Oli Gibson

This post is part of the Empty Inbox series

There is no easy way to rid yourself of email over night, but these six cheats come as close as possible.

The Template

If your email is anything like mine around 80% of it involves sending the same basic few responses over and over. This was probably my biggest email time drain, until I started to use this sneaky little trick.

Templates make it so easy to start a new email or a response based on an existing boiler plate document. I use Mailtemplate for Apple Mail and Entourage but you can also use drafts feature of all mail programs.

Templates are the ultimate go to for:

• Basic ‘thank you’ response
• Responses to frequently asked questions
• Responses to any other regular requests.

It’s nice to be polite and respond to people and even better when it’s a one click automated response.

The Auto-Responder

Reducing the amount of times you check your email each day can make you so much more productive. Thats obvious really. Set two times during the day to check your email, I use 12 noon, or just before lunch and again at 4pm. These times ensure you will have the most responses from the previously sent emails.

Before you can implement the twice daily routine for email you need to create an auto-responer to train all the people who contact you to do so in a more effective way. If this idea scares the hell out of you, especially if it’s your work email speak with your boss first and propose you trial this method for 3 days to see how it works out. Remember to point out that it’s very rare you would receive an email that needed instant attention and you are going to put an alternative way to contact you in an emergency on your auto-responder. Here’s an example of what your auto-response could look like.

Due to high workload, I am only checking and responding to email twice a day at 12pm GMT and 4pm GMT. If what you require is urgent and cannot wait until eith of those times you can contact me on 07797979787.

Thanks for your understanding for this move to be more efficient, It helps me be more productive and serve you better.

Sincerely,
Oli Gibson

Make the move and make your email checking more structured, you would be surprised how understanding most people are and how much of a difference it will make to you.

The ‘I Don’t Know’

Human nature seems to prevent people from being able to admit they don’t know the answer to something. As far as email’s concerned please just say you don’t know and defiantly don’t do the opposite – spending hours trying to seem smart.

Not knowing an answer to a question is fine and telling the sender gives them all the information needed to keep looking. “I don’t know, but here’s the links to a few people who might” can still win you all the praise you could want.

The Question

Ok so this isn’t the best way to deal with email, but it is effective, especially for that email thats been sitting in your inbox for a while. To get the ball in motion i just ask this simple question to the sender.

“Do you still need this?” Trust me this will be a question that saves you hours.

The Link

One of my pet email hates is when I get a question that could be easily be answered with a five second google search. In combination with a template wrapper a response like, “Here’s a link that might help you out…” is quick and easy. It also helps to educate the sender, hopefully subtly suggesting they should hit google next time rather than filling your inbox

The Delete Key

You know those emails that have been sitting in your inbox for weeks? Yeah thats right the ones growing mothballs. Are you ever going to respond to them? If its more than a week old, either answer it or hit delete NOW.

This may sound counter intuitive or feel ‘mean’ but then think why is it you’re still starring at that message rather than responding to it. How, in your mind, will this email become easier to answer? If you can’t work it out you need to move on to the point below.

Delete it, move on and never look back!

Email seems to be the biggest time drain faced by many busy people today. It seems to be such an issue that many great minds have already thrown their hats into the ring over and shared their secrets for dealing with the vast quantities of email many of us receive. Like many of you probably have I read these articles with much interest, I was desperate to reduce the amount of time email stole from my day but it seemed that none of the approaches or techniques I read about actually carried through to my day to day life. So I have decided to do what anyone who is frustrated with a situation should do. I am going to fix the problem and I am going to tell you how to do the same. It’s time I threw my hat in the ring.

We all agree that the seemingly never ending battle to keep the inbox empty is taking it’s toll, not just on our overall productivity but also simply taking hours from our life’s that we can never recover. However with a proper system in place to process our messages and convert them into actions we can reduce the amount of time email takes up in our day by up to 99%. I’m not kidding.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing with you my system for email mastery and a few tips and tricks I have learnt along the way. There is no guarantee that it will work perfectly for you as we all have our different needs and challenges to face but I promise you that with a little creative adjustment you can apply anything that has worked for me to your own email woes.

I hope that this series can become your go to for ideas to deal with email and become more productive as a result. Actually, scratch that. I hope that this series can help you combat your email and improve your life!

All the Empty Inbox posts will appear here but you can also bookmark the Empty Inbox page for easier access to the series and any new posts.

