ISSUE #6

Welcome to the + 2 newsletter from The PPM Academy.

Each month, I’ll send you two quick and simple approaches to improve your Productivity and Project Management that you can try, test, and adapt into work and everyday life.

Managing your inbox is time-consuming, non-productive, and stressful. Day after day, trying to reduce your emails is a battle we can never win. This edition's Project Management tip is how to receive fewer emails. 1 minute, 54 seconds reading time.

Then is there anything more distracting or likely to make you procrastinate than your mobile phone? It's certainly in the top 5, so this edition's Productivity tip is five ways to cut your mobile phone use to give you more focus at work. 2 minutes, 39 seconds reading time.

Project Management Tip: How to receive fewer emails

The average professional spends 28% of their day reading and answering emails. That’s a massive 2.6 hours per day and 120 messages received per day. I’m sure you’ve had days where you could add more to that!

It’s scary to think about how much time we spend writing and replying to emails versus doing valuable work and speaking with teammates, customers and clients.

I’m not saying email isn’t a helpful tool, but it’s often overused, and when we’re busy and stressed or putting off demanding tasks, jumping into email management is often the easiest thing to do.

This tip isn’t about how to manage your inbox or spend less time in it, it’s how to receive fewer emails, and it’s especially relevant for Project Managers, who, in my slightly biased opinion, are up there with as a role that gets the most.

First, only send an email when you need something if you provide actions that the recipient can pick from. This will take you a little longer to write, but you save time easily with fewer emails and conversations after sending it.

Need a meeting? Share what the meeting is for, then some different days and time slots you or the team can do. The recipient can then reply with the preferred time, and the action is done with only one email received.

Or need a decision? The same approach, either provide them with multiple options for them to pick from or state the decision needed and the info behind it so they can make one without asking more questions/sending emails.

Next is to think about the recipient’s situation before sending the email.

So are they busy? Keep it brief and to be the point.

Do they need detail? Attach or write the detail they need. Without it, more questions/emails will come back.

Do they need confidence in what you’re doing? Be clear in the required steps and be confident in your tone.

The more you think about and adapt to the recipient’s style, need or situation, the more likely you’ll reduce the emails back.

Plus, by regularly practising these approaches to receive fewer emails, the appreciation from those on the receiving end goes up, as who doesn’t like having to make fewer decisions?

So today, always think about how you can make every email you send no more than two email chain.

*https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day​

Productivity Tip: 5 Ways to Cut your Mobile Phone Use

Mobile use can be overwhelming, the feeling of always having to check it, whether checking it's in your pocket as you move around or have you got any new messages since the last time you checked.

It's incredibly distracting, kills our focus and drains our willpower and often without realising its negative impact on our performance at work.

So to help, here are five simple tips I've found most effective.

Turn off notifications

Turn off any notifications that aren't critical, so WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram etc... Depending on your job, turn off your email and Teams/Slack. These are typically the most distracting when you're trying to focus.

Do you need to know at the moment when a new email or Teams message comes in and reply instantly? Probably not for most roles, so plan when you check your email and Teams, then you stay on top of them without them distracting your focus all day.

Do the same for your laptop too, including the badge count. The badge count is like a mini stress increaser. You're trying to work on something, and you see that badge number going up and up until you can't resist any longer, and you check your inbox, only to find out it's nothing important, but you've lost focus. So turn it off.

Use Screen Time to track habits.

Use the iOS screen time feature or the equivalent on Android to monitor where your time is being spent. Be brave, have a look and then adapt your habits where needed, or do tip one to help.

Or go full cold turkey and delete some of those time-wasting apps. You'll be better for it. It's so quick to reinstall them now, so why not delete them and install them when you need them?

First screen apps.

How often do you open your phone without any reason and start scrolling through your apps, looking for a distraction?

To catch yourself, only have apps that serve your productivity or well-being on your phone's first screen.

Don't have Instagram, WhatsApp etc... as when you first unlock, you're scrolling and chatting before you know it. Put these types of apps on the final screen.

Turn your phone off early evening.

As mentioned in the last tip, how often do you pick up your phone for no other reason than to scroll, kill some time, or put off something you should be doing?

If you turn your phone off, it creates a barrier for this sort of behaviour, and it's a great bedtime routine to get into to help you wind down.

If you can't turn it off, put it in another room or a bag, just somewhere it's not easy to see and pick up.

Turn on greyscale

Mobile phones are bright and beautiful, constantly tempting us to pick up and play. Have you turned on greyscale before? It turns the screen grey and immediately makes it less appealing.

On iOS, you triple-tap the power button to turn it on and the same to turn it off.

It's amazing what a loss of colour can do to help with mobile phone use.

Here are the links for how to do it for iOS and Android.

​https://tinyurl.com/Androidgrey​

​https://tinyurl.com/iosgrey​

Do you have any tips you can share with me? I would love to know. Just hit reply to this email.

Free Webinar

If you like to know how high-performing Project Managers plan and manage their time, you'll want to watch my free webinar, which you access below.

​

If you enjoy this newsletter, please tell a friend about the + 2 from The PPM Academy. Share on:

​