The Dean's List #2

How do you process your email?

So that has been kind of developing over the years. When we were back at school, I would have two monitors up. I'd have my email on one and whatever project I was working on up on the other one. Over time, I've discovered I need to just not respond to every single email--because I was losing my mind. I get a lot of volume of email, but 90 percent of it is not important. I mean, when I first started doing this I was so scared, and I thought, “I need to respond right away.” Now, if I don't get to something for a day or two, it's OK and half the time, it ends up being taken care of without me. So I've kind of let go of some of that, which is really hard, because email is something I can cross off the list--it makes me feel good--but it doesn't necessarily need to work that way.

What is the best productivity/time management trick you’ve learned?

Turning off my e-mail notifications on my phone. That was huge. I think the other thing is that I have to do something active four or five times a week. I have to get out of my head. We never get to think deeply, unless we make room for it. For me, the places that I can think deeply are when I'm walking, when I'm running, or doing yoga. Getting out of my head, right? It's like all of a sudden, an answer will come to me in the middle of a run. I have to just stop thinking about this stuff and then it will come.

What do you do to stay mentally, physically and emotionally fit for the job?

We talked about working out. I've also learned over time that what I need at work are a couple of very significant relationships with people. I have to develop those, so I'm pretty intentional about asking people to lunch, or, you know, go get a drink or whatever. One of the things I did all the time when we were on campus, was walk the campus and just pop into people's offices and see if they had time. I need to have those relationships to do a good job, to know what other people value. Otherwise you never have those opportunities to talk one-on-one with people. Because if I feel disconnected with folks who are in my same job, it's not a satisfactory experience for me.

And the other thing is that I take my vacation.

Do you have a mantra? When you have too much going on, do you have something you routinely say to get yourself back on track?

I think for me it's just a matter of taking deep breaths. I mean, it sounds so stupid, but just kind of stopping and realizing that the work that we do is really important, but that it's okay if it waits for a few hours. I know that we transform lives and that's not something to snicker at. I mean, I truly believe that. But at the same time, it's like I used to tell my students when they were in some crisis. You know, when they were just stressed about dropping the class and I'd tell them, “Drop the class; we'll be here next semester. Go take care of your life.”

What is the best lesson you've learned the hard way?

So there are two: Be careful with email. Don't forward stuff that doesn't need to be forwarded. Don't email when you don't need to. And I think the other thing is that if you have a sick stomach going to work every day, listen to that, because it shouldn't be that way.

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The Rabbit Hole (resources, content, etc. that’s relevant to the job):

Here’s a thing I tried for a few months at the beginning of remote operations, and I was really glad I did. It got me thinking a little differently about the job. It has a little bit of a spiritual component, which I found I could translate easily and effectively to my own way of looking at the world. The Monk Manual is billed as “a daily system designed for peaceful being and purposeful being.” It helped!

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From James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits.”

“More effort is wasted doing things that don’t matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently. Elimination is the highest form of optimization.”