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” – Abraham Lincoln

Through the last few posts here I have talked about goal setting and my tips to create better goals or achieve your dreams. By reading the posts I have already written (below) you will have the tools you’ll need to set goals that really work, so now I think it is time to show you what can be achieved by using these techniques and why you should use them.

Past Posts in the Series

• An Introduction and Thinking Smart
• Five Tricks to Achieve Goal Setting Nirvana
• Dreamlining

How Tim Ferriss Achieved it All

Tim Ferriss is a remarkable character who has achieved a remarkable amount in his 29 years. Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Reporter even went as far to say “Tim Ferriss has packed more into his 29 years than Steve Jobs has in his 51″. Thats clearly no mean feat! Here’s some of the things Tim has achieved.

• Guest Lecturer at Princetown University
• First American in history to hold a world record in Tango
• Speaker of 6 languages
• National Chinese Kickboxing champion
• MTV break dancer
• Actor in Chinese hit TV series (Human Cargo)

To go with this Tim has also traveled the world extensively, run a successful business (BrainQuicken) in the US and is now an established angel investor.

So how do you pack all this into 30 years and more to the point how do you keep focused enough to achieve all this?

Well Tim has used all the techniques I have detailed in the last few posts but he is a particular fan of dreamlining. He believes the more unrealistic the goals you set the more likely it is you will push to try and achieve it.

Admittedly not everyone wants to be like Tim but he is probably the best example for me to show what can be achieved with proper goal setting. Setting goals is a technique that needs to be learned in itself and once mastered it is amazing what can be achieved, look at Tim!

This now concludes The Goal Setting Guide. I will hopefully add to it from time to time but I now feel that there is a great guide out there to help you set goals that really make the most of your potential. While this is the end of this short series, it doesn’t have to be the end of my advise on goal setting. You can always email me with any questions you have – oli@oligibson.com – or you can find me on twitter – @oligibson.

I was introduced to the idea of dreamlining by Tim Ferriss when I read his anecdote about the fat man in the red BMW convertible (an example of what he could be like if he continued to follow his career path)

Could you really stand to be in the same position as your boss in 15-20 years time? A symbol of mediocrity with a 3 bedroom house in suburbia, 2.4 children and a small family saloon. Stuck in your middle management job and going no where. Trust me that idea scares the hell out of me. This is why I became a lifestyle designer and why I remind myself everyday to never “accept reality”. This is why I use dreamlining.

Strictly speaking dreamlining is not goal setting. It differs in a few ways…

1. The goals shift from wants to defined steps
2. The goals MUST be unrealistic to be effective
3. It focuses on activities that fill the vacuum created when work is removed or reduced should you wish (who doesn’t!)

I am going to help you do what you never thought possible. What you dreamed of when you were young but as you grew up realised was ‘not possible’. I am going to help you dreamline. It’s not going to be easy but it will be worthwhile. To start with I recommend you download my dreamlining template and my expenses calculation form to help you out.

What Would You Do if You Couldn’t Fail?

Imagine if you were the smartest person in the world. Think how much you’d do now knowing you couldn’t fail.

Create two timelines, one for six months and one for twelve (there is a template here) and list up to five things you dream of for the following categories…

Having – Including but not limited to material wants eg. cars, houses etc.
Being – Eg. being a great cook, fluent in a language or a world champion.
Doing – Eg. Visiting Australia, racing motorbikes or running the marathon.

If you have difficulty identifying what you want in some categories, as some will consider what you hate or fear and write down the opposite. Make sure you don’t limit yourself or worry about how you will achieve these dreams. For now it doesn’t matter. It’s also important not to fool yourself. I love cars and dream of owning an Aston Martin so I put it down rather than putting down removing aids from Africa out of guilt. It doesn’t matter what you want as-long as it is what you really want. Be it fame, fortune or prestige get it all down.

If your still drawing a blank consider the following questions…

• What would you do day to day if you had £50 million in the bank.
• What would make you most excited to wake up tomorrow morning.

What are the Four Dreams that Would Change it All?

On both the six and twelve month timeline highlight the four dreams that are most interesting, exciting and would make the most difference to your life.

Discover How Much Your Dreams Cost and Your Target Monthly Income (TMI)

If financeable, how much does it cost per month to achieve your dreams. (eg rent, mortgage, monthly payments etc) If you start to think of income and expenses as monthly cash-flow instead of grand totals you’ll likely find things often cost a lot less than expected. For example my dream of owning an Aston Martin. A brand new Aston Martin V8 Vantage normally costs £90,341 but I can drive one away for as little as £1,542 a month.

