting person the recipient of your venting.” Further, if something that the speaker says triggers a strong emotion in you, you should always allow others to finish explaining their points of view, ideas, or convictions before offering your own.”
6. Suspend your judgment. “Have you ever begun listening to another person to tell a story and started to respond to it before he or she was finished? Just about everyone has. But the truth is that you can’t jump to conclusions and be a good listener at the same time. As you talk to others, wait to hear the whole story before you respond. If you don’t, you may miss the most important thing they intend to say.”
7. Sum up at major intervals. “Listening is most effective when it’s active. […] For example, if you can say, ‘Cheryl, that’s obviously very important to you.’ It will help keep you on track as a listener. Get beyond, ‘That’s interesting.’ If you train yourself to comment meaningfully, the speaker will know you are listening and may offer further information. A technique for active listening is to sum up what the other person says at major intervals. As the speaker finishes one subject, paraphrase his or her main points or ideas before going onto the next one, and verify that you have gotten the right message.”
8. Ask questions for clarity. “If you want to become an effective listener… [be someone] someone who gently asks follow up questions and seeks clarification. If you show people how much you care and ask in a non threatening way, you’ll be amazed by how much they’ll tell you.”
9. Always make listening your priority. “The last thing to remember when developing your listening skills is to make listening a priority, no matter how busy you become or how far you rise in your organization.”
Maxwell shares the example of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. “He believed in listening to what people had to say, especially his employees. He once flew his plane to Mt. Pleasant, Texas, landed, and he gave instructions to his copilot to meet him about one hundred miles down the road. He then rode in a Wal-Mart truck just so that he could chat with the driver.”
Many of us consider ourselves good listeners and consider listening a pretty easy exercise. But let’s not take it for granted. There’s always room for improvement, and good listening skills can change our lives and that of the others around them, so let’s keep refining them!
I’ll leave you with this story of Jennie Jerome, Winston Churchill’s mother. When Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone were competing for the position of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, she had dinner with each of them.
Afterwards, she famously said “When I left the dining room after sitting next to Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But when I sat next to Disraeli, I left feeling that I was the cleverest woman.”
That is the power of listening. And that is why it behooves us to always be practicing and sharpening our listening skills.
ACTION
TODAY: Which of these skills comes most naturally to you? Which one do you need to work on a bit more? Take an opportunity today to practice at work or at home.
FUTURE: Practice the Disraeli skill of making the person who is speaking feel as if he or she is the smartest one in the world.
Know someone who would like this post? Please share it with your circles via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 52 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: 9 Listening Skills Every Leader Must Develop – Part 1
— From Relationships 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by John C. Maxwell
Novelist E.W. Howe liked to joke by saying, “No one would listen to you talk if he didn’t know it was his turn next.” Sad but true, many people do not listen, they simply wait for their turn to speak. That is why the ability to develop and refine our listening skills is the basis to building positive relationships.
Listening starts with wanting to hear and paying attention, of course, but above all, Maxwell says, “A mistake that people often make… is trying very hard to impress the other person. They try to make themselves appear smart, witty or entertaining. But if you want to relate well to others, you have to be willing to focus on what they have to offer. Be impressed and interested, not impressive and interesting.”
In his book, Relationships 101, leadership guru John C. Maxwell, provides us with a list of nine skills to become better listeners. Some of these listening skills may seem very simple and intuitive, but don’t dismiss them because of that, they are part of the whole listening experience, both for the listener and for the one who is listened to:
1. Look at the speaker. “The whole listening process begins with giving the other person your undivided attention. As you interact with someone, don’t catch up on other work, shuffle papers, do the dishes, or watch television. Set aside time to focus only on the other person. And if you don’t have the time at that moment, then schedule it as soon as you can.”
2. Don’t interrupt. “Most people react badly to being interrupted. It makes them feel disrespected… People who tend to interrupt others generally do so for one of these reasons: [i.] They don’t place enough value of what the other person has to say. [ii.] They want to impress others by showing how smart and intuitive they are. [iii.] They’re too excited by the conversation to let the other person finish talking. […] Give people the time they need to express themselves.”
3. Focus on understanding. “Have you ever noticed how quickly most people forget the things they hear? Studies… indicate that most people can recall only 50 percent of what they hear immediately after hearing it. […] By the next day, their retention is usually down to 25 percent. One way to combat that tendency it’s to aim for understanding rather than just remembering the facts.”
4. Determine the need at the moment. Some people, upon listening, want to fix immediately what the other person is troubled about. Some others, however, simply want to communicate something as a way of sharing and getting it out. “Anytime you can determine the current need of the people you’re communicating with, you can put whatever they say into the appropriate context. And you will be better able to understand them.”
