Let My OCD Experience Turn You Into an Organization Machine for 2017....

As the CEO of a successful software company, I work with many moving parts on any given day, and like many of you, I review and respond to several hundred emails, text messages, and voicemails on a daily basis. How have I mastered the ocean of items I have to handle on any given day? It all started out with Mom who I can thank for giving me Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to a degree….

When I was in my twenties, I was with my mother when she had her first heart attack. And then she had two more accompanied by a triple bypass and then finally a heart transplant. This is 100% true. And through the miracle of medicine, she lasted 10 years with her heart transplant and accomplished seeing me get married and having a boy and girl!

We were middle class in New York and I remember her having to be incredibly organized with the mountain of bills she would get from the hospital. Dad was long gone so she had to do it all. She had to watch every penny and saved thousands by being meticulous in the management of all these bills and copied everything by hand. One Christmas I gave her a small portable Canon copy machine to copy all her bills and keep track of the mess. She treasured this and it helped her organize even more while saving time for having to go copy around the corner.

She taught me many valuable lessons in life but one of the most valuable that I own today is a massive amount of organization. Some people may even call me OCD – which I don’t really take any offense to. It works for me and I think a little OCD can be good and give you a competitive advantage. My organization is directly tied to my success and if you want to become truly productive, you can adopt some of these life essentials below.

It comes down to being able to manage all the various details which get tossed your way each day. And then being able to respond effectively and meet required deadlines. It also is tied to professionalism in business in responding to people that have reached out to you for something. In other words, swimming with success and not drowning.

I have no doubt being slightly OCD has transformed my life for the better and given me a competitive edge in business. It enables me to manage in ways that many others don’t or can’t.

The focus of this OCD training article is two-fold. First, becoming a task master and second, becoming an email master. Follow these steps and you will get more accomplished and create an environment where things don’t get missed. People will be more responsive to you and you will get more done in any given day. Now let’s go OCD…

Communication Methods

As we get ready for 2017 our methods of communication are continuously evolving. Text has become a much more prevalent method for businesses to communicate with their customers. I use it with those that I have a familiar relationship with. And if I call someone, I try not to leave voicemails and instead use email as a follow-up to my call. Our automotive dealership software product, Service Drive Concierge, integrates with several systems enabling texting between staff and guests. In many cases it allows instant gratification for communication. When you text someone, you usually expect a response – fast.

Other communication methods such as instant messaging, Snapchat, workflow systems such as Slack are gaining steam or already in the mainstream. But even though this is the case, email still remains a very strong method to communicate. Here is why. Email…

1. Provides a solid written communication trail
2. Allows you to easily attach documents, images, or reference hyperlinks
3. Easily enables multiple people to be part of the conversation
4. Enables special flagging for easy follow-up
5. Is the most familiar and widely used communication tool in business

Be an OCD Task Master

But before we dive into the entire topic of emails, let’s start out with the basics of organization – the task list or ‘to do’ list. Because if you are not working off of some kind of task list, then you better have a photographic memory to keep track of the details. I don’t… which is why I am fanatical (OCD) about creating organized lists which I manage on my computer and have wirelessly synchronized to my mobile device. I START every day reviewing my task list and END every day reviewing my task list.  

My personal tool of choice for task organization is Evernote (www.evernote.com) which I find incredibly useful to keep myself organized. But you can use anything – even Notepad. You will need the paid version of Evernote to synchronize to your smart phone. But in my book, the price of this feature makes it worth it. The key to using this tool to the fullest is to organize Evernote by having separate notebooks. I keep one master notebook with my master task list which are organized by major category. And under those categories, I have my individual items to complete. Ones that require more attention are either placed on a HIGH PRIORITY list or highlighted in red font.  My current categories are:

• Today
• Calls to Make
• High Priority
• Sales & Marketing
• Personal
• Social Media to Do
• Low Priority
• Weekend Work

Note the first one on the list. The Today category is what I move in at the start of the day and make it a point to complete on that day. It try to make it realistic and I work to make sure that these items at 100% done by the end of the day.  And yes, I always create a list of what I must get done over the weekend. This is a combination of business and personal items.

