How You Can Get Valuable Time Back: Part 1

Recently, I've been swamped with meetings.  I'm not talking Portfolio Planning, Release Planning, or even Sprint Planning meetings. I'm talking a lot of in-the-weeds type meetings.  After I walk out of some, I realize I could have been informed of the outcomes and action items and that would have been good enough. I didn't need to sit through the whole damn thing.  There are times everyone walks out an hour later, are looking around, and are asking how to get that valuable time back.  It got me thinking, I need to write about this!  Then, as I started writing, I realized that this was either going to be a seriously long long-form blog post or I was going to have to write a few parts to it.  Being the bloggy-blog type, I vote for short form and write a series.

The Scenario

You arrive to the office at 8am on a Monday, only to realize you are late for a meeting someone on Friday after 5pm scheduled.  You're not in the office 5 minutes and you're already behind schedule.  What the hell!?  How does this happen?  You look at your calendar. You have back-to-back-to-back meetings all day Monday and Tuesday.  When are you supposed to actually do your work?  Given the current conditions, you're going to need to catch up on things before or after work. This sucks!

The Problem

You have become a meeting hoarder.  That's right.  At any moment, A&E is going to show up at the office and start filming an episode about you.  In this episode, they follow you around the office.  They confront you and the addiction of accepting too many meeting invites.  Of course this is ridiculous but you really do need some practical strategies to deal with this problem and get back on the track.

Meetings are supposed to be about the exchange of information.  Unfortunately, they are wildly inefficient and offer limited value.  For the most part, they are waste of our time.  Nobody wants to listen to you go on and on about how many meetings you have, now that you're becoming a bottleneck in getting things done.

To start, I'm going to bucket meetings into 3 categories.

1. Non value added but it is necessary.
2. Non value added but it is NOT necessary.
3. Value added.

I see very view meetings offer direct value to the customer.  Most meetings a non value added but we don't have a sufficient method to exchange the information so we settle for the meeting.  It's necessary.

Going forward, assume most meetings don't add value and you should make them prove their worth to you.

The Solutions

In this post, I'm going to give you a strategy to begin controlling the volume of meeting invitations coming into your calendar. First, stop accepting meeting invites for meetings that are less than a full day away.  If someone invites you to a meeting at 5pm on Monday for a meeting at 9am Tuesday, they are being disrespectful of your time.

Set Limits

You may have a standard eight hour work day but the reality is that only half of that day is likely to be productive.  With that assumption, you should guarantee you have 4 hours of productivity. If you don't, your day will be taken up with meetings, responding to email, browsing the Internet and related activities.  Block out 4 hours a day on your calendar for actual work. Make the events private.

Tip: Schedule your most important, high value tasks in the morning, before you get worn out from your current meetings

Turn On Your Email Auto-Responder

Until you can get your meeting addition under control, I recommend you begin using your email autoresponder.  I actually did this several years back, after reading The 4-Hour Work Week with very good results. When someone sends you an email or meeting invite, they automatically get an email from you (with the assumption that you have NOT read their invite).  This will buy you time to focus on real work and not just respond impulsively to the request.

Let’s look at a basic template

Greetings, Due to high workload and too many meeting invites, I am currently checking and responding twice daily at 12:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M. If you require urgent assistance (please ensure it is urgent) that cannot wait until either 12:00 P.M. or 4:00 P.M., please contact me via phone at 555-876-5309. All meeting invites will require 24 hour notice. Though I appreciate the invitation, sending me a meeting invite does not mean I will be accepting your invitation. Thank you for understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness. It helps me accomplish more to serve you better. Sincerely, [Your name]

Conclusion

I can guarantee this is going to help, at least a little.  The more we can slow down the influx of meetings, the more we can assess the value of them and decide if we really need to accept them or not.  The autoresponder will put people on notice and inform them that your time is valuable but that you're not being unreasonable.  If this gets you out of 1 meeting, won't it be worth it?  I know it will do better than that.  Try it and let me know your results.

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In my next post, I'll write about how to triage your meeting requests, so you can begin spending more time doing real work and less going to meetings.

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Why Anchor is Sinking

What is Anchor

When I was first introduced to Anchor.fm, I was really excited. It sounded like a really frictionless way to get ideas out into the wild and then get verbal "comments" back from listeners.  If you're not using it, Anchor saves WAV files for playback by others, linking them together into kind of a back and forth conversation.  They describe the experience as

Anchor is a free iPhone app that makes it easy to broadcast short audio clips to a global audience in seconds. Your listeners can talk back, sparking instant group conversations that were never before possible. When not recording, listen to authentic humor, knowledge, inspiration, and debate from Anchor’s global collective of personality.

Here is the reality

You record up to 2 minutes of audio.  You then tag it for others to discover.  Let's say you hear 2 minutes of audio from someone on the platform.  You can respond. They can respond, and so on and so on.  What really happens is you hear a lot of bla-bla-bla from a lot of other people.  Unlike YouTube or a blog post, where you can skim the comments, you need to listen to some seriously boring stuff!  You think reading comments from some people is bad, imagine listening to these people commenting.  If you've ever been to a conference and during the Q/A session you realize they gave the wrong guy or gal the microphone, this is it.  You want to yell at them to take it away or to just shut up but nothing is going to work. Even worse, the doors are locked and you just need to wait them out.

