On Journaling

If you do any research on how to increase productivity or how to “win the morning”, you’ll no doubt come across the benefits of journaling. I journal myself — it has incredible benefits.

However I fell victim to an all-or-nothing mentality. For some reason I felt I had to journal at least once a day — the ideal being once in the morning and once at night. As someone with a busy schedule, it quickly becomes clear how that’s not always realistic.

Of course there’s the “you don’t have 5 minutes to spare?” argument. But a question like this requires a simplistic view of life. Sure, I could carve out 5 minutes. But often those 5 minutes are better spent on something else.

Taking that a step further … if you were to carve out 5, 10, 20 minutes for every productivity hack out there, you wouldn’t have any time left in the day for actual work or relationships.

In 2018 I’ve been working on my focus. And, as a consequence of focus, I’ve been working on ridding myself of that all-or-nothing mindset. Of the pursuit of clean perfection.

That’s taken form with my blogging. With my reading. With my work. With my relationships. It’s a reality that I couldn’t bring myself to think of in the past. But now that it is my reality — I’ve seen how freeing it is.

You don’t have to finish that book. Had enough of it? Put it down and pick up the next one. You don’t have to write the perfect blog post. Get your thoughts down and publish. You don’t have to journal everyday. When you do, you’ll find it’s great. And when you don’t — that’s okay too.

I love to journal but I now love to journal even more because it no longer feels like a chore. Something that I have to do or otherwise I haven’t “won the morning”. Now it’s something that I choose to do. Something that I enjoydoing. And you know what? My day can be great regardless of how I spent those 5 minutes. It’s a matter of how I spend the rest of it and my outlook on it all.

Ironically I started writing this blog post about journaling and how I’ve found it beneficial when I do it. Then it morphed into something completely different. And you know what? That’s perfectly fine.

Focus, Focus, Focus

Last week I tweeted this.

My 2018 theme is Focus

— Adam Pittenger (@apitt24) January 5, 2018

A friend asked me to elaborate on this. Why is that the theme? What does this mean for me?

My Answer

To me, focus is more of a mindset than a verb. It’s a way of operating that guides your actions and decisions.

It’s a mindset of prioritization. Setting a goal and creating a prioritized list of actions that will cause you to achieve it.

It’s being relentless in pursuit of that goal. Delegating more and understanding how to best use the resources you have.

It’s force-ranking everything. Eliminating anything that distracts from achieving the end goal.

What This Means For Me

This means changing how I spend my time. There’s a lot of calls and meetings I would have said “yes” to that I’ll now say “no” to. It means being protective of my calendar, rather than at the mercy of other people’s schedules. It means structuring my day in a way that optimizes my time and moves the company closer to our goal.

Nothing great in life gets accomplished without focus. So focus.

Structuring A Day

I didn’t publish a blog post yesterday. An urgent request upended my morning. It took me until 2:30pm to finish before doing any other work (or eating).

This is not the way I like to start my day. Unfortunately, it happens in a startup. It’s the nature of the beast. On all other days I have a specific day structure I like to stick to.

The optimal structure of one’s day depends upon who that person is and how they operate. I’ve designed mine to take advantage of the creative thoughts I have in the morning. I then batch my meetings, phone calls, and “manager time” in the afternoon.

If you’re not familiar with the idea of a maker’s schedule vs a manager’s schedule, I recommend this post (and/or this one). If those are too long, here’s a great video that I showed our team this morning when discussing this very topic.

The Structure of My Day

I like my mornings to be for making. I write. I work on product. I think and problem-solve. I try not to check email until I’ve completed at least one big “maker to do”. I’m not always successful in that but I’m getting better.

Around noon I switch from maker to manager. The rest of my day breaks up into 30 and 60 minute blocks of calls, meetings, and administrative work.

Each week I audit how I spent my time and adjust from there, optimizing for the highest yield activities. I break those activities into inputs and outputs.

My highest yield inputs = talking to people (to gather information), reading, and research.

My highest yield outputs = talking to people (to deliver information), writing, and product work.

I work to structure my day and my role to optimize for these as much as possible. It’s an exercise of continual iteration and improvement. Time is a finite resource. It’s the most precious thing we have. How are you spending your’s?

