1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:03,800 Speaker 1: How many emails have you received in the last twenty 2 00:00:03,880 --> 00:00:10,559 Speaker 1: four hours? Maybe fifty one hundred, five hundred. I mean 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,200 Speaker 1: chances are it was a lot, and your inbox was 4 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 1: probably responsible for many interruptions in your day. But it 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,920 Speaker 1: doesn't have to be that way. Call Newport is the 6 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:25,480 Speaker 1: author of Deep Work and a World Without Email and 7 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: a computer science professor at Georgetown University, and he has 8 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:34,360 Speaker 1: thought a lot about why email productivity hacks often not 9 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: all that effective and instead why we need to attack 10 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,840 Speaker 1: the problem at the route. So, how can we get 11 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:45,959 Speaker 1: more deep work done without letting email take over our 12 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:48,839 Speaker 1: work date? And how can we find the bottlenecks in 13 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: our organization's workflow? And how can meeting scheduling software free 14 00:00:54,640 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: up time to focus. My name is doctor Amantha Imba. 15 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:06,039 Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science 16 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: consultancy Inventium. And this is how I work, a show 17 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: about how to help you do your best work. On 18 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: today's My Favorite Tip episode, we go back to an 19 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:19,680 Speaker 1: interview from the past and I pick out my favorite 20 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:23,399 Speaker 1: tip from that interview. In today's extract, I speak with 21 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:27,920 Speaker 1: cal about how we can change our workflow to dramatically 22 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: reduce email in terms of low hanging fruit. Let's just 23 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 1: imagine a typical professional services organization that's full of knowledge workers. 24 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:39,720 Speaker 1: Are there processes that you find tend to be low 25 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: hanging fruit? 26 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,279 Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean there's a couple of things. One, meeting 27 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 2: scheduling software has to be the standard. There cannot be 28 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 2: meetings being scheduled with back and forth emails. Well what 29 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 2: about Tuesday? No, Tuesday's not too good. What about Wednesday? 30 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:53,600 Speaker 2: I might be free in the afternoon. Is it a 31 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,360 Speaker 2: huge productivity sink? We don't realize it. But here's the issue. 32 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 2: Setting up a meeting via email just back and forth 33 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 2: might on average generate let's say six messages, right, So 34 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:08,360 Speaker 2: that's six times someone has to pay attention shift their 35 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:10,480 Speaker 2: context to that email inbox. But the thing about meeting 36 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:12,520 Speaker 2: scheduling is that it has to happen kind of quick, right, 37 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:13,959 Speaker 2: Like I don't want to spend a week to set 38 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 2: up a meeting for you. That meeting might be in 39 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:18,119 Speaker 2: two days, right, So I have to check the inbox 40 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,240 Speaker 2: quite a bit for each of those messages so that 41 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:23,520 Speaker 2: I see it pretty soon after it comes. So now 42 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:27,440 Speaker 2: six messages might actually generate sixty inbox checks in just 43 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 2: a couple of days, each one of those inbox checks, 44 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:34,239 Speaker 2: breaking your concentration and initiating a very cognitively expensive context shift. 45 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:37,640 Speaker 2: Just one meeting, therefore, can be a scheduling one meeting 46 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 2: could be a pretty big cognitive disaster. Now multiply that 47 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:42,480 Speaker 2: over ten or fifteen meetings you're trying to set up. 48 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 2: That simple thing alone can significantly reduce a team's ability 49 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,959 Speaker 2: to get things done. So everyone should use meeting scheduling software. Great, 50 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 2: let's do it. You know where my link is, schedule it. 51 00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:56,079 Speaker 2: One email meeting gets scheduled, So I think that's low 52 00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 2: hanging fruit. Office hours are also low hanging fruit to 53 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:03,079 Speaker 2: small questions. What about this? I don't understand this? Can 54 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 2: we quickly figure out when we want to do that? 55 00:03:05,919 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 2: Who's going to take on this? As much as you 56 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,200 Speaker 2: can divert as possible to just come to my next 57 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 2: office hours. Just come to my next office hours. We 58 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 2: will talk in real time then, not back and forth 59 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,840 Speaker 2: messaging that is applicable to almost any industry. So do 60 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 2: those two things, meeting scheduling software and office hours that 61 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 2: can handle eighty percent of small questions, discussions and clarifications. 62 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:25,800 Speaker 2: Those two things alone for almost any team will make 63 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:26,560 Speaker 2: a huge difference. 64 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: With meeting scheduling software, What are you currently recommending that 65 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:31,600 Speaker 1: people check out? 66 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 2: Well, there's a bunch of tools that are relatively equivalent 67 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 2: right now. I've used a couple. I've used Acuity in 68 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 2: the past. At the moment, I'm using Calendly. I like 69 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 2: them both. I mean, maybe Calendly has a slightly slicker interface. 70 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:50,000 Speaker 2: I think Microsoft Suite has its own meeting scheduling link 71 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 2: type software built into it. I mean I occasionally get 72 00:03:52,680 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 2: links from people that are built out of the Microsoft 73 00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 2: Productivity Suite. People like x dot ai a lot. It's 74 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 2: another meeting scheduling tool for group meetings. Doodles pretty good. 75 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 2: I think that's kind of a default. The other tools 76 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:06,920 Speaker 2: are getting those, but they're all pretty equivalent. I mean, 77 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 2: it's not a hard thing that you're doing here. You're 78 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 2: just trying to avoid the back and forth, like to 79 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 2: the point it's so important. Let's say you want to 80 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 2: set up a meeting with someone and for whatever reason, 81 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 2: because of their personality, you just know that no matter 82 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:21,320 Speaker 2: how much you social engineer it, if you send them 83 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 2: a link, they're going to be upset because you're at 84 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 2: a lower station to them to even go through that 85 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:29,359 Speaker 2: software and manually list out fifteen different times they can 86 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:33,280 Speaker 2: choose from. That may seem like WHOA, that's really inefficient. 87 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 2: That's going to take me ten minutes to list out 88 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:36,240 Speaker 2: all these times when I could just shoot off a 89 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 2: message that says how about Wednesday? But spending fifteen minutes 90 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:42,280 Speaker 2: to list a bunch of times in an email that 91 00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:45,640 Speaker 2: that person can then just grab one that is worth 92 00:04:45,680 --> 00:04:49,560 Speaker 2: it because fifteen minutes concentrated in the one task is 93 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 2: way less of a cost than six messages you have 94 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 2: to check your inbox ten times for each. So even 95 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 2: if you're just literally manually doing implementing this by just 96 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:02,479 Speaker 2: listing out a bunch of time slaying someone choose it, 97 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 2: it's still a win because that's how devastating these unscheduled 98 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:05,600 Speaker 2: messages are. 99 00:05:06,520 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed that tip from Cal and if 100 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,720 Speaker 1: you're enjoying How I Work, maybe you might want to 101 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:16,919 Speaker 1: tell somebody else about it and spread the productivity love. 102 00:05:17,279 --> 00:05:20,880 Speaker 1: You can simply click on the little share icon wherever 103 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: you listen to this podcast and maybe share it with 104 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:28,640 Speaker 1: someone who's drowning in their inbox. How I Work is 105 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,360 Speaker 1: produced by Inventing and with production support from Dead Set Studios. 106 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: And thank you to Martin Imba who does the audio 107 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:37,960 Speaker 1: mix for every episode and makes this all sound much 108 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:40,800 Speaker 1: better than it would have otherwise. See you next time.