Getting things done is about being organised which can often start with your email inbox. Applying this method will truly enhance your performance at work. Start now in order to develop the habit of getting things done more effectively. Here are some notes on how to apply the Inbox Zero method to any email inbox you might have.
System for Email – InboxZero
Only way to succeed in dealing with a high volume of email involves a simple repeatable system and complete framework. Simplicity is the key as we reduce the options that an email can be placed under so that you aren’t just reading your emails BUT also actioning each item. You are building walls for your email.
Time & Attention are finite;
Email is Just a Medium;
One place for anything;
Process to Zero doesn’t Just Read Your Emails;
Convert to Actions.
What is Processing?
More than checking, less than responding. Answer: “So What? What actions do I have to take as a result of this email.” You might have more orders/tasks in your inbox but how do you organise these orders/tasks? Where do you put your emails? The goal is to PROCESS your emails so that you always have ZERO unread emails in your inbox…..
The Five Things You Can Do To An Email:
Create five folders to drag and drop you read emails so that you get things done.
Delete or Archive: what is useless. You can lose the fear of deleting and get rid of it. If you need something possibly then archive it. For the amount of time that you are dragging it; you need to think about archiving conversations that are good to know but are no longer relevant. Basically ask yourself, what is the minimally byzantine system that will allow you to find it later.
Delegate: forwarding email; can you get this done by asking someone else to do it. You need to drill down with a followup for that person. Get actions done by providing a brief for that worker to follow.
Respond: Answer in 5 sentences, 4 sentences or 3 sentences. For now my email will be no longer than 5 sentences. Get the response out as quickly as you can. In your email, you might get a 1 sentence email; you need to find your comfort zone. keep it moving. If you can’t respond to this email in less than 2 minutes then do something else with it.
Defer: your inbox should be for stuff you haven’t read yet but if you’ve read it but you don’t want to act on it you can put items that you want to defer action on in this folder in your email.
Do: get it done now, just look at the calendar and then drag it. Take notes and create a task note. Create a to do list; do not use email as a to do list. Do not let emails sit around without a reason.
The Processing Habit: you need to make the synaptic leap between the dumb and the smart. You need to actually do these things.
Going forward do email less: Only check your email 1 hour, then do 10 minutes to review emails. Don’t obsess about email; don’t treat it like a fire. Email will crush your life.
Cheat by using filters: Filter low-level high noise. Create a folder for those garbage. Try to automate and keep things simple. Remember? Finite. You need to do less time working on stuff that doesn’t matter and more time on what matters to you.
You need to convince your team that I only respond to emails within 1 hour. Now you are seeing that people are trying to optimise their performance.
There are over 30,000 photographs of Paris in this slow motion visual photo shoot conducted by Mayeul Akpovi. The video is only 2 minutes long so that makes sense. Probably took a lot of patience as well. Is Paris the most beautiful city in the world? The detail on this video makes a compelling case.
Steve: What I find most interesting about illustration is the direct relationship that you have with your audience.
Molly: I have always used my work to explore places and people that I wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
Sean: A lot of people sort of look down on comics and art, and, you know, I can understand why sometimes. But, for me, I just think it’s really challenging, and I think that’s what draws me to it.
Yuko: Drawing, it’s like asking kids who love to sing why they like singing. It was just part of me.
Steve: Illustrators to a great degree are interested in interpretation. They’re interested in a creative sensibility filtering through imagery. Lots of young and older illustrators are still using pen and ink, watercolor, wash, oil paint, acrylic, 3D, collage. There really is no medium that can’t be used for illustration.
At one time, the major markets for illustration were books, magazines, newspapers. And really for hundreds of years, being an illustrator meant working in those realms. Illustration did a lot of the work that photography does now. So that in print media if you saw portraits, if you saw war reportage, this would have been created by illustrators. As soon as photography started to take the place of illustration, it freed illustrators to go inside their own heads. They could start to deal with a personal symbolic or conceptual language. The role of the illustrator became much more than that just of expressing the ideas of a writer or an editor. So, in many ways, because of the changes that have happened in the field, there are greater challenges. Sometimes the budgets aren’t as big as they used to be. But on the other hand, there are opportunities available to illustrators in terms of self-expression and initiating their own projects that just didn’t exist 15, 20 years ago.
Yuko: Editorial illustration is basically you create illustrations for magazines and newspapers. Like if you open up a newspaper tomorrow and you see a lot of photos, where you see drawings with articles, that’s basically what I do. I’ve worked with “Time,” “ESPN,” “Fortune,” “New York Times,” “Wall Street Journal,” and “New Yorker.” As an illustrator, what I always keep in mind is if I come up with an idea that may look better as a photo, then my idea is not good. I kind of change my brain into becoming the biggest fan of the subject matter. Then hopefully it makes the viewer stop and want to read the article.
Japanese people look at my work and think it’s very American. And then Americans think my work is very Japanese. So, it’s kind of like half and half. Part of it is like a heavy influence from comics from 1970s and ’80s. The style that I accumulated, that manga style never went away. I always draw on paper. And then I finish the whole drawing and I scanned it in and finish all the coloring on Adobe Photoshop. So, it’s half digital half analog. Nowadays, there is more emphasis on the tablet media. And if the world is moving to digital media, illustrator has to adjust according to it. So, I’m trying to be cautiously optimistic.
Sean: When did comic art become seen as high art? I’d say we’re probably not there yet. When most people still associate us with The Avengers or The Hulk or something. They tend to think that that’s for kids. I did Joe the Barbarian and Hellblazer: City of Demons. I’m also working on some Batman stuff and I’ve been exclusive with DC Comics now for five or six years I’d say. I would say my style is a lot of black, a lot of noir. Very full, complex backgrounds. Not photorealistic at all. Comic artists, you’re sort of a caricature artist sometimes. Sometimes you’re doing perspectives, you’re using a lot of math to measure out backgrounds and whatnot as a plan for your storytelling. And I would say that there’s much more strict rules of storytelling. It should give it a good enough impression what’s happening before people even really read. Eighty percent of the market is probably superhero stuff. So I find myself writing a lot towards deeper subjects than just your typical, like, X-Men type stuff.
I wrote and drew this project called “Punk Rock Jesus.” It’s a story about a clone of Jesus who eventually decides he’s an atheist, and he starts fighting mass media with a punk band. For me, it was just like a nice way to sort of tackle religion, politics, science, and sort of a little bit of sci-fi in a fun way that didn’t really abandon anybody, but at least helped them think. In my eyes, I think, you draw these worlds and to do all this stuff, it’s so time consuming. Why would I waste 80 years of my life drawing people punching each other and wearing underwear outside of their tights and stuff? Just seems like there’s room for more.
Molly: What the internet has done is it’s exposed huge swaths of visual culture that were never prominent before. Now, because it’s incredibly competitive to be an illustrator, illustrators are making their style incredibly, incredibly specific to them because that’s the way that you become identifiable enough to get work. I have my roots in the New York burlesque scene and I’m very known for doing these portraits of these glamorous sequin-covered drag queens and dancers. I got really interested in doing work grounded in the Victorian era when I was in college. It’s cruel and it’s gorgeous. I just became really interested in subversion and class. And I’m incredibly inspired by journalists and activists.
I was one of the main poster artists for Occupy Wall Street. For a long time, there was a real idea of what activist art looked like. Activist art was red and black and had a lot of Soviet stuff. I wanted to show people that activism wasn’t just something for a certain type of predefined person, but was rather something that we should all be interested in. An illustrator now can’t just be a cool jack of all trades that does lovely, competent illustrations, because there aren’t enough slots anymore for lovely, competent illustrations. And so the illustrator kind of has to be a brand into himself. They have to be an interesting human being, and also put out cool, unique works of art for free. And then, after you’ve built enough goodwill with your audience, they’ll be interested in supporting you.
Yuko: Hopefully I finish up, and I feel that I finished something good. But also think my best image will come in the future.
Molly: What I love most about my art is using it to explore the world and to explore places in the world where other people haven’t gotten a chance to see.
Sean: Some of the most successful hits of comics, I think, go above and beyond some of our best illustrations.
Steve: One of the great things about illustration is the intimacy of the experience. It’s an experience that you really can’t get with any other image-based medium.
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