Getting to sleep

I’ve always had issues getting to sleep. Without a doubt — I’m a night owl. When it’s time to go to bed, I struggle to shut my mind down and get the rest I know I need.

In the past I’ve always had the TV on and/or been messing around on my phone. Clearly not effective. I’ve tried a number of tactics and hacks throughout the years to fix this. The only one that seems to work for me is reading.

Everyday I read on my commute via Audible. But that’s not effective at night because, if I fall asleep, I completely lose my place in the book. A physical copy is the way to go.

The next issue to get past is the light. My fiancé goes to bed earlier than I do. She puts her head on the pillow and is out. It’s almost as if she has an “OFF” switch… a true gift. I don’t want to put on the bright lights because 1) it may wake her and 2) I don’t want to have to get up to shut them off as I’m falling asleep.

So I’m going to try the Phillips Hue lightbulbs. The ability to dim is a plus because it won’t wake my fiancé and the different hues you can set will allow me to “set the stage” for sleep. Finally, when I’m primed to drift away into dreamland, I can turn them off completely via my phone.

At least that’s the plan anyway… I’ll let you know how it goes.

How A Properly Set Goal Can Change Your Life

The Formula I Use to Be Happier and Achieve More

I want to be successful.

Who doesn’t? Ostensibly everyone is working to be successful. Which begs the question… how is success achieved?

This question has dominated my headspace throughout my life and career. Eventually I realized — you can’t start answering the ‘how’ without first answering the ‘what’.

In retrospect, the chronology is obvious. It’s frustrating to think how long the obvious eluded me. I knew, inherently, I wanted to be successful. I just never took the time to define what “success” meant to me.

Wanting success is great but “I want to be successful” is not a goal. It’s an ambiguous phrase with different meaning to different people.

Without defining success, how can you understand what it looks like? How can you tell when you’re making progress? How can you ever be successful? You can’t.

Following this realization, I created a process for myself. One designed to push me in the right direction and, if followed, would force me to “be successful”. Thus far, the results have been astounding. I’ve learned even more than expected.

This process now influences everything I do, both personally and professionally. It’s helped me to lose weight, accomplish business goals, and become a happier, more positive person.

The process is five steps — they are:

1. Define Success

If we’re being literal, the dictionary definition of ‘success’ is: “accomplishing an aim or purpose”.

Okay, so what is my aim or purpose? What is it that I’m trying to accomplish? The answers to these questions define my vision of success.

Be clear — this vision isn’t always easy to define. It may be top-of-mind or it may require serious introspection to nail down. A good practice is to identify other people who you would qualify as “successful.”

What about them is successful? What aspects of their lives do you wish to achieve in your’s? Any successful person you speak to or study will tell you they had people they were emulating and chasing at the start.

The vision of success can be anything. A raise or promotion. Buying a house. Working one less day a week. Spending a certain amount of time with friends and family. Anything.

Two Rules

1) Don’t be ambiguous. “I want to have a popular podcast” or “I want to be a successful investor” are not good enough. You need to define what ‘popular’ and ‘successful’ mean. Otherwise they are unattainable. Be as specific as possible.
2) Create inevitability. Don’t express the vision as “I want to”, express it as “I’m going to”. Definition without action is meaningless. A decision must be made. Decide not what you WANT but, instead, what you’ll DO. Definition becomes decision when action is taken.

2. Set Goals

Once the vision is defined, it becomes clear what “success” means and what it looks like. The next step is figuring out how to get there.

I start by working backwards. I keep working backwards until I have a concrete next step. That next step is my first goal.

Ask The Following: What are the prerequisites (milestones or credentials) for this vision? How have others accomplished it (or something similar) before? Can I achieve the same result in a more efficient way?

Let’s use an example and say my vision of success is: “I’m going to have a podcast with one million downloads”. Working backwards from that, the first thing I need is… a podcast. And if I want a podcast, I’ll need recording equipment and something to talk about. And working backwards once more — I’ll need to save up money for the equipment and brainstorm potential podcast topics.

At this point I can’t work backwards any further. I’ve peeled back enough layers where I now have two things I can take action on immediately. These are my goals. By accomplishing these, I’m making real progress and moving towards my vision.

