Work-flow Mastery

Work flow mastery. These are actually three different concepts here (Work, flow and mastery) which conjure up images of success. To be successful, we need to work or receive the fruits of other’s work. Work also needs to flow.

There needs to be a steady stream of actions, which if performed consistently will eventually yield results. Then and only then will mastery result.

The In-To-Empty concept

The first system I want to discuss is the concept of In-To-Empty. The term is probably famous due to David Allen’s Getting Things Done and really means getting your in-tray empty. In other words, sorting through your email inbox or the physical piles of stuff and deciding what to do with them. It could also mean going through your notebook and making sense of the random ideas you’ve had today.
I am not going to go into detail here on this concept, as I believe Mr Allen has done a fine job already. However, I will reiterate a couple of things.
Firstly, getting your in-tray empty, doesn’t actually mean that you are completing everything in your inbox. It simply means deciding what each email means and whether it requires further action. If it does require further action, you can then go ahead and add it to your to-do list(s).
The second thing about the in-to-empty model, is that you should ideally only do it once a day. What? Only check emails once a day? That’s heresy, surely. Well no, I believe it is one of the fundamentals of being successful. In other words, limiting the time you spend checking email, social media and voicemails. This is so that you can concentrate your mental energy on productive tasks. Then, maybe , at the end of the day, you can spend say 30 minutes quickly scanning your email list and sorting them. The other benefit of doing this is that when one of those emails turns up, you know the ones, where your heart sinks, you can just decide – yes I need to action this. So it goes in your to-do list.

Do it tomorrow

The key concept that makes the daily in to empty model work is the do it tomorrow concept. When you process all your in boxes, unless you can complete an item immediately, you mark it on your to do list to do tomorrow. It is such a relief to go through your email inbox, knowing you don’t need to reply to that ‘War and Peace’ request from your line manager.

Properly wording your tasks.

Now that you are processing your in box and filling your to-do list, the next thing to master is actually wording the tasks, so that when you come to reading it later, it not only means something, but you are also more likely to complete it.
The simple rule is that a properly worded task should have a verb, an object and a subject.

For instance – Ring Bob to chase up the report.

Ring (verb) Bob (object) Report (subject).

Now its quite alright when you make a note in your note pad such as “sort office out”. You know what this means when you write it, however, it’s not acceptable to write this on your to-do list. Coming across “sort office out” on your to-do list is a guarantee for you to procrastinate.
If you have followed David Allen’s GTD system , as you process this item, you might decide that this is actually a project. Your properly worded action for your to-do list could be “Plan out (verb) a project (object) to organise the office (subject).”
The key is to have all three elements and for the verb to be as simple as possible e.g. Ring, email, plan etc.