So let us calculate your Target Monthly Income (TMI) to help you achieve your dreams. Firstly find the total for each of the rows counting only the four selected dreams. It doesn’t matter if some of these rows total zero. Next add your total monthly expenses x 1.3 (30% buffer for savings and unexpected costs) This grand total is your TMI target. Your calculation should look like the following.

Column A + Column B + Column C + (1.3 x Monthly Expenses) = TMI

You could take this further and divide your TMI by 30 to get you Target Daily Income to give yourself a goal for the day.

If all this seems a little complicated please look at my examples here. You can also use the templates to do your own dreamlining. I find dreamlining particularly useful to give targets and show that dreams are easier to achieve than first expected. I hope it can help you in the same way. As usual please leave comments or email me if you have any questions on dreamlining and it’s best practices – oli@oligibson.com

If you haven’t seen my first article in this series you can read it here, it’s a more gentle introduction!

I can’t tell you how to achieve overall nirvana but I can lend a hand to achieve enlightenment in the goal setting world. As Buddhism teaches there are no shortcuts to nirvana. There is no way to jump the queue or to get a priority boarding pass for the nirvana express but I have discovered five ways to fast track the journey to goal setting superiority.

1) Write Down Your Goals

Ok many of you already know how important it is to write your goals down but because it’s so important I think it’s important to reiterate it. The simple mechanical act of writing makes your goal visible and tangible, it’s no longer just a thought it’s a commitment.

The mistake that most people make here is they just write they’re goal down, unfortunately thats not enough. Best results are seen when you describe your goal in specific detail. For example compare:

“I want to be rich and successful”

With

“I want to be making £10,000 per month from my business from 1st July 2010″

The first is a dream the second is an actionable goal. Write it everywhere and anywhere to remind you as many times a day as possible what your trying to achieve. I know my desk is littered with post it notes containing my goals.

2) Ask the Question

When I was younger I used to ask this question all the time and it drove my parents mad. I still do ask it probably more than most. Failure to ask this question of yourself when setting your goals will certainly result in a lack of motivation and direction.

WHY?

Make a list of all the reasons why you have this goal and try to imagine the benefits of each. The truth is the more reasons in your list the stronger your motivation will be and the more likely you’ll follow your plan to the bitter end!

3) Trick Your Brain Out of Procrastination

So you have your huge goal but every-time you have the time to start on achieving it you realise you have no where near enough time really, so you think, I’ll do it tomorrow.

Remember, Tomorrow Never Comes

Set yourself a small goal that you can use to achieve your overall for tomorrow and you’ll never again waste today.

Another way to stop you putting off and important task is to write down the following every-time you catch yourself avoiding something.

1) Where are you?
2) What do you want to do?
3) How will this make you feel?

As you write these down imagine yourself doing the task and it won’t be to difficult for you to just get up and do it. This is such a simple technique but it works like magic.

4) Keeping Up The Momentum

This is often the point people skip, but I feel it is most important. Upon asking why they didn’t do it they normally say they thought it would be too timing consuming or they don’t have time for it. However I do do this and it takes me less than 10 minutes a day, you can spare 10 minutes.

Start a personal success journal to remind yourself of all the success you’ve had and how they make you feel. Make sure you write something everyday even if they were only small achievements and look back at them when you’re feeling unmotivated or are procrastinating. It’s amazing how motivating past achievements can be. On a personal note I often look back at pictures of me when I was racing for Great Britain to motivate me as it reminds me of these achievements and shows that I have it in me to do great things. If I can do it so can you.

The journal also eliminates temptation. You’re less likely to not achieve your goals if you know you’ll have nothing to write down in the journal for the day.

5) Have Fun

When teaching children new things the best way is to make a game of it. The same goes for your goal setting. For example if you have to fill 5 litre bottles from a 1000 litre container (I used to do this) time yourself and see how many you can do in 3 minutes. Then challenge yourself to beat your last score.

The good thing is you can never lose this game!

It may sound silly or childish but this is probably the most important trick, most athletes use this when training to reduce the monotony of training and continue to be efficient and effective. On top of this it is also proven that this simple trick can increase productivity by more than 125%.

Hopefully you can apply these tricks to help you reach goal setting nirvana. But it’s a difficult path and sometimes we all need a little help along the way, don’t give up you can always contact me with any questions on how anything in this article can help you or if you just want to say hi thats cool too. Send me an email – oli@oligibson.com