No Credit for 60%

I live by the basic premise that I would rather complete one item 100% than three items at 60%. That does not mean that making progress on other items is a waste of time even if it is not 100%, but I am constantly working my list with one thought in mind… What do I need to do to mark this task 100% complete? What is preventing me from completing the task to 100%? Am I waiting on others for something? If so, then I work to let that party know that I need their assistance to get something done. And I always look to communicate that need with a date. I try never to leave a task open-ended if possible.

For example, let’s say I need a business partner to complete something related to a marketing event. Instead of asking them with an open-ended request, I always ask (nicely) for the task to be done by a certain date. And it is up to THEM to tell me if they cannot meet that deadline. And then I follow that task on a daily basis to monitor progress or until I hear that there is an issue to having it completed by that stated deadline.

So remember, you need to “Plan the Work” and the “Work the Plan” and make it a point every day to mark items 100% off your list. And certainly work to add new items no faster than your rate of marking items to completion. That is what I call an OCD task master and what will leave your competitors in the dust.

Outlook & OCD – The Perfect Combination

When my Mom taught me about organization, AOL was just getting started. Or was it CompuServe? As I worked jobs over the years after college, I learned that email is not just a way to communicate with people. When used right, it is actually a fantastic workflow tool. It is my virtual desk which I use as my daily guide of what I need to get done and what I am waiting on other people to get done.

What makes my OCD really go into orbit is when I happen to see an email inbox with thousands of emails. And to really make matters worse, several hundred of UNREAD emails. Once I see that, I know that this person cannot be organized. No way. No how. Why do you even bother using email? Go back  to a pen and letter!

Or how about when you ask someone if they got your email and their only response is “not sure, I get hundreds of emails a day. Can you send it again?”. So your lack of organization is somehow my problem?

So if you want to be a master of this workflow and communication tool, there are some steps you can follow to become and OCD of email. My tool of choice for email is MS Outlook, but these tips can apply to most any email client. And if you follow these steps, it will make you an organizational machine. For this article, we will limit the scope to Outlook email and give you 10 great rules to live by.

Email Rule # 1: Build Folders & Subfolders by Subject

First order of business in Outlook is to prepare the framework for organization. Start out by creating a comprehensive set of folders from your inbox. You will want to create folders by major subject and not people. The more folders you have the better if to make you more organized. Also utilize sub folders for even better organization. For example, I have a folder from the inbox called clients. And then subfolders under clients for every client I want to track. All in all, I have more than 100 folders that keeps it all organized and simple for referencing any past conversation.

Folder Sorting Tip: By adding a ‘0’ in front of the folder name, it will be sorted to the top. Try this when you want a folder to be on the top of your list regardless of its place in alphabetical order. For example:

0 – Sales to Close

 

 

 

Also make sure your view has at least this set of columns:

• From Name
• To Name
• Subject
• Received Date / Time
• Color Category
• Follow-Up Flag

Email Rule # 2: Make Your Inbox your Working Desktop

Your email inbox should be your working desktop. What does this mean? It means that you should have in your inbox ONLY the emails that fall into one of these categories:

• You are waiting on a response from someone to YOUR email
• You are waiting to complete an item someone has asked of you
• Active business generation related emails

Now although the numbers may vary from person to person, my personal desktop limit is 60 meaning I don’t want any more than 60 active emails in my inbox. On the high side, the number would climb to 80 which is about the maximum anyone can successfully manage.

The key here is that as new emails arrive, you process the email and if the subject is closed, move it to its proper folder.

Remember, read, process, repeat! New emails will either remain in your inbox (becomes part of your active workflow), get deleted, or get moved to a folder.