Taking this a step further — once I’ve saved up money and figured out what I want to cover, I’ll have my equipment and my topic. Then I’ll set new goals. For example, recording the first season of the podcast. And after I do that… I’ll have my podcast. I’ll keep iterating until my vision of success is realized.

This, of course, is an oversimplification. But it illustrates how you can work backwards from the vision and set the appropriate goals.

3. Create Habits

Goals aren’t accomplished on their own. Identifying what needs to get done doesn’t mean it actually gets done. Goals are only accomplished by taking consistent action. Let’s continue with our podcast example...

If I need to save up for equipment, then I’ll make regular deposits into my “podcast fund”. Or I’ll get a loan. Or ask for a deferred payment plan. I’ll take action relentlessly until the goal is complete.

Now I have the equipment and my next goal is to record an 8-episode season within a month. For this, I’ll schedule time each week to record 2 episodes. It must become a habit. I’ll create rewards for succeeding and consequences for failing, to incentivize myself. With my new habit in place, I’ll have an 8-episode season by the end of the month.

Again, the example is basic but the concept can be applied to any goal. Define your vision of success. Set goals that will cause you to realize this vision. Establish systems and behaviors that make achieving those goals an inevitability. Next…

4. Track & Measure

This step is crucial for a couple reasons. First, it allows you to see how you’re progressing, what you’re learning, and if you need to correct the course you’re on (see #5).

More importantly — it informs your happiness and motivation. The truth is, many people feel unfulfilled because they don’t define and track their goals. I was one of these people for a long time.

Without defining success and tracking my goals, there was no way for me to see if I was actually making progress. By not seeing or feeling progress, I felt stagnant. Like I was running in place. And that’s a horrible feeling.

With clearly defined goals, I know exactly what success looks like. More than that, I can see how I’m progressing towards my goals. If I see positive gains, I’m happy. I know my goals are achievable and, better yet, they’re in sight. I just have to keep going. Keep pushing.

That’s where motivation kicks in. Seeing this progress, being happy and confident, and knowing my goals are within reach… these all push me to be persistent and take action.

Conversely, if I’m not tracking my progress, I’m in a state of limbo where I’m unsure sure what my hard work and long hours are resulting in. Is this actually furthering my goals? Am I doing the right things? Do I need to make a change?

The only way to answer these questions is to track and measure. It keeps you sane and motivated with the knowledge that you’re moving in the right direction and on track to realize your vision.

And that knowledge is directly correlated to your feelings of happiness and self-worth. The more control you feel over your destiny, the more confidence you’ll have and the happier you’ll be. And that, by itself, is reason enough to track and measure.

5. Review & Recalibrate

While going through the above, I’ve found it’s crucial to regularly take time to review the vision, the goals, and the habits.

This review process should not exclusively be completed at the end, but also along the way. Tracking and measuring organically forces this. As you go, it may become clear that a change needs to be made.

When reviewing, take time to celebrate success, analyze failure, and learn from both. If successful, was it the desired outcome? Was it what you expected? Based on everything you’ve learned, what’s next? How has the definition of “success” changed?

I’ve learned an incredible amount through this process. Through pushing myself to accomplish goals. The next step is to take those learnings and reset. Start again from #1. Think about the new definition of success and how it can be achieved.

A Shift In Mindset

You may think, “this sounds like a lot of work”. And I won’t deny that it does take time and effort. But if you aren’t deliberate about the things you want in life, then the things you want will elude you.

This entire process is aimed at changing your mindset and the context you work within. Once I did this, everything changed for me.

If you define success, map goals to that definition, and create habits that force action — you will succeed. As a result, your vision of success will always be top-of-mind.

Everything you do is geared towards being successful. Rather than sitting on the sidelines of a game that’s undefined… put yourself in a game where you determine what it takes to win.

This is a shift in mindset that tips the scales. The shift of being on the sidelines to owning the game. Of making decisions and taking action, rather than overanalyzing situations. Of treating life as something you make happen, rather than something that happens to you.

All you need is yourself. So go — make it happen.

This 2-Step Process Will 10x Your Daily Performance

How To Plan Your Day At Night

Imagine you’re an actor.

It’s opening night of a Broadway play and you’re the star. You’re backstage thinking of all the praise and accolades you’ll get. The illustrious career that lies ahead.

