7 Good Reasons to Shorten Your Commute

Photo by Ben McLeod

There were times when I wished I had chosen Montana as home base.  Apparently folks there have the shortest commuting time in the entire United States.  On the other end of the spectrum, those in Maryland and New York spend over 100 hours a year in the car, heading to work.  If it weren't for a decision that my wife and I made this past summer, I'd still be spending huge chunks of time in my car, heading to and from work.

For us, it was a lifestyle decision.

We could have afforded a larger home about 45 minutes west of our home but opted instead for a small home that is only 6 miles from work.  While the process of downsizing has been an adjustment, there has not been a single day in which I wished I had a bigger commute.  I now spend 12 relaxing minutes driving to work, enjoying quiet back roads and listening to talk radio.  No traffic whatsoever.  This comes after nearly 10 years of heavy commuting. 

My lifestyle has benefited in so many ways which leads me to my top-7 reasons for chopping the commute into something more manageable.

1. Weather.  Snow, ice, accidents and everything in between haunt the long commuter. 



2. Gas prices. Prices in the Northeast hover near $3 and the West Coast is even worse.  When will the cost of filling up become a factor for decreasing commute time?



3. Traffic stress. Let's face it: driving can be stressful.  If it's not your own vehicle it might be someone else's.  Factor in poor drivers, potholes and traffic jams and the daily commute can become a nightmare.  I have friends who build their life around the traffic windows- practical but sobering.



4. Sickness. When I lived far from work and was slightly under the weather, I pulled the "I'm not coming in" trigger fast.  Why is this?  I believe that the thought of spending 30-45 minutes in the car only makes health worse.  This translates into more sick days used per year.



5. "Extra" work events. I work in a school which features plenty of night and weekend events.  Now that I live close to work, I can attend plenty of these "extra" events without feeling as if I'm wicked far from home.



6. Auto fatigue.  A long commute puts a lot of wear and tear on a car. 



7. More time with your family. There's a reason why this one is last- because family ought to come first.  If you added up the amount of time spent in the car for one year, then estimated what you could do with your loved ones during that same time, the family naturally comes out the winner.

What is Email Snacking? ( & How You Can Avoid It)

Photo by s2art

Teachers have plenty of opportunities to recharge their batteries.  Time in the summer, national holidays and did I mention spring break?  It's a genuine gift and very much needed when you're dealing with pesky young people who demand a lot of attention.  Just read last week's Time magazine if you're not convinced. 

As a school administrator, I no longer have the kind of time off that classroom teachers do but I get to catch up on lots of things while the building is empty and folks are on vacation.  My #1 priority from this past week: getting my inbox to zero. 

I came across several blog posts this week which speak to email elimination.  This can sound heretical to folks who are tethered to email all day long, unable to imagine what an empty inbox really looks like.  I interviewed two high level execs to get their take on email.

Paul from CT said,

"I
am never more than a few minutes away from my e-mail.  I’m in my office,
at my computer for most of the day and when I’m away from the office or at
home, I use my Blackberry.  Whenever an e-mail comes in, I look at it and
generally deal with it then.  I don’t “batch” e-mails and quite frankly
I’m not sure this would work well for me.  I think I would feel
overwhelmed and something would slip through the cracks."

Mark from MA said,

"During the day, I need to monitor incoming email
throughout the day while I am at my desk. In our company people use email for
questions and requests that sometimes need quick responses. I do a quick scan
of the email and then if it needs immediate attention, process it right away.  If
it is not urgent I leave it in my inbox and batch it for later in the day. For
personal email I use Gmail and process those emails in the early AM, lunch and
then from home at night. I try to not look at personal email at work because
they can be distracting and take time away from company work. I find I spend
3-4 hours a day on work related email and 1-2 hours a day on personal
email."

For both executives, email is not merely important but essential to their work.  The question is, "does it have to be processed all throughout the day?"

I've found that email is a lot like snacking, a little here, a little there.  If you don't watch it, you'll be heading for the cupboard out of habit instead rather than hunger.  So how do you get your inbox to empty?

• Merlin Mann of 43 Folders recommends draining the inbox every single time you touch it.  Wow!  I was stunned when I heard of this approach.  Can anyone actually accomplish this?

• Likwise, turbo blogger Stephen Smith was trying to accomplish the same feat, getting to zero. 

• Meanwhile, NY Times Best Seller The Four Hour Workweek (Timothy Ferris) preaches the gospel of email batching, checking email at 11am and 4pm.  He spends just four (read em' four!) minutes a day on email.  I don't think that Mark from Massachusetts would have Ferris over for dinner given those numbers. 

If these folks, successful in their own right, are getting to zero, it must be possible!  Here are some application points:

1. Email is vital to staying on top of your game.  The real question is "how much?" Reflecting on the role email plays in your work day is a first step.  If you don't think about it, it will become like snacking and continue ad infinitum.  I'm not saying that you need to go away for a weekend retreat, just spend a minute or two in consideration of the role that email plays in your day.