What's missing

I was watching a snap (Snapchat) from Dan Norris. He's a guy out of Australia who I follow on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. He's just a genuine guy who I enjoy listening to.  Well, today on Snapchat he basically described a similar painpoint with Anchor.  I don't remember specifically what he said, but I remember having an ah-ha moment of similar issues.

In a world where I'm telling people to stop multitasking and to focus on one thing at a time, that's something I do not want out of Anchor. I want to multitask. I want to browse. I want to not listen to other people who are commenting.

Also, I don't like being tagged by someone who is merely trying to pull me into a conversation.  That's like having a telemarketer call my mobile.  Imagine how pissed off you feel when that happens.  Well, that's how it feels in Anchor.

Time will tell

I understand that Anchor is a young product. Being my time is precious to me, I don't want to listen to that guy or gal who grabbed the mic. I want to filter all of that out. I want to do something like go to Dan's website and click on an Anchor link.  I want to hear what Dan wants to say and then "fast forward" past some of the comments.  Do that and I think Anchor can be a viable platform.  Don't do that, and it's a noisy noisy place I will let sink.

Have you used Anchor? If so, what are your thoughts about the platform?

Solve Problems

What we do

As we do our day to day work, I think we can get lost. We get our heads so wrapped around the sales process and selling solutions, we forget why we're working with a client in the first place.  I've been told if the only tool I have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail.  It's true!

What we should do

We're here to help the customer solve their problems.  Focus on the problems. Understand why they have these problems. From there, identify what will help them solve their problem.

https://instagram.com/p/BC_5QTempy2/

Create Awesome Things

I love to create awesome things.  I've created job aids, templates, a blog, a book.  I just like to create things people can use and/or enjoy.   With the exception of items I do with a client, I think I create for the sake of creating. It's an outlet. I recently started creating motivational or thought-provoking images on Instagram.  It's not a get-rich-quick scheme or anything like that. It's just me creating something to be consumed by an audience.

Likes

Within the last few weeks, people have started to "like" my images.  1, 2, 10, 20, 50,...  Each image I post gets more and more likes. The amount of likes that took me 5 weeks before now only takes me 5 minutes.  At the time of writing this, my most liked image has 75 likes. I'm curious how much longer until I hit 100 and beyond.

Comments

Just in the last few days, people I didn't know previously to Instagram are commenting about the images I'm creating.  It's actually pretty flattering to read these comments. Now, I'm not only engaging in mini conversations with them but I'm also finding these people on other social platforms like Twitter and Snapchat.

Community

One of the interesting byproducts of this experience is I'm getting more and more of an audience on the Instagram platform.  When I started doing this a few months ago, I had no followers.  I now have a 160.  I understand it's not a lot but they seem pretty engaged. The same people are liking and commenting against each image I post.  I'm now also following some of them and am exposed to some amazing artwork, photography, and images.  A small community has emerged. The question still remains how big this community will become and what what exactly binds us together.

Until then, I will work hard to create awesome things for them and others.

3 Apps All Agilists Should Have on Their iPhones

So your company has decided you're going to use Agile on your next project or product, they need someone to lead the pilot team, and you've been nominated for the job. It's time to really step up your game. Time to set your iPhone settings to Agilist. Here are three apps you should download to help you get there. I've been using the LeanKit and Pomodoro for several years now and they just get better and better. I'd do a write up for Android phones but I've never seen a list that didn't have a little controversy.  

1. LeanKit

LeanKit supports the implementation of Lean principles, practices, and work methodologies across all business functions, to help organizations create an environment of continuous improvement and innovation to deliver customer value, faster. By visualizing your work as it flows through your process, LeanKit provides a big-picture understanding of the work that helps teams work together more effectively.  I've been using LeanKit for years for both private (Personal Kanban) applications and professional (portfolio management, help desk,...)

2. Pomodoro

Pomodoro Time is a powerful personal productivity tool incorporating the principles of the Pomodoro Technique. Create tasks, configure breaks and track your progress throughout the day, week or custom period. I set the timer for 25 minutes. After the 25 minutes, and I set the timer to take a 5 minute break. I can guarantee I'm more productive by taking two 5 minute breaks each hour. Combined, LeanKit and Pomodoro are my one-two punch to keep ADD in check and my day moving forward.

3. Slack

Over the years, I've used a lot of IM and persistant message tools. Hands down, Slack offers the lowest friction of use. All your team communication in one place, instantly searchable, available wherever you go. That's Slack. - It's real time messaging, file sharing, supporting one-to-one and group conversations - Powerful search and archiving, meaning no one is ever left out of the loop.

How to Use Snapchat

Being an old fart (late 40's), I struggled at first to understand the value of Snapchat. Just the same as there are some sound frequencies only young(er) people can hear, I think Snapchat is one of those applications only younger people will get right away. Us old farts have to work at it.