You hear the stage manager yell, “Places in 5!”. And then you realize…

Shit — I never even looked at the script!

This is the equivalent of not planning your day at night.

Every day you have on this Earth is an opportunity. An opportunity to make something happen. Precious time that shouldn’t be wasted.

If you wait until the morning to plan your day, three things happen:

1. You’re asking for stress and anxiety.
2. You won’t be as productive as you could be.
3. You won’t be as effective as you could be.

Let’s break these down…

1. Stress & Anxiety

Take our actor scenario. The curtains go up, the lights shine on you, and…now what?

You’re in a panic. You’re not sure what to say, what to do, or where to go next. In the best case scenario you’re improvising and making up something decent as you go.

Another good example is a football player not knowing the play before the ball is hiked. It’s a recipe for disaster.

2. Less Productive

If you’re stressed and anxious, you aren’t fully present. You aren’t able to focus clearly on the task at hand. Your mind wanders, thinking about what you need to do next and wondering if you’re missing anything.

This mindset makes it difficult to a) get things done and b) handle unforeseen challenges as they arise. You’re forced to adapt, prioritize, and schedule on the fly.

If you haven’t already set priorities for yourself (see #2 here) then it’s likely you won’t get important things done that day. Emails will bury you, meetings will derail you, and by the time you finally getting a handle on things, the day is almost over.

3. Less Effective

Considering the points above, the quality of your work will obviously suffer. You’ll feel rushed, discombobulated, and unable to provide your complete attention to your work.

Perhaps a more important point here is decision fatigue. By not planning and visualizing your day, you are forcing yourself to constantly make decisions throughout. Big or small, it doesn’t matter. As the day goes on this wears on you.

Mentally exhausted at the end of each day? That’s decision fatigue at work.

Although subtle when isolated, the impact of continually using your brain’s processing power for small decisions quickly adds up over the course of a day. Not planning ahead tremendously increases the number of these decisions you have to make.

You’re so tired from the mental energy exerted to go through that day that you say, “eh, I’ll deal with this tomorrow” and the cycle repeats itself.

Here’s What To Do

It’s clear not planning your day has negative impacts. Luckily this bad habit is an easy one to break. It requires two steps and less than 20 minutes a day.Here’s how…

STEP 1: Plan Your Day At Night.

Take 10–15 minutes and do the following:

1. Look at today’s calendar. Take stock of what you did and note any needed follow ups for tomorrow.
2. Look at tomorrow’s calendar. See what calls or meetings you already have on there.
3. Look at your To-Do list. Refer to the “Post-It System” (#2 here) if you need help on this. See what your top three priorities are and block out time for them on your calendar.

I can’t tell you how important this is. One great benefit is a feeling of content as you finish your day. Reflecting on things you did and noting things that still need to be done provides a sense of closure. It becomes a ritual of sorts, signaling the day’s end.

A second benefit is that you feel more on top of your life and the important things you need to get done. Everything feels in order. You’re in control. Sure, unexpected challenges may pop up (they will) derailing your priorities — but you’ll be in a better position to handle and quickly adapt to it.

STEP 2: Stop. Breathe. Visualize.

Once you’ve planned out tomorrow, take a few minutes to visualize what your day will be like. Visualization is an incredibly powerful technique that is used by the highest performing people in the world. Try it.

Think about yourself waking up. About what your morning looks like. A morning routine is a great thing to have (a little more on mine, #3 here).

See yourself walking into that office, taking that call, crushing that meeting. Actually watch it happen as if it’s a show on Netflix.

Go through the entire day. Take a breath. And sign off.

You’ll go to bed calmer and wake up calmer. You’ll feel more confident and prepared as you start your day. And when that meeting comes up — why be nervous when you’ve already seen yourself crush it? It’s just the next thing on the list. An inevitability.

The day will be less stressful and you, as a result, will be more productive and effective. Getting the shit you need done — and well.

So go. Give it a try. Plan your day at night and report back. See what sort of impact it has on your life.

How I Reduced Stress, Increased Productivity, and Made Myself Happy Again

“His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.
There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti.
He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready…”
-Eminem, “Lose Yourself”

This was me.

No, I’m not Eminem. And no, I’m not walking around with spaghetti on my sweater. I don’t really even wear sweaters.

