![\"process](\"https:\/\/devzing.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/0006.jpg\")
Email is often the #1 focus for advice on how to be more productive. Tactics like “don’t process email first thing” or “batch your email twice a day” are commonplace on the web.<\/p>\nEmail is often the #1 focus for advice on how to be more productive. Tactics like “don’t process email first thing” or “batch your email twice a day” are commonplace on the web.<\/p>\n
Paul Graham wrote the seminal article Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule<\/a> back in 2009 where he discussed why meetings destroy productivity for makers since it takes so long for a maker to achieve the productive “flow” state. The concept behind this is sound and why I think so many give the email advice they do.<\/p>\n However, the advice often doesn’t distinguish between makers and managers. Ignoring your email (or at least batching it) is sound advice for makers, but it is suicide for managers.<\/p>\n My job as a manager is communication. How can I do my job well if I ignore one of the primary modes of communication? That is like telling a salesperson to ignore the phone.<\/p>\n Now I will be the first to admit that there is lots of non-productive email so the trick is not to ignore all your email, but to triage it. There are several systems out there such as David Allen’s Getting Things Done<\/a> which you can use for the actual tactics, but the point is you need to have some kind of system.<\/p>\n My morning routine is in direct opposition to most email advice. I spend the first hour or 2 of every day responding to email. Why? Because other people are waiting on decisions or information that I provide. Without my input they can’t proceed and that impedes their productivity and my goal it to get them working again as soon as possible.<\/p>\n Now I know some of you are thinking that I shouldn’t be the bottleneck or that I am micromanaging my team. I will just just point out that my team members have lots of latitude to make decisions, but occasionally my input is needed. This probably represents 1% of my emails.<\/p>\n The next bulk of the emails (40-50%) are informational so that I know how the business\/project is going. These emails may spawn other emails as I keep various stakeholders in the loop.<\/p>\n Then there is a small number of “educational” emails which are typically mailing lists I’ve subscribed to. These get processed last and are typically skimmed. If there is something interesting or worth more attention I flag them and move on.<\/p>\n The rest of it is junk and I just delete it.<\/p>\n Does this process burn up my best and most productive hours of the day? Nope, because I’m not a maker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Email is often the #1 focus for advice on how to be more productive. Tactics like “don’t process email first thing” or “batch your email twice a day” are commonplace on the web. Paul Graham wrote the seminal article Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule back in 2009 where he discussed why meetings destroy productivity for makers … <\/p>\nMaker or Manager Email?<\/h2>\n