Email Rule # 4: Track the Conversation

The conversation is a communication thread or set of related emails brought together by the subject. Gmail essentially started this concept when it was first released. For conversation management, I always keep the latest conversation received and delete prior conversations. Therefore the latest conversation contains the entire thread in one email.

Email Rule # 5: Use Flags & Color Codes

With your inbox number set, now you need to manage the desktop of your inbox. I personally use color coding of the email and follow-up flags to keep an eye on important mailbox items.

Follow-up flags are set to the most important emails so I can easy keep an eye on them. Also, I use the Category color or GREEN for any revenue generation items. This is in addition to a CRM system of course. An example would be a contract emailed to a prospect that I am waiting for signature on.

 

Email Rule # 6: Always CC Yourself for any Follow-Up

You would be surprised how many people don’t do this most basic thing. But it can be one of your most important habits to form to stay on top of things. The only time I do not copy myself on an email is when the email requires zero follow-up.

Why copy yourself you may be asking? For any email, CC yourself and you will have a copy of that email in your inbox or your ‘working desktop’. This enables you to keep on top of an item requesting action from someone. And if I want to just put a final cap on a conversation I will CC myself and then move that email to its proper folder. In other words, putting a final wrap on a conversation.

Copying yourself also serves a second purpose. For the alert recipient of your email, it lets them know that you are keeping track of the conversation.

Email Rule # 7: The Morning Sweep

During my morning coffee, I use the time to cycle through every email on my desktop and see where things stand. And process any new emails which came in overnight. My goal is always to move an email from my desktop to its final destination folder. And to keep below my target number of active emails (60).

As I skim by every email, I ask myself what needs to be done to move it out. If I have something I need to complete, then I do what I can to get that work done and move this off my plate. If I am waiting on someone else and a reasonable amount of time has passed by, I will FORWARD to the same audience and then CC myself again before hitting SEND. And then I will delete the prior email since I have a newer conversation being tracked.  Here is an example body:

Hello Dan,

I wanted to send you this email again from December 14, to see if we can get this wrapped up by this coming Friday…

So this serves to remind Dan that he owes me an answer or owes completed work. And it also shows Dan that I am tracking this task to completion. Of course you try and not cross the line into being ‘pushy’ but rather proactive and that completing the task is a priority.

Email Rule # 8: The Nightly Sweep

It is simple for this rule. Repeat rule #7 but do so at night before shutting down your computer for the night. Before shutting down, look to hit your maximum desktop number or less. That will help set tomorrow off on the right foot.

Email Rule # 9: To Delete or Not to Delete

Deleting emails comes with some basic rules. In general, you never want to delete your SENT box. This is always a great back up trail of any emails you have sent should you need to reference at a certain point in time.

For spam, I always mark the email as junk – BUT never open. That helps reduce spam over time.

For any completed conversations, I file the final email on the topic and then file it away in its proper folder.

And for an email that I know I will never care about or need to follow-up on that does not require filing, I will delete.

Also, I make a point to delete my spam folder every couple of weeks. And remember, you NEVER open an email from a person you don’t know. And never open an attachment if it is in any way suspect.

Email Rule # 10: Build Templates for Repetitive Emails & Build a Great Looking Footer

In Outlook, there are two types of emails which you can create. An Outlook Item is just a standard email that you create and then save in DRAFT mode. Once you open to send it, you address it as needed and then it is gone once sent. If you use an Outlook Item Template, then the email does not disappear when you address and send. Therefore this is your best method for creating reusable email templates.

And finally, make sure your emails always come with a professional looking footer with your logo and links to social media. Every email you send should always look professional and be free of spelling or grammatical errors. Make a point of re-reading your emails 2-3 times prior to hitting SEND. Always open any attachments and DOUBLE CHECK the attachment before hitting SEND.

I hope this article has been of help and that you will also become slightly OCD – for better time management and organization. Being a king of organization will set you apart and take your productivity to an entirely different level.

The reward will be greater productivity, organization, professionalism, and even profitability!

Now go make the most of 2017!