And there is still so much more that Maxwell shares to develop our listening skills! Please come back tomorrow as we will finish the list and learn a great story about the power of listening.
ACTION
TODAY: Think of a time when someone took the time to listen to you. What did that person do that made you feel good? Replicate that when you are listening to others.
FUTURE: Take every opportunity you can to listen to others. It’s only by practicing that we refine our skills.
Know someone who would like this post? Please share via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of this miniseries:
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 1
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 2
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 3
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 4
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 56 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 5
— From Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
So far, in this miniseries we’ve been learning how to make new habits stick. Yet one of the things we haven’t talked about is how to stay focused on achieving your goals when you get bored.
James Clear, the author, recalls meeting an elite sports coach and asking him, “What’s the difference between the best athletes and everyone else? What do the really successful people do that most don’t?”
Clear remembers the coach answering first with the things you might expect: “genetics, luck, talent…” but then he said, “At some point it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over and over.”
The coach’s answer surprised Clear, who had at that moment a shift in perspective:
“Mastery requires practice. But the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes. […]
People talk about getting ‘amped up’ to work on their goals. Whether it’s business or sports or art, you hear people say things like, ‘It all comes down to passion.’ Or, ‘You have to really want it.’ As a result, many of us get depressed when we lose focus or motivation because we think that successful people have some bottomless reserve of passion. But this coach was saying that really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the feelings of boredom. […]
The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. […] As soon as we experience the slightest dip in motivation, we begin seeking a new strategy—even if the old one was still working.”
So, what to do about boredom then?
You have to anticipate that it will happen and, when it does, accept it and welcome it into your life. Clear says, “You have to fall in love with boredom.”
There will be days when you don’t feel like doing your habit. And many others when you’ll think of not showing up, or not finishing, or quitting altogether, but “if you only do the work when it’s convenient or exciting, then you’ll never be consistent enough to achieve remarkable results.”
ACTION
TODAY: What habit are you bored with? How can you fall in love with that boredom? Go through a mental list of the immense benefits of sticking to it—despite the boredom—vs. quitting. Find that point where your mind shifts and you “fall in love with boredom,” that is, fall in love with the results. Perhaps instead of thinking “This is a great habit, BUT…” you can exchange the BUT for an AND to accept and welcome the boredom and the long-term results that sticking to the habit will bring.
FUTURE: With any habit, anticipate that boredom will occur. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Knowing what to expect will enable you to think of a plan and set up a rule to handle it. Take a look at this recent post from this miniseries on setting rules for guiding future behavior, and create your own: “When boredom strikes and I don’t feel like doing [YOUR HABIT], then I will [YOUR RULE].”
Know someone who is about to quit due to boredom? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Goals, Habits, Mindset, Miniseries, Opportunity, Planning, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of this miniseries:
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 1
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 2
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 3
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 11 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 4
— From Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
In the past three posts (1, 2, 3) we’ve been learning how to cue and stack our new habits to ensure we’re successful in making them last. Today, we will learn one more great technique from James Clear, habit guru, in his book Atomic Habits.
Clear tells the story of Ronan Byrne, an electrical engineering student in Ireland who knew he needed to exercise more but loved to binge-watch Netflix. Trying to connect these two seemingly opposite activities, he hacked his stationary bike in such a way that it would allow him to watch Netflix only if he was pedaling beyond a certain speed.
Clear says that what Byrne was doing is called temptation bundling, and this is a method to make the new habits we want to build more attractive and desirable. “Temptation bundling works by linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do,” and the latter may not always be something that’s easy or that you’re too keen on… “In Byrne’s case, he bundled watching Netflix (the thing he wanted to do) with riding his stationary bike (the thing he needed to do).”
“You’re more likely to find a behavior attractive if you get to do one of your favorite things at the same time. Perhaps you want to hear about the latest celebrity gossip, but you need to get in shape. Using temptation bundling, you could only read the tabloids and watch reality shows at the gym. Maybe you want to get a pedicure but you want to clean your email inbox. Solution: only get a pedicure while processing overdue work emails.”
Temptation bundling is one of the tactics used to apply a psychology theory known as Premack’s Principle. It states that “more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors,” thus we can condition ourselves to do the less probable or desirable behavior if it’s tied to doing something enjoyable and that we really want to do.
So far so good. Here’s where it gets better: What if we combine temptation bundling with habit stacking? Hmmmm, now we’re talking!
Clear gives us the formula to set the rules to guide our behavior and make our new habits stick:
- After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].
