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| 1. | Breakdown: | Alas, I’m reverting to the old “to be filed” pile(s). |
| Consequence: | Lacking “Instant Retrieveability” and likely sabotaging yourself, and possibly others, in the time, energy and focus wasted in searching for this needed information. |
| Solution: | Hopefully, you followed the program’s Session Instruction and cleared your “to be filed” “alter”. If you have completed this, congratulations! You don’t want to backslide and let it ever grow back. When an item is completed it goes where _____________? Yes, your Outbox and from there – FILE IT. TODAY, NOW, THIS MOMENT! Otherwise, it is self-defeating and destructive to the effectiveness and success of the program. This program is very simple – you just need to follow it. |
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| 2. | Breakdown: | Sadly, I am having difficulty determining where the Seven Terminal items are placed. As a result, things are just piling up on my desk. |
| Consequence: | Losing control of any opportunity for being pro-active. |
| Solution: | Every item that comes into your office, OR YOUR MIND, has a designated place where it should reside. When an item comes into your office (hopefully onto your Virtual In Tray), stop what you are doing and look at it immediately. The Vin Tray schematic holds the key to which of the seven terminals any item is placed. Until you are intimately familiar with all of the seven terminals, use the diagram on your Vin Tray as your guide. All of the terminals are pictured on your Vin Tray to make the process as simple for you as it can be. Use process of elimination if you need to. If you persist in not effectively using the seven terminals you are heading straight back into “chaos”. Remember the important principle – it does not matter whether the new information is a fax, an e-mail, an inter-office memo, a verbal request, or a paper document. Where the information goes is based solely into which terminal it belongs. |
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| 3. | Breakdown: | Sorry, I’m too busy to stop every time something comes into my Virtual In tray. There is no way that I can keep it empty at all times. |
| Consequence: | Work and needed communications piling up; information not being properly or timely processed; potential backlog in accomplishing your work and the work needed by others; your organizational system has reverted to an “imploded” state. Your sub-conscious is constantly being sucked in to what is sitting there in contrast with simply placing the item in one of your Seven Terminals. |
| Solution: | We understand that pausing in your work every time an item appears in your Vin Tray seems counter-intuitive. However, it will begin to make sense for you as you establish your new workflow paradigm. Clearing your Vin Tray every time an item appears there will eliminate:1.Clutter that gathers on your desk and in your Inbox;2.Wasted time looking for information;3.The frustration and stress from being overwhelmed by the amount of work you need to process. |
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| 4. | Breakdown: | I don’t see the value of doing the Five Morning Tasks first thing in my workday. Why is it so important that I do them in this order?1.Check my calendar for Today’s Pendings;2.Invert my Turtle;3.Clear my Virtual in tray;4.Process all of my voice-mails;5.Process all of my e-mails |
| Consequence: | Getting stuck by jumping into your e-mail and not dealing first with your Turtle for prioritization and familiarization. |
| Solution: | How about I ask you to jump out bed in the morning and “give me fifty push-ups”? Not excited at the idea, huh? Well, that’s what you do each morning when you walk into your office. You know – ‘READY, FIRE, AIM!’ The practice of conducting the Five Morning Tasks first thing in the morning, in the order prescribed, will set you for the day in a most centered and far less-stressed way. |
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| 5. | Breakdown: | So arrest me – I’m not disseminating my Outbox. |
| Consequence: | You are likely being a saboteur to others awaiting this information. |
| Solution: | I can safely wager that you are sabotaging a co-worker. As an example, you are busy and sign off on the contract that Harry gave you at 8:00 A.M. Because it is a wild morning, this item from Harry sits in your Outbox until 3:30 in the afternoon. You then finally get around to emptying your Outbox. You plop the signed contract on Harry’s desk. DONE, RIGHT? Maybe for you! Now Harry has four hours of work to do on his end to complete the details of the contract. So you can go home, but Harry has been SABOTAGED. The dinner out he promised his wife? His kid’s softball game? Very simply you sabotaged Harry by not clearing your Outbox each time you got up from your desk. To make this even clearer, imagine that it is a Friday late afternoon. You have tickets to your favorite sports team or concert event and your co-worker brings you something that you have been waiting for ALL DAY AND NOW MUST BE HANDLED BEFORE DAY’S END – YOU ARE GOING TO MISS YOUR EVENT – HOW DOES IT FEEL? |
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| 6. | Breakdown: | Don’t bug me! I have voice-mail and a receptionist to deal with managing my calls? |
| Consequence: | Lack of proper, professional follow-up which can easily result in loss of business, reputation, productivity and profit |
| Solution: | So let me see if I understand you come back from lunch and have eighteen new voice-mails and your receptionist hands you six hand written messages as well. So, where does your accountability in prioritizing and returning these calls start? Here is the way it should go:1.You walk in the door from lunch.2.Your receptionist, Susie, says “Hi John, here are some messages that I took for you when you were out.”3.You go to your office and see your message light flashing.4.NO! NO! NO! YOU DO NOT FIRST GO TO E-MAIL. Instead you listen to your voice-mail messages and transfer them all to your spiral bound log book, along with the hand written messages from the receptionist?AND THEN you prioritize the importance of the messages and begin returning them.NOW, WHICH ONE DO YOU RETURN FIRST? OK, I can help you here! “Oh darn, there is a message from Lou. You just can’t cope with Lou as he tends to drive you bonkers. Ahh, you see that there is a message from Lana, whom you just met at lunch. So where do you put Lou in the order of priority of returned calls? Yeah I know, call Lana first – Right? WRONG! When you are talking to Lana what is going to be “banging away” at the back of your head? Lou! Lou! Lou! Get it? You make your WORST call FIRST . It is over and done with. Then you can move forward with returning the remainder of your calls with a quiet “back of the head”. |