But I was dealing with constant feelings of stress and anxiety. Starting a company is fucking hard. There’s no manual for first-time founders.

On the surface I looked and acted as normal as I could. But truthfully, I was overwhelmed.

I was a swelling balloon that never popped. But rather I began to deflate gradually. You don’t recognize it at first. After a while though, you notice something isn’t right.

Me^

It was the way I worked that enabled the worst in my obsession with productivity. An OCD-like infatuation that resulted only in self-sabotage.

It had created an unhappy person obsessed with all of the wrong things about work. An unsustainable modus operandi.

And so I needed a fresh start. I began to embark on a complete reinvention of my operating model. A full reset of the mind and the creation of a new system for doing things.

Fast forward to now…

I’ve gotten more work done this week (it’s Tuesday at 4:30pm) than I would have previously in a 7-day week.

And — I’m not stressed, or anxious, or even close to burned out.

I’m happy. I’m energized. I’m fucking excited.

Here’s how I did it…

1. Start Fresh. Question Everything.

I used to read non-stop about productivity. I still read and experiment with it — only now I have a clearer picture of what it looks like.

Do this, try that. Schedule this, snooze that.

I ended up with so many productivity hacks and exercises that I spent more time on them than actually getting shit done… you know, being productive.

So I dropped it. I dropped it all.

The reminders. The apps. The tasks. The bullshit.

I looked up the definition of productivity. Here’s what I got:

And since I’m not a crop farmer, I decided to define it myself…

Getting shit done that moves things forward

That’s what productivity is.

And with that, I began to build a personalized productivity system from the ground up, with a focus on moving things forward.

For everything I was doing, I would stop and ask,

“Does this move things forward?”

It’s a healthy exercise to do, even if you aren’t struggling the way I was. Audit what you do and ask why you do it. Over time things tend to pile up. It’s important to do some housecleaning once in a while.

So I cleaned house and focused on my new system. One designed to get important things done before dealing with anything else. One designed to optimize my time and my mind.

The rest of the list are the actions that followed…

2. “The Post-it System” and The Death of Digital To-Do Lists.

By questioning everything I did, one thing became abundantly obvious: I needed to stop using Google Inbox.

The reasons are detailed here: “Why I Quit Google Inbox”. And the most common question I’ve gotten since writing that is…

“So what do you do now?”

I use a Post-it note. Just one.

My new system

Digital To-Do lists can be endless. You can put thousands of tasks and reminders in there and have room for millions more.

On a Post-it, I can fit 3.

And so I write on it the three most important things I can do that day. They are prioritized based on their impact; #1 being the most impactful.

“Impactful” meaning it move things forward for the company or for me personally.

In my situation, these two blend…
Company success = personal success
Taking care of myself personally = I perform better for the company

I’m aiming for tangible progress. For movement forward. The Post-it provides the tactics to achieve this.

And notice the list is prioritized. Something digital To-Do lists tend to fall short on. Throwing reminders and tasks into an unordered list makes them all appear equal.

Sure you can call that important client -OR- you could quickly post a photo on the company Instagram. Either way you get the gratification of crossing something off the list. So you are actually incentivized to do the thing that is quick and easy. The reward is the same.

But the results are drastically different.

This mindset compounded over time derails your goals or, at the very least, significantly delays them.

The Post-it System has you force-rank the top three things that you need to get done. It provides focus. It advances your goals. It moves shit forward.

I create it at the end of each day.

And the next morning it sits on my desk, staring judgmentally until I cross off item 1. The visual cue is powerful.

I’m happy when I get to cross something off. It’s gratifying. Pursuing that gratification hungers me to start my day.

This strategy yields incredible results. Rather than trying to “build the wall”, I stay focused on laying bricks. I feel happy and accomplished each time I do. And soon — you start to see a wall forming.

3. The Morning Routine.

The Post-it strategy frames the entire system. Now let’s backtrack to the start of each day.

The first thing I do after getting up is make tea. I switched from regular coffee. While tea doesn’t give me the immediate energy spike, I’ve found it’s a more sustained charge and doesn’t make me crash.

This, coupled with some minor physical exercise (stretching, maybe pushups or squats), wakes my body up and gets my mind going.

