Outlook is the Best Productivity Tool Ever, Part 1
I wrote that headline to bother my brother, who despises Outlook. This post is not really about Outlook, although it is central to the topic. I really want to write about how I manage work and as a response to Ian Bogost’s article in the Atlantic about the terribleness of email.
I adopted David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) process and refined it for many years. I use Outlook as my inbox, with tasks as the central, actionable record.
My inbox is grouped by conversation, sorted newest first. I only ever read the latest one. Archive is a single folder. If I need something I can search for it.
I never start my day by opening Outlook. I usually go to the office 30-60 min early and program or learn. Then I start processing my email.
In the morning, I go through the GTD triage:
is it irrelevant? then delete it (or unsubscribe, or make a rule to delete).
Informational only? Read and archive.
Something to do?
Can you do it in under 2 min? Then do it and archive the email.
If not, create a task (this is the most important thing which I will discuss in a bit) and archive the email.
Creating smart tasks from these emails is crucial. Email is vague. Creating the task means clarifying the action(s).
Received an email reminding you to take some training, make a task: (10/31) Complete X training.
Got an email with a response to an RFP? Create a task: Review vendor Y’s response to RFP.
Eventually there is no more email. I can then switch to planning the day and doing my work.
There are many schemes for prioritizing. It also changes based on other people’s prioritizations, like my manager’s. I keep flexible and limit work-in-progress. I commit to completing 3 a day. One can always do more.
Now, email is not the only way work comes in. I also have conversations, chats, meetings, ideas, phone calls. No difference, if there is something to do, make an actionable task.
There are also waiting tasks. When I am waiting on somebody else to do something, I create a task that says, Waiting on X re: to provide budget numbers for project Y. This task goes on a waiting list. I periodically review the waiting list and remind that person if they haven’t done it yet.
That’s the conceptual framework on my work process. The reason I brought up Outlook is that every company I have ever worked for has used it. I like the email, calendar, task framework. It is also easily extensible and I have built a number of tools to implement this system. I’ll describe this in the part 2.