I recently went through a purging exercise of a bunch of lists I somehow joined over the past year or so. It was a long and tedious process, but I’m better off for it, and so is my inbox.
I’m not overly concerned on how I got on these lists, but rather the steps needed to unsubscribe from them. Generally, it’s pretty quick – just click on a link to unsubscribe, then confirm I do indeed wish to unsubscribe. Two steps. Done.
Fred Wilson talks about the benefits and costs of emailing, leading to occassional email bankruptcy announcements. I always thought that was crazy, but I’m starting to feel the email pain.
I certainly receive no where near the amount of email others receive, but it’s enough where I need to start thinking about other solutions.
From early April to the first week of May, the number of unread emails in my inbox grew from a manageable hundred to an unmanageable thousand. There wasn’t one event that precipitated this situation, it was a number of situations. This happens to me fairly regularly. [avc.com]
I have tried getting away from email, at least downsizing it as much as possibile, but it’s “killer app” status made it impossible.
I’m not ready to proclaim bankruptcy, but I’m looking for new ways to work with email. Right now, I’m moving more messages to my “Weekend” folder, which is making my weekends less enjoyable.
Rolling Up Your Sleeves and Getting Your Hands Dirty
That’s the title of a post from Fred Wilson from earlier this year. It’s always neat to see how successful folks get to the position they are in today, especially the mis-steps and how they dealt with it.
This piece of advice doesn’t only apply to early in your career, either. It has even more of an impact as you mature and grow in your own career, providing valuable insights for a range of people.
I just moved to a new firm, one that I’m really excited about (more on that later). Every opportunity I had during the first few weeks, I made every attempt to learn as much as I could about the operations and people, much like Fred Wilson did:
I met almost every employee and learned what each job entailed. I even did some of the jobs.
I follow this line of thinking no matter which position I’m in. Think about the amount of information you can share the next time the topic comes up: “Oh, you can’t use that size widget because of the radius of the wadget to the wall.”. And you can back it up.
The by-product of rolling up your sleeves is that you get the respect of everyone in the company. New to a company or position? Give it a try.
I won’t hide my bias – I always believed John O’Brien was the missing link in creating a world-class soccer team. The single characteristic that O’Brien had that was missing from other central midfielders on the USMNT was a creative mind, one that is being recognized in this year’s young midfield maestro Jose Francisco Torres.
When O’Brien was picked up by the New York Times to add some depth to the training and preparation of this efition of the USMNT, I was excited to read his thoughts and how they might translate into everyday business planning and creativity.
In a recent article, O’Brien was talking about how he was given advice by Jan Wouters about a complex part of playing soccer:
“When you get the ball on the field,” he said, “look up and see the furthest player away, in doing so you can see everything in between.”
Sure seems like sound business advice. For each project (or activity, or task), if we’re able to look up and see how this project might affect other departments/projects and what the outcome may (and may not) turn into, we can see all the little pitfalls and mis-directions that might fell us.
It’s not always easy to see through some of the other noise (colleagues, projects, etc.), especially when pressured with time, but it’s a great exercise to get into.
