Paul Singh

I used to write long emails; I mean really long. I justified it by telling myself that I was being thorough. I thought that the reader (most likely my clients or someone I worked with) would appreciate my effort to be as detailed as possible. Nothing could be further than the truth.

I noticed that most of the responses failed to answer the 34039857 questions I buried deep within. I learned that I was much more likely to get the answers I needed by keeping my emails short and posing one simple question.

Here’s my point: It’s intimidating to figure out what to put on a wall size whiteboard. It’s much easier to approach a postcard. Focus on getting just one message across.

On a side note, I’m on Twitter. Follow me at http://twitter.com/paulsingh.

This is the third in a series of posts about the lessons I wish I’d learned earlier in life.

How many times have you been working on something only to be interrupted by a beep from your cell phone or a bouncing icon on your desktop?

Here’s how I got my productivity back and you will too:

1. Turn off all email alert sounds on your email client, instant messenger and cell phone. Don’t skip this step, it’s easily the most important thing you can do to take back control of your time.
2. Schedule no more than three times per day to check (and reply to) email. What’s the worst that could happen if you don’t reply to email instantly? Besides, if they really need something, they’ll call or IM you anyways.
3. When replying to emails, go offline. Respond to all email from a local program such as Outlook or Mail to avoid having the outgoing flow interrupted by immediate responses. Ever notice how effective it is to respond to your email while on an airplane?

Please, spare me the “but Paul, my boss will kill me if I check email twice a day!” comments. If you do have to check email every hour then just do it, the point is that you have to take control of your distractions, otherwise they’ll take control of you.

If you don’t, there is an inevitable task-switching cost - U.S. office workers spend 28% of their time switching between tasks due to interruption, and 40% of the time, an interrupted task is not resumed within 24 hours.

Start today: Use Rescue Time and start measuring what you really spend your time on - you’ll be amazed.

Image Credit: zachklein

If you’re visiting from the latest I Will Teach You To Be Rich post on Why the lady sitting next to me should pay $2,000 for a computer class, welcome.

This is a blog on entrepreneurial productivity, growth and effectiveness for young professionals, seasoned pros, and everyone else. Simply put, this is a blog about getting results.

Here’s a quick guide to get started:

Some recent popular articles

• Some lessons I wish I learned earlier in life
• How to avoid pissing off your mentor
• The secret to actually reaching your goals
• My First Job: What I Learned Making Pizzas
• Why I love working with small business and you should too

How to subscribe:

• Get notified of new posts by email
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• Sign up for my newsletter to receive updates on the site, any links to new stuff I find (research, new services, etc), and some links I won’t post on the site–only on the newsletter.

And you can always email me. Thanks for reading.

Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of businesses ranging from the Fortune 500 all the way “down” to small bootstrapped businesses (including my own).

I’ve noticed an inverse relationship between the size of the company and the “interesting-ness” of it’s employees. Simply put: I’ve met the most interesting people at the smallest companies.

“But Paul,” you might say, “everyone is interesting in their own way - what do you really mean?” Often, the only difference between an interesting person and one who does not consider himself interesting is a matter of confidence – and a willingness to share their stories.

Small businesses are a unique place where employees have no choice but to be innovative and highly creative. When you tie those together with confidence and great communication skills, you tend to get the type of people that actively seek out (and share) new experiences - that makes them such interesting people.

When I was working with a large Fortune 500 company last year, the most interesting person I worked with was a horse breeder. Here at PBwiki, a much smaller company by comparison, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a helicopter pilot, influential bloggers, hot sauce aficionados, “hippies” (am I going to get in trouble for saying that?) and ex-librarians - a much wider range of people that all share the common traits above.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, especially those of you working in the “corporate” world. Let me know.

Image Credit: Wili

This is the second in a series of posts about the lessons I wish I’d learned earlier in life.

Anyone remember getting assigned a project in school? You’d think to yourself, “I’ve got plenty of time, it’s not due for 6 weeks!” Then, before you know it, you’re cramming in the entire project on the night before it’s due. (I was a master of this throughout my school years.

photo by MShades

Parkinson’s Law simply states that “work will fill the time available for its completion.” As Tim Ferriss puts it in his latest book, The Four Hour Workweek (buy it now, you’ll thank me):

If I give you a week to complete the same task, it’s six days of making a mountain out of a molehill. If I give you two months, God forbid, it becomes a mental monster. The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.

