Use the damn phone!

Using the phone is the new black. After getting hacked off with everyone emailing everything (self included) and reading about how email is a time-waster I decided to stop using it so much. Using the phone more than I normally would has probabl;y saved me 2 hours today. That's the same 2 hours I would have otherwise lost to getting called in to meetings I didn't know about....

Also using email seems to generate more email, a syptom of the kipple begets kipple rule....

Prioritising and over-optimising

I'm suffering a bit from overload at the moment so I thought I'd share two prioritisation tips that I'm making use of:

1. The first was taught to me by a former teacher and is used everywhere in some form or another: label and sort your tasks from A-C in terms of priority (A highest) and then by estimated time to complete them from shortest to longest. Do a few of the short ones, then a few of the long ones, rinse and repeat, that way you feel like you are making progress and don't get demotivated.
2. Don't over-optimise your workflow: you can spend all day making a to do list and making sure that it is 'at a glance understandable', that your emails arrive and are labelled, that your desk is neat and that your status reports are up-to-date. If you make this a task in itself it will be the only task you do!

How Bill Gates uses Office

Sometimes it's best to get it straight from the horses mouth:

Office Hours: How Bill Gates uses Office - Help and How-to - Microsoft Office Online

I've read articles before that suggest you can increase your productivity by a third by using a second screen, Bill uses 3. Note to PC sellers and employers: one screen is probably not enough any more!