2. Coach those with whom you work.  If Joe from marketing knows that I'm simply not available all of the time, he will gradually get the picture that you are in control of your day and not the other way around.  He will learn to either wait until you are free or (gasp!) actually seek some old fashioned human contact and walk down the hall to your workspace.  I am convinced that most email we perceive to be urgent is only marginally so.



3. Experiment for a week.  Some tactics to try might include:

• Processing email at 11am and 4pm.



• Letting others know (autoresponder) when you'll be checking email.



• Turning off all chimes and indicators of inbox inhabitants. 



• Processing email at three designated times such as 7am, 11am, and 3pm but disciplining yourself to allow only 30 minutes of response time during each check in.

I've found that the less I am checking email, the more focused I can be at the rest of my work.  Each person has a different context and set of expectations so you'll need to figure out an approach that fits the culture of your work place.   If you spend more than 2 hours a day on email, a serious detox may be in order and it will be very, very difficult to coach those around you.  It will feel unnatural to not be checking email all day long. 

One final suggestion, take the time to watch Mann's video presentation at Google.  Then watch Ferris talk about how he handles email.  If they can do it, you can too!

Let Me Walk With You

Photo by Miwaza

Here's a new spin on holding meetings when you don't have time to, well, hold a meeting.  It's called Let Me Walk With You and I've used it for several months with great success.  LMWWY is very simple-

• You need to relay some quick information or you need to ask a question that is easy to answer in under 5 minutes.



• You find the person you need when they are coming or going.



• You say, "Let me walk with you" and then launch into the "meeting"



• You conclude by departing, having relayed what you wanted to or received the info that you needed.

This technique is so simple that you might already be doing it and not realize it.  For more info on meetings, visit my ultimate guide to meetings.  Let me walk with you...

3 Easy Ways to End a Meeting on Time

Have you ever been in a meeting and thought is was going to end, only to find that it keeps going and going and going?  It's as if you are a runway attendant with the orange cones.  You're trying to get the plane to land but its pilot can't seem to get the coordinates right.  Painful indeed.

I've written about meetings several times on TDS but lately I've had a renewed interest as several meetings have gone on and on.  I've become so frustrated in fact that once I turned on my stopwatch when I thought the meeting should end.  As the participants talked on and on and then we did conclude, my watch indicated that an extra 20 minutes had just been gobbled up with fluff talk and chit chat.  How I would love to reclaim those lost 20 minutes!

What to do in these kind of situations?  If you're able to identify the "problem" and it's recurring, I offer the following:

1. Offer to facilitate the meeting yourself.  This is risky in that it puts you on the line for the next time around.  It also, depending on the current meeting planner, might send a message that he/she isn't the ideal facilitator.  Walk gently with this one and know the facilitator well.  You certainly don't want to come across as a know-it-all.  I did this recently and it worked, the person thanked me for taking one more thing off of her plate. 

On the other hand, if it's a one-time meeting or a group that you can't facilitate yourself, you can:

1. Politely say, "Are we done?"  Bluntness works with certain groups and but not with all.  Know your group and judge whether they can handle this.  The bottom line is simple: life is busy and there are other things to do- why spend more time in a meeting than you have to?

And finally, if that's not a viable option, you can:

1. Begin to pack up your things and say, "This was good.  I have another appointment to attend.  Thank you." While I would rather not pack up my things, this visual sends  a message to your group- you are a busy executive with things to do so let's get on with it. 

Be attentive to the meetings that you're in today.  How well are they being run?  Could then end earlier and on a more positive note?  Sometimes ending is as important as how you begin.

Resources for the Road
Ending Meeting Madness
How Can I End My Meetings Effectively?
Managing Meetings Effectively

GTD Insight #33: Maximizing Email Happiness

How often to you check your email?  If you work in a techcentric environment, this question may seem odd as email becomes akin to breathing, an unconscious act that continues throughout the day.  I'd like to suggest that there is a pleasure to email that overchecking can dullen.  Read on.

Email can be pleasurable when it's surprising, when it delivers an anticipated response or when it relaxes the reader.  Unfortunately, when we check email over and over again, our sense of email pleasure softens, making email another mundane task that takes up our time.

Today's GTD Insight is very simple- check email several times during the day but don't overcheck.  The GTD practitioner knows how to strike the balance between getting his work done and still enjoying the little things, like a piece of good news delivered via email.

How to Maintain Focus at Work

(photo by Maurice)

All of us know the feeling. It's 5pm and you want to head home but there's this nagging feeling that you've wasted far too much time in the past eight hours.  How could I have puttered, chatted and putzed my way through another work day?

A TDS reader recently commented, "The best of intentions leave many of us guilty of over-socializing.
Before you know it the next actions you had scheduled to complete that
day were cut in half and all because you simply lost focus. So, how can
we maintain focus during the day?"

This question is absolutely critical for those who want to get ahead and get things done.  If you're asking the question, it's a good sign that you've tasted the drink of productivity and you want more.  I've posted on this topic before so it's good to revisit some ideas:

How to Avoid Lengthy Interruptions at Work
Overcoming Interruptions During the Day
Interruptions at Work
Interruptions at Home

Here's a quick fix to stopping the cycle of lost time at work: prepare for your week and begin each day with a plan.  Very simple and super effective.  What works for you?