This presents a very curious phenomenon. There are two synergistic approaches for increasing productivity that are inversions of one another:

1.) Limit tasks to the important to shorten work time. (80/20)
2.) Shorten work time to limit tasks to the important. (Parkinson’s Law).

The best solution is to use both together: Identify the few critical tasks that contribute most to income and schedule them with very short and clear deadlines.

The idea is to apply the 80/20 rule to your to-do list first. Once you’ve determined what you really need to get done, start setting deadlines for each of the remaining things - and stick to them.

(Personal Tip: I set the countdown timer on my iPhone to 60 minutes each time I sit down. When the time runs out, I move on to the next thing on my list - no questions asked. I’ve found that, most of the time, I tend to finish the task within the time. If it didn’t get finished, I leave it on my list and get back to it after working through the next to-do items.)

Ben Casnocha wrote an interesting article on the six habits of highly effective mentees which is a great add-on to my previous post on goal buddies.

There’s no shortage of people hailing the benefits of mentors. There’s also ample advice on how to find mentors. Few talk about what to do once you’ve made contact with someone who wants to help you. You sit down to lunch with a potential mentor. What do you say? How do you act? How frequently do you follow up, especially if the person is busy and important?

Before you reach out to your goal buddy (you have one now, right?), make sure you keep a few things in mind (head over to main article to learn more about each):

1. It’s all about the questions you ask.
2. Have strong beliefs, weakly held.
3. Have a long term perspective.
4. Be open to topics not on your short term agenda.
5. Follow up by showing interest in them (at least four times a year).
6. Don’t make the mentor do the work.

Most importantly, don’t disrespect your mentor’s time. If they’re good enough to make you want them as your mentor, they’ve probably got a pretty busy schedule. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a call from a mentee that starts something like, “Hi, I’ve got a quick question for you!” There’s no such thing as a quick question - just don’t do it.

The best people I’ve ever mentored have been very good at sending me an email to schedule time for their questions. Once we’ve set that expectation of each other, I know that any random calls I get from this person is either going to be a simple “Hi, how’s it going?” or a real emergency.

The point is that your mentor wants to help you - do yourself (and your mentor) a favor by working with his schedule.

This is the first in a series of posts about the lessons I wish I’d learned earlier in life.

This may come as a surprise but I’ve all but given up on achieving a real work/life balance. Rather, I’ve started to benefit tremendously by introducing a little imbalance into my day. I’m referring to the 80/20 rule of time management, which is rooted in something known as the Pareto Principle.

What is it?

I first came across the 80/20 rule when I picked up “The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less” (Richard Koch). At the time, I sometimes accused myself of being lazy for not “working hard” but I realized what I was doing was living an 80/20 lifestyle and in fact probably being a lot more productive than those working harder than myself.

Simply put, the 80/20 rule states that the relationship between input and output is rarely, if ever, balanced. When applied to work, it means that approximately 20 percent of your efforts produce 80 percent of the results. Learning to recognize and then focus on that 20 percent is the key to making the most effective use of your time.

According to Wikipedia:

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy went to 20% of the population. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales comes from 20% of your clients.”

Some Practical 80/20 Tips

1. List unproductive or meaningless activities and eliminate them

Reason: 80% of the activities give only 20% of the value

List and look at all your activities. Only a few of them give the most value and meaning. Do you really need the rest of them? Eliminate the time wasters and keep the important stuff. Be ruthless; don’t be afraid to say no if you need to.

2. Spend most of your time on your most important relationships

Reason: 20% of the relationships gives 80% of the value

From all our relationships, only a small portion of them gives the most value to us. These are the few people with whom you have strong emotional bond. Usually these people are your spouse, your family, and a few close friends. You should spend the majority of your time nurturing these relationships.

3. Focus on creating more memorable moments in your relationships

Reason: 20% of the time in a relationship gives 80% of the memories

Well, the figures here are actually more like 5%-95% than 20%-80%. From all the time we spend in our relationships, there are only a few moments which give us unforgettable memories. Focus on making more of these.

4. Focus on your strengths

Reason: 20% of your skills give 80% of the returns

The few skills that give you the most returns are your strengths. It’s important to identify them so that you don’t waste time working on things which give you only small return. To be effective, you should do only a few things, the things you are very good at.

5. Find your productive “place” and make the most of it

Reason: 20% of your work time gives 80% of the results.

Everyone has a productivity “sweet spot”. Some people are most productive in the morning while some others are most productive in the evening. Maybe you work best alone, while others are most productive when they have some background noise. Whatever the time or condition is, try to identify yours and make more of it.

6. Stop reading everything

Reason: 20% of the stuff you read gives 80% of the value

Some books (and/or blogs) give you much more value than the others, so they deserve more time and attention. These are the few sources which could significantly improve your life. While for most books it is enough to read them just once, you should reread the important ones until you can effectively apply their lessons.

7. Learn to skim content

Reason: 20% of the content of a book gives 80% of the value

This is an important lesson if you love to read. There are so many interesting books to learn from and yet so little time. What you need to do is identify the critical parts of a book which make its top 20%, read it, and skim the rest.

8. Pack unused stuff or simply throw it away

Reason: 20% of the stuff is used 80% of the time

Only a small portion of the stuff you have is used often. The majority of it is rarely used, if ever. While you do need some of it to anticipate certain situations (for example, a first aid kit), most of it is practically useless. So identify the useless stuff and pack it or - even better - throw it away.

9. Focus your saving effort on the really big stuff

Reason: 20% of the categories makes 80% of the expenses

While trying to reduce your expenses on the small expense categories is good, you will get the most results if you focus your effort on the major categories. Write your expenses down, see where you spend the most and kill it.

How not to use the 80/20 rule:

1. 80 + 20 = 100

Don’t get caught up on the numbers. Both 80 and 20 are just examples of one type of uneven balances. The fact that they add up to 100 is a coincidence. You could call this the 50/3 or the 37/9 rule - the point is that your inputs don’t always equal your outputs.

2. 80/20 Applied Recursively

One argument I’ve heard against the 80/20 rule goes like this, “If you keep killing the 80%, eventually you’ll end up with nothing.” I suppose the people who argued this point felt they were being clever - I think they were being smartasses.

Once again, the numbers here aren’t that important. When you have a limited amount of time, you can’t perform every task possible. The 80/20 Rule suggests you look through all the tasks you normally could perform, pick the top 20% that create the most results and focus on them. Whatever time you have left can be spent on the less productive 80%.

3. The 80/20 Rule may not always work for you

When it comes to skill building, be careful. It might take 2 years to become 80% proficient but in order to get that last 20% of skill you need to invest another 8 years. (Medical Doctors are a good example of this.)

Be honest with yourself - if you absolutely need to be 100% proficient, focus all your energy to get that last 20%. Otherwise, move on.

4. “But I still have to do it…”

An argument I’ve heard against the 80/20 rule frequently goes like this, “Sure some tasks are less valuable than others, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need to get done.” Answering e-mails, making phone calls or having meetings may appear wasteful, but they still need to get finished, right?

This argument has an element of truth, but it conceals a bigger lie. The truth is that, yes, there are things that need to get done even though they aren’t wildly important. If I stopped answering e-mails I might miss opportunities, have my network degrade or lose important messages.

The bigger lie is that you have no control in adjusting where time gets spent. If e-mail isn’t that important, your goal should be to reduce the time you spend on it. If meetings aren’t contributing, you should have shorter meetings. If your hands are really tied and you have no control over how your time is spent, what’s the point of reading this post?

Putting it all together:

The point of the Pareto principle is to recognize that most things in life are not distributed evenly. These techniques may or may not make sense - the point is to realize you have the option to focus on the important 20%.

See what activities generate the most results and give them your appropriate attention.

My first job was at a Papa John’s Pizza in northern Virginia. Not only was making pizzas the only employment available to me, it was my favorite food at the time. What better way to make my first few paychecks?

It’s All About the Process
On my first day, each new employee would get a manual - a freakin’ MANUAL. This thing contained exact measurements, diagrams, pictures and clear instructions on how to wear your uniform, talk to customers, make the pizza, clean the oven and anything else you can think of. Damn, these guys were killing my individuality - I was about to become Papa John himself.

I quickly ramped up and was able to make pizzas, dispatch drivers and take orders within two weeks. I learned how to have a little fun and make some tips off of customers. I could smell the sauce and tell if it was made properly - I was that good.

Fair Pay? Eat Your Weight in Pizza
Did I mention I was paid nearly minimum wage? If I recall it was about $7.00 an hour. I could expect to make good money if I was willing to spend all my non-studying hours there at the store. Don’t get me wrong, it was good money for my first job but definitely an eye-opener.

The food was free – all we could eat.

Quitters Sometimes Win
By the end of the summer, I had decided to retire from pizza-making and move on to something else. It was time to move on to non-commission sales at Best Buy. The work was less time consuming and I got paid a little more. I now began learning how to talk to customers and had a tiny bit of free time to plan my next ventures.

What did I learn during my pizza-making days?

• If you can package what you do into a process, you can teach it to others.
• The guy who made the process gets paid a lot while the people performing the process got paid shit.
• It’s important to be looking for the next thing - no job is forever and once you’ve learned everything at your current place, it’s time to move on.

What lessons did you learn in your early jobs?

Image Credit: Joel Cook

As I get older, I realize I’ve learned some lessons that I wish I had picked up sooner in life. Most of these lessons were learned through experience, many through the various mentors (Thanks, guys!) I’ve had along the way and a few from various books I’ve read here and there.

When most people today hear the word “lesson,” they usually don’t think of it as a good thing. Teaching a lesson may be looked at as being bossy or perhaps a know-it-all. While having learned a lesson may be viewed as a sign of weakness.

However, learning lessons is far from being weak. In fact, George Washington once said, “We ought not to look back unless it is derive useful lessons from past errors and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience.” Well said, sir.

Without further ado, here’s the list:

1. The 80/20 rule.
2. Parkinson’s Law.
3. Batching.
4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.
5. Be proactive. Not reactive.
6. Mistakes and failures are good.
7. Don’t beat yourself up.
8. Your attitude changes your reality.
9. Don’t compare yourself to others.
10. 80-90% of what you fear will never really come into reality.
11. Don’t take things too seriously.
12. Write everything down.
13. There are opportunities in just about every experience.

In order to save you some time, starting next week and continuing each week, I’m going to highlight one of the lessons that you can focus on throughout the week.

Until then, why not send me a note and tell me about the lessons you’ve learned along the way. I’ll add the good ones to this list.

I was catching up with an old friend yesterday and we started talking about how busy our respective circle of friends had become over the last few years. “You probably wouldn’t understand,” he said, “but while you get to do the cool stuff, the rest of us seem to be stuck in the daily grind.”

Huh? Where’d that come from? What do I even say to that?

That got me thinking for a while. Then I realized that he saw me as the guy that somehow sidesteps trivial work and spends time on the “really important” stuff.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first to call your ass out when you’re wasting time my time with asinine requests. At the same time though, I attack everything I do with two simple things:

Prioritization. Back in college, I knew people that could study, watch TV, play video games, shower and do 24362456 other things at the same time. I hated those people because I was the guy that had to go sit in the corner facing the wall so I could actually focus on my work.

To really become effective, you should get into the habit of asking yourself “What needs to be done?” on an almost daily (if not hourly) basis. What I’ve learned is that I have to ask myself this question every time I finish something because priorities can (and usually will) change once you’ve finished working on your most important tasks.

Clarity. I’ve found that just about project I’ve ever gotten involved in is too complex. And complexity is the enemy. We become confused and overwhelmed with too many possibilities and choices. Clarity is what we need - it gives us the power to focus on what really matters and say no to what doesn’t.

Next time you add a to-do (or even a larger project) to your list, make sure you clearly list what needs to get done. For example, rather than “Email Jack” you should probably write “Email Jack about tomorrow’s schedule” - those 3 extra words clearly define what you’re going to accomplish and go a long way towards getting things done.

So, give this a shot - it’s worked for me but I’d love to hear what you use to stay productive. Let me know.