How many things can you focus on?

I had hoped to be at the Exceed Expectations 2013 conference in Berlin earlier this week, but due to work commitments have sadly had to make do with catching up on the presentations vicariously through a colleague and via the blog buzz around the conference:

In this context, I stumbled across the "bare-bones" of Alexander Graf's presentation on his highly readable blog, kassenzone.de. The presentation itself is interesting - an appeal for us to try to see the business model opportunities left and right around us and the danger of focusing on one thing - but I like the embedded YouTube video even more. Try it out here (I won't comment on it, because that ruins the impact, but go ahead and try it before you read on!).




It has become a cliche that focus on one thing and doing it well is everything and yet at the same time we observe the necessity to be constantly aware of what is going on all around us.

How to handle this?

....I don't honestly know, so suggestions are most welcome ;-).

....My amateur answer for myself thus far, however, is to try to compartmentalise my time, to focus during the week on the job in hand (whatever it might be) and then to very deliberately block time in my month (typically one Sunday afternoon, as this blog entry attests ;-)) to try to look around and reflect on what else is going on. I am finding that this time is enough to get a few impulses and the thoughts/ideas then gestate in the background during the rest of the month, without me really thinking about them.

How many things can you focus on?

Getting the Inbox under control

As long term readers of my blog know, I am a fan of manager-tools.com (even though I don't like the name, since it is as much about professional effectiveness as it is management, see also here for previous posts on their best podcasts).

In recent years I have found that the casts have gotten a little short on content - typically, the team have 1-2 key messages and get them covered in the first 5 minutes - but I guess this is as much a question of learning style (multiple reptitions). This week's cast (here) is a good one.

The messages are few and simple, but do make sense:

• plan to do your email at regular times only (and not all the time when you are at your desk) 
• budget time in accordance with the priority that you give to mail 
• work through all your mails in this time, even if that simply means creating an action for an email and filing the actual email away, or responding that you will respond once you have time 
• switch off the auto-download of mails 

These recommendations are completely in keeping the the GTD ("Getting Things Done") model and, in particular, the psychological impact of having a clear inbox (even if it simply means that the actions are in their appropriate lists) is definitely a winner for me.

I am constantly impressed by a smart colleague of mine that literally deletes all mails that she does not absolutely need (including her own sent mail) and saves key messages into her normal filing structure - she never needs long to find what she needs and in 6 years I have only once had to provide her with an email that she had overzealously deleted.

Too often keeping up with emails becomes a task in itself and it simply should not be. This is just good common sense.

In the interests of full disclosure - I have tried this several times over the last few years, but never managed to be this strict. Hopefully, practice will make perfect...

Maps That Explain The World

A fascinating set of maps, though quite cynical in places - here

Recent TED talk on managing life

Having shifted my holiday planning to an explicit priority driven approach to avoid the typical arguments around what we "absolutely have to do" in the timebox that is a two-week summer break (with appropriate sticky note visible backlog that is adjusted and burnt down daily ;-)), I can relate to this guy: