Getting Things Done in a Communication Overload World

Posted: December 15, 2008

I recently bought my first BlackBerry, the Storm. Until all of my emails for an entire day were stored in a single place, I didn’t realize how many communication pieces I received in a single day. And yet, I manage to get things done in a communication overload world with just a few simple applications.

If your day looks like this (and this is what I’ve received from 6am-5pm today):

79 Facebook notifications
106 direct/reply twitter messages
- No idea how many twitter messages I actually saw
112 personal emails
258 business emails
17 blog comments
11 forum emails
200+ IMs
50+ SMS txts
Who knows how many new RSS, news, and other random items
and 23 phone calls (but only 14 voice mails)

There’s a simple way to manage everything

First, use either GMail or Google Apps for Domains.

Secondly, use Firefox.

Third, install these Firefox extensions:

GTD Inbox and then read the page about how to use it. It will help with prioritizing email
Remember the Milk and sign up for an account while your at it. It will help with task management
Better GMail2. It will assist with a more usable GMail account
WiseStamp for your signature
If you’d like a more custom GMail, you can use Greasemonkey or Stylish
There are many other good Firefox add-ons, but the above will help with email management the most

Next, customize your GMail filters. By creating filters (or even aliases with GMail for domains) you can have items like news go into one label, and twitter into another one, etc – as long as they bypass the inbox and then only view those folders when you have time. With GMail you can also send yourself email that triggers filters.

Lastly, use the GMail labs features and enable the labs that will help you. I prefer the ‘default reply to all’; quicklinks, forgotten attachment detector, custom label colors (Red for next action, yellow for action, etc so it pairs with the GTDInbox priority list), and superstars.

Managing Your Work Flow

Go through your inbox and put a GTD Inbox filter (next action, action, someday, waiting on, etc) on each email and archive it. If it’s not due for a while, put it in either the action folder and use Remember the Milk to set a reminder when it’s due. I also like using the superstars to ‘sub-label’ emails within action. Don’t forget with GTD Inbox you can send yourself personal emails and put them into categories as well.

Then…

Go to the next action label
Work on the items until its empty
If you need a break, check your RSS feeds, twitter, Facebook, etc labels
Check Remember the Milk to see what tasks you have due that day
Go to the action box and see what needs to be moved to next action
Go back to your inbox, prioritize the email you’ve received and archive it
- Notice, we never went back to the inbox until we were ready. This is important for managing information overload.
Start over again

Some Quick Tricks

When you send an email to someone where you want a response, BCC yourself
Label the BCC email ‘waiting on’ and archive
At the end or beginning of each day, if you have emails that are in your ‘waiting on’ folder that you need responses to that day, send a quick reminder to the person. Since you’re forwarding the email you BCCed yourself on, they have the full context of the email so you don’t need to rewrite it again, just a quick forward and note as to a timeline when it will be completed (or something nicer if it’s a prospective client)

I also like using Vonage’s visual voice mail so that I receive a text of the voicemail message to determine where it fits into the priority list. I rarely answer the phone and instead prioritize responses (hence why with some people you get much faster responses via email than voicemail, such as myself).

Your Inbox has 0 Messages in It

Most of the time my inbox doesn’t hit the dream of 0 emails. However, it’s almost always under 30 emails.

Today’s social world is not about communication overload. While it’s easy to drown in a sea of emails and to-do list, the goals of productivity have not changed. It’s just about effectively managing time and expectations.

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Written by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper · Filed Under Blog

Comments

3 Responses to “Getting Things Done in a Communication Overload World”

WiseStamp Email Signaturej on December 16th, 2008 10:43 am

Thanks for the WiseStamp recommendation
WiseStamp
Aaron on December 16th, 2008 11:14 am

Brad, I thought you were an Outlook junkie? Looks like your G-man now through-and-through
Brad Geddes aka eWhisper on December 16th, 2008 4:47 pm

I love Outlook 07 when it comes to exchange integration. It might be the best piece of coding microsoft has ever done.

However, for small shops - Google Apps is much better (and no IT costs) than Outlook.

If I was a corporation of 100+ people; I’d use exchange w/ Mobile 6 phones.

If I was a small shop, Google apps + blackberry is nicer.