Next I meditate for 10 minutes.
(Don’t ignore meditation. I’ve done it for a while and it was important to keep in my routine. I recommend Headspace to start.)

And immediately after that — I write.

I don’t write long but I force myself to get those early thoughts out. Some of the clearest, most creative thinking comes first thing in the morning, when you’re waking up, getting ready, or taking a shower.

It can be a blog post draft, a journal to myself, or some new idea related to work… it doesn’t matter. I want to get these thoughts down.

After all of this, I typically have about an hour before our regular team check-in. I’ll use this time to start, and maybe finish, item 1 on the Post-it.

4. Digging Into The Work.

Now it’s time for our meeting. We try to keep it to 15 minutes or less. Perhaps I’ll have another cup of tea (hardcore, I know).

I take notes during the meeting and catalog any needed followups. If I’m blocking someone — I do that immediately.

This is an important note.
Yes, in this case I am spending time on something that isn’t on the Post-it. But it’s important to get the team mobilized before working on my own tasks. The meeting already forced my mind to switch contexts. So it’s more efficient to stay in that context, take action, and get others moving forward.

Then it’s back to the Post-it.

Now I’m caffeinated, I’m intellectually stimulated, the team is mobilized, and I’m more than ready to tackle my list, one at a time.

Notice — I haven’t checked email yet. It used to be the first thing I did.

That comes only after item 1 is complete. At that time I will check email, take a walk (coupled with scheduled calls), and eat lunch. The afternoon is dedicated to items 2 & 3.

Don’t underestimate the power of walking

After those are done, I check with the team, look at email again, and use all of those inputs to create tomorrow’s list.

This email philosophy is very “Four Hour Workweek”, of course. That book is almost 10 years old but the principles are as sound and relevant as ever.

5. General Rules.

Stop procrastinating. Make decisions and take immediate action. Don’t “snooze” things that need to get done. Force yourself to be decisive — moving important things forward and cutting ruthlessly things that are not.

Prioritize yourself. Make happiness something you work on. It’s a state you achieve, rather than one that magically comes and sustains. Work at it. Take measures to do things that you enjoy and eliminate things you don’t. Be honest with how you feel about doing certain things. Cut out the ones you dislike. Make time for the ones you love.

Get rid of the negatives. This bears repeating. Stop doing shit you hate. Especially unnecessary shit. It can be people, tasks, or activities. Get rid of any that are negative. Any that make you feel bad. Ask yourself if it moves things forward. Ask yourself if you like doing it. It should only be done if the answer to one of those questions is “yes”. And if it does move things forward but you dislike it — perhaps someone can help, or even do it for you.

Set macro goals, create micro systems. My weekly goals became the end of me. I set too many. And many I set were unimportant but existed due to my necessity to be busy. They consumed me. Instead, I now set goals for the year. I then implement systems (a chain of behaviors and actions taken daily or weekly) that further those bigger goals.

Don’t suppress yourself. If there’s something you want to do or an idea you’d love to pursue — try it. Stop any thoughts that come about saying, “you can’t do that because of XYZ.” Stop that. You can. If it’s meaningful, make time for it. Prioritize it. Don’t suppress ideas… explore them fully. Let them run their course. That’s the only way they evolve and grow.

Most of this is simple but eluded me for so long.

I’m glad I’ve made these changes. They’ve had a profound impact on my life, both personally and professionally. But it’s all a work in progress. I’ll always try to improve myself — living in “permanent beta”.

Of course not everyone has the same commitments, goals, or life circumstances. Try your own version of this and see if you have similar results. When it comes to being happy and being productive — there isn’t one true answer. Pick out things you like and ignore things you don’t. If you’re self-aware and always strive to be better… you will.

Why I Quit Google Inbox

“Google Inbox is my life…”

A cringeworthy statement I often said beaming with pride. I was an entrepreneur with “stuff” going on. “I’m busy”, I’d say. As if it was some sort of accomplishment.

How horribly wrong this was…

Earlier this year I decided to reinvent the way I operate. A full restart.

I questioned everything I did and sought to make changes that optimized my effectiveness, efficiency, and overall happiness.
(It’s made a massive difference — post on this coming soon.)

