There’s a simple thought process that comes to the heart of someone With Responsibility as compared to someone Without Responsibility: do you turn anything that happens into next steps, action items? Or do you just think, “oh, that’s interesting!”
Let’s step back. A few years ago, there was an awesomely successful set of strategies on how to manage your constantly overwhelmed email inbox. Oh, those were the days! “GTD” (“Getting Things Done”) boiled down to this: for every incoming email, as soon as you see it, ask yourself, does this require me to do something? If not, then file it away. If so, then ask yourself, “can this be done in under 2 minutes?” If so, do it now. If not, schedule a specific time to do it. Voila, that’s it. Now you don’t need to buy the book.
GTD works well, and it works in managing your email inbox for a particular reason: it forces you to either admit something doesn’t require a next step or not. If it does require a next step, it requires you to do it or find a time to do it. That is the higher-level secret key of being a great manager and also being awesomely productive, just always pushing everything forward.
One truth that’s challenging for all bosses is that no one—no one—pushes things forward enough. Most stuff just sits around until it’s swept up by some greater force. Somewhere, there is a great purgatory of ideas where tons and tons of initiatives start, but then languish after someone declares it and everyone loves the idea, and then…. that’s it.
As a result, constantly pushing things forward goes a long, long way towards both extreme productivity and making your bosses fall in love with you.
Email is only one limited example. Here are some broader examples:
- End every meeting with next steps, as mentioned in a previous chapter
- With every comment you make in a doc, like a Google doc, write the comment in a way that prompts an action item. Compare, “This is interesting because of X” to “This is interesting because of X. John, can you Y?”
- Apply the same philosophy to the email content itself. End emails suggesting or declaring what the next steps are.
More than these details, it’s a frame of mind. Try as an exercise for one work-day, everything that comes in towards you, in every little way, you’ll either do it or turn it into an action item for you or someone else to do. Then see how it goes.