My initial impression

The UI feels disjointed.  It's not intuitive at all to me.  Perhaps they'll add a lot more features (or not) in the future.  I was trying to understand its value. Why do 100+ Million people use this thing?  Unlike all of the other major social applications, this thing feel like it's for a bunch of kids who overshare everything, trying to be the next Kim Kardashian.  I even went so far as to follow Gary Vaynerchuk on Snapchat to try to understand how he's leveraging it.

My revised impression

Recently, I started really thinking about how to communicate my message to others. I want to tell my story, in the hope it helps others.  Last night, I had an ah-ha moment.  Let's compare Snapchat to my blog or to Twitter.  For my blog, people come to me looking for help in the areas of project management, Agile, and Kanban.  I've even been contacted by a few people dealing with ADD/ADHD or looking to do meetups or unconferences.  I used to blog every day but now it's more like once a week or month.  Still, I'm very happy to share what I've learned in all of those domains.  Unfortunately, most of the conversations come from the comments.  That's good but there can be a delay and we can lose context in time.  On my Twitter account, I have several active conversations weekly.  I search specific topics and see if I can help anyone.  I may also retweet or like something every day or share a photo from Instagram.

My ah-ha moment

The secret to Snapchat is in the exchange of value.  First, let's consider there is an investment to telling your story through YouTube videos, blog posts, and even Twitter posts or snaps.  What you're hoping for is you're going to get a return on your investment, by way of subscribers, followers, or likes.  Some people want even more than that.  Some may want a lead or a deal, in order to create more content.  With Snapchat, they have lowered the bar (time investment) so low, you have to change the way you're thinking about this.  They want you to share your story.  They want you to share everything.  But, they want you to limit your story to 10 seconds or less. They don't want you to overproduce (edit) what you are posting.  You can't even upload a picture or video. Currently, you have to create a snap right from your camera.  The whole system is position to share a story with as little effort as possible.

You're not being narcissistic or self-absorbed

I originally thought that Snapchat was for kids who just like to look at themselves or believe they are "special".  I honestly don't think they care.  So, why should we?  They see it as a tool that allows them to share their stories and equally enjoy stories.  If they don't get to it within 24 hours, the snap expires and they don't feel compelled to stress out over it.  In my world, if I see I'm running behind on reading blog posts or podcasts, I start to stress out a little. I feel compelled to binge on them because they don't go away. Snapchat just took the 10 independent blogs or podcasts that I subscribe to, which could take hours a day to keep up with, and forced them to only last 10 seconds at a time and then expire in 24 hours.

How to leverage Snapchat

It's just a matter of time that the demographic of people using Snapchat is going to shift from kids in their teens and early twenties, to people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.  Until it hits critical mass, I believe it's a bit of a land grab.  People should start getting really good at telling a visual story 10 seconds at a time.  If you follow someone on Snapchat, you're going to have the behind-the-curtain look into their life.  If you're following people on Instagram, Facebook, blogs, and even Twitter, you get a much more scripted and polished persona.  Snapchat will provide a level of authenticity not present in current media.  It will also help steer people to those other platforms, one 10-second snap at a time.

How to snap with me

1. Download Snapchat on your phone.
2. Open Snapchat.
3. Choose to add me as a friend.  You can add by username (derekhuether) or by snapcode (ghost image below)
4. If you're over 20 years old, I would recommend you Google "How to use Snapchat".
5. After two people follow each other, it's easy to have a private chat.  I could post a video and then you could send me a private message, asking me a question.

   

What is The Crux

Ever heard of the term "crux"?In mountaineering terms, it's the most difficult part of a climb.

Regardless if it's a climb or a personal goal, I see the start as the most difficult part.

I used to think that starting was easy and finishing was the hard part. I would now say finishing is hard, once you get started.

Do you keep putting things off, day after day, week after week?

Now that we've started a new year, what are you going to commit to? Almost as important, what will prevent you from getting started?

(the pic is from a trail map for the Sugarloaf Mountain trails that I've hiked)

Enforcing Governance

Rules of the Road

I was on my way into the office the other day at 5am.  Being it takes about two hours, a lot can happen.  For about 15 minutes, I noticed a driver tailgating me on a winding country road.  When they had an opportunity to pass, they took it, though we were in a no passing zone.  It was a reckless act.  I then watched the driver tailgate the car in front of me.  Within five minutes, they passed that car though we were still in a no passing zone.  Off they drove, into the dark.  I thought there were three very clear possibilities that would happen.  First, this person was going to skid off the road or hit a deer. Second, a Police officer would pull them over and cite them for reckless driving. Three, nothing would happen and they would continue to drive recklessly.

Governance in our Organizations

Now, let's consider a similar situation in an organization.  You have clearly defined rules of the road, known as your organizational governance or framework.  You use this governance to ensure the different types of teams deliver on the organizational goals and that there is a shared understanding of what not to do.  The bigger and complex the organization, the greater need for the governance.

You have a team who is not following the organizational governance.  Though they are able to reach their goals, they put everyone else at risk.  What do you think would be the best course of action?

1. Should we monitor them and see if they negatively impact other teams and the organization?
2. Should we enforce the governance?
3. Should we do nothing?