The first thing I did? Quit Google Inbox. And here’s why…

1. To-Do Lists Don’t Belong In Your Inbox.

Let’s backtrack to our world before the Internet. Would you have put your To-Do list in your mailbox? Of course not. That sounds ridiculous.

Those important items belonged on your desk, or maybe even the fridge.

Fridge real estate is important real estate

Mail was meant for a (maybe) once-a-day check to see what had come in. If important, a resulting action from that mail would then be placed on your To-Do list.

2. The Great Bundling of the 2000s.

Enter the Internet. Enter Microsoft Office and, notably, Microsoft Outlook. Soon Outlook became a one-stop stress shop.

Let’s take a tour…

“Hello and welcome! Here you’ll see a mountain of email that need replies. On the left is a calendar that shows you’re booked solid all day. And down there you can see tasks and reminders that actually are important work but, due to the former, you’ll have no time or energy to do.

Now that an overwhelming sense of stress has come over you — let’s spend the five minutes before your next meeting firing off some emotionally-driven emails. Make sure they’re rushed so your anxiety and suppressed rage show through. The resulting miscommunication and confrontation will surely lead to more meetings and email.

Thank you for visiting the Stress Shop… have a terrible day!”

Outlook User

At a glance, coupling mail with tasks and reminders made some sense. Each requires you to take action (although inherently different), and both things could technically be “snoozed” until later.

But this coupling was driven more out of feature expansion than actual productivity thought. The two were soon coupled everywhere, leading up to Google Inbox where they are treated as one in the same.

If you think about it— these two were never meant to be together.

Technology enables us to bundle everything into a screen or an app. While incredible in certain use cases, for others (read: this one), it’s detrimental.

3. Debunking the “I’m Working” Fallacy.

Let’s establish something very basic: mail is NOT work.

Work has forever consisted of certain tasks that need to be completed in order to make progress. AKA “getting shit done” or “moving things forward”.

This is productivity.

Mail, on the other hand, is a communication mechanism. And definitely not the most pressing one (we’ll get to that). Mail has the ability to create tasks for you. But mail itself is not a task.

By constantly checking email you are wasting time that should be spent on productive tasks. This makes you less efficient.

By stopping those productive tasks to check email, you are forcing your brain to switch contexts. This makes you less effective.

Email can wait. Stay focused on real work. You’ll finish in less time (efficient) and create a better result (effective). And yes, I promise— the emails will still be there.

Try unsubscribing from shit

All of this underlines the cultural fascination with constantly “working” and “being busy”. With email being the means to that end.

So an app (Google Inbox) that bundles all of these emails, tasks, and reminders into one place? Gold.

Now back to me…

Every day I would wake up, excited, ready to work. I’d open Inbox to see which tasks and reminders I needed to work on…

…of which there were hundreds.
(A topic for another day. Short version — digital To-Do lists can be harmful because there’s endless space to add things. Limit & prioritize.)

As if this weren’t enough — what do you know? Bolded next to all of those important To-Dos are… 30 new emails!

“Well that one’s from him… I should check it.”
“Oh, she wrote me back? Let’s see what she said.”

This is wrong.

And I can’t stress that enough.

THIS IS WRONG!!!

Better?

Right then and there — my morning was fucked.

I would become incredibly distracted, not focus on the tasks at hand, and get caught up in a bunch of meaningless email.

(It’s incredible how many do this. Recommended: audit the start to your day. The results can be life-changing. Seriously.)

Making things worse, I would read email and often not take action. Or my action would be to “snooze” it.

This is terrible because, when I did respond, I would have to re-read the entire thread and bring myself back into that context. A giant waste of time… since I already read it.

As a rule: Take action on emails when going through them.

You shouldn’t be browsing your inbox. Be decisive.

There are rare cases where snoozing is appropriate. Otherwise, respond or delete. That’s it.

Google Inbox is a beautifully designed product…

But having email live with, and be equal to, a To-Do list is distracting and consequently unproductive.

Luckily we live in a time with phone calls and text messages. We can chat with coworkers on Slack, Skype, or Hangouts. Use these for time-sensitive communication. Not email.

Put your To-Do’s in one place and start the day working on those. Your inbox may pile up, but it’s not going anywhere.

Let the email sit. Focus on getting shit done.