- After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].
Here are some examples to illustrate it.
If you want to watch sports, but you need to make sales calls:
- After I get back from my lunch break, I will call three potential clients (need).
- After I call three potential clients, I will check ESPN (want).
If you want to check Facebook, but you need to exercise more:
- After I pull out my phone, I will do ten burpees (need).
- After I do ten burpees, I will check Facebook (want).
“The hope is that eventually you’ll look forward to calling three clients or doing ten burpees because it means you get to read the latest sports news or check Facebook. Doing the thing you need to do means you get to do the thing you want to do. […] Engineering a truly irresistible habit is a hard task, but this simple strategy can be employed to make nearly any habit more attractive than it would be otherwise.”
ACTION
TODAY: Make a list of things you need to do and one of the things you want to do. Crosscheck them for bundling opportunities.
FUTURE: Whenever you find yourself resisting something that you need to do, try pairing it with a very attractive opportunity to do something you want. The more anticipation you build the better and more motivated you’ll be to act.
Know someone who would benefit from temptation bundling to set up a new habit? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Creativity, Goals, Growth, Habits, Mindset, Miniseries, Planning, Productivity, Time, Tools
Links to other parts of this miniseries:
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 1
New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 2
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 58 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: New Habits: How to Ensure They Stick – Part 3
— From Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
In the two previous posts in this miniseries, we’ve learned how to use The Diderot Effect in a positive way to our advantage, and how to create a chain of new habits by stacking them all together.
Since the secret to success lies in the selection of the right cues to kick things off, today we’ll be talking all about cues.
First, as obvious as it may seem, it’s important to realize that the timing of the cue must be relevant and realistic to the new routine you want to create. James Clear writes:
“When and where you choose to insert a habit into your daily routine can make a big difference. If you’re trying to add meditation into your morning routine but mornings are chaotic and your kids keep running into the room, then that may be the wrong place and time. Consider when you are most likely to be successful. Don’t ask yourself to do a habit when you’re likely to be occupied with something else.”
Second, the frequency of the cue should be the same as of the new habit you want to instill. “If you want to do a habit every day, but you stack it on top of a habit that only happens on Mondays, that’s not a good choice.”
To find the right trigger for creating your new habit stack, the author suggests brainstorming a list of your current habits. You can download a free “Habit Scorecard” from his website, or simply create a list with two columns.
On the first column, you write the habits that you do every day, no matter what. For example, “get out of bed, take a shower, brush your teeth, get dressed, brew a cup of coffee, eat breakfast, take the kids to school, start the work day, eat lunch,” etc. Your list is going to be much longer than that, but you get where this is going.
On the second column, you write the things that happen to you always. For example, “the sun rises, you get a text message, the song you are listening to ends, the sun sets,” etc.
With your two-column list handy, then you can start looking for the best places to insert the cues to form your new habits. It’s important to note that the cue must be highly specific and immediately actionable, says Clear, otherwise, you run into ambiguity, which is certain to derail your habits. Let’s learn a lesson from the author:
“Many people set cues that are too vague. I made this mistake myself. When I wanted to start a push-up habit, my habit stack was ‘When I take a break for lunch, I will do ten push-ups.’ At first glance, this sounded reasonable. But soon I realized the trigger was unclear. Would I do my push-ups before I ate lunch? After I ate lunch? Where would I do them? After a few inconsistent days, I changed my habit stack to: ‘When I close my laptop for lunch, I will do ten push-ups next to my desk.’ Ambiguity gone.”
And there you have it. The more specific, precise, and clear on your cues and your instructions to act, the more the new habit will stick, as there won’t be room for inconsistency or confusion. “The specificity is important… After I close the door. After I brush my teeth. After I sit down at the table… The more tightly bound your new habit is to a specific cue, the better the odds are that you will notice when the time comes to act.”
Leave yourself no choice but to act in favor of establishing your new habits by setting up specific, timely, and relevant cues where they will give you the highest possibility of success.
So, what cue will you use to trigger the action for your new habit? Where will you stack it? Let me know in the comments here. As for myself, just as the author, I’m developing a push-up habit, so my cue will be “when I take a long break from my pomodoros, after setting the break time in my timer, I will do 12 push-ups right next to my desk.”
ACTION
TODAY: Make your two-column list of habits and things that happen so that you can figure out where you can insert your cues to trigger the new habit you want to build.
FUTURE: Set cues and stack habits where you will have the biggest possibility of success. Og Mandino said, “If I must be a slave to habit, let me be a slave to good habits.”
Know someone who would benefit from learning about cues and habit stacking? Please share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
