Managing Flow

[boettiger]

The book and methodology direct us to make it as effortless as possible to add things to our Inbox(es). It also recommends having physical and virtual Inboxes, often at both home and office or even Car or anyplace where you will find the need to record a thought.

That's wonderful for Capturing, but how can we avoid Inbox Creep?

Meaning that as days progress we find ourselves spending greater amounts of time on the Daily Review Processing. Because we are processing more and our time is finite, we find our Someday / Maybe lists overflowing, which also adds more time to the Monthly Review.

The solution (clearly) is to put fewer things in your Inbox, but this is not always possible to do, particularly for those of us with Monkey Mind, particularly in the case of email, where Other People put things in your Inbox.

If I can put things in my Inbox at a faster rate than I have time to do the Daily Review for all of them, that's not a sustainable system.

How are other folks addressing the issue of Flow?

Thx in advance,
A

 

[kelstarrising]

Just a point of clarity: the tools you use to capture aren’t the same as inboxes. So while you might capture into many different tools, you’ll have only a few inboxes that are holding those captures until you process and organize them.

As for creep—you’ve got as much input as you have. I wouldn’t focus on reducing input (except for obvious things like reducing what’s irrelevant,) but instead focus on improving and speeding up your processing speed day-to-day and in your Weekly Reviews.

 

[boettiger]

thx!

 

[Oogiem]

The book and methodology direct us to make it as effortless as possible to add things to our Inbox(es). It also recommends having physical and virtual Inboxes, often at both home and office or even Car or anyplace where you will find the need to record a thought.

Inboxes are not capture tools. Capture tools create things that go into your inboxes. You should have as few inboxes as possible and as many capture tools as you need. For example here are my capture tools: pen & paper, siri voice notes, voicemail, e-mail (15 different e-mail accounts) and iPhone camera. I have these inboxes: Paper inbox, e-mail inbox, Downloads Folder on computer, General scanning folder on computer, Omnifocus inbox.

I process my inboxes during the day and try to get them all completely cleaned out at least ever other day.

Meaning that as days progress we find ourselves spending greater amounts of time on the Daily Review Processing. Because we are processing more and our time is finite, we find our Someday / Maybe lists overflowing, which also adds more time to the Monthly Review.

I don't review all my someday/maybe things at every weekly review or even monthly review. I do in depth quarterly reviewx that allow me to at least read all my many thousands of someday/maybe ideas. Most of the time I can just read thema nd then move on, a few get deleted and a few get added to my current projects. At the same time I will remove current projects and put them back in someday/maybe if I know I can't work on them this quarter.

I spend about 1.5-2 hours each day processing new inputs in my inboxes into their respective locations.

The solution (clearly) is to put fewer things in your Inbox, but this is not always possible to do, particularly for those of us with Monkey Mind, particularly in the case of email, where Other People put things in your Inbox.

Absolutely DO NOT stop capturing! All that does is force your mind back into the realm of confusion. Capture even more but get faster at processing. One way is if you use paper and pen to capture put nly one thought/idea per piece of paper. Then, during processing have a set of folders labeled S/M this Month, S/M this Year, S/M Future and just toss the notes into their respective folders unless they are something related to a current active project or one you have to handle now. That's a lot faster than entering them into some digital system.

You may find that after a while the volume slows down. You will also probably find that you are repeating capture of things you already have on your lists either as active or someday/maybe. Over time your mind will get used to the fact that you never really lose things and let go and allow you to have more and better ideas.

An active mind capturing hundreds or thousands of ideas is far more likely to generate one or two really good ones compared to a mind that is only generating a few things each day. I'd rejoice in your active mind and just learn to harness it.

 

[MellowEnchant]

I spend about 1.5-2 hours each day processing new inputs in my inboxes into their respective locations.

Wow! This helped me a lot as I was trying to figure out if processing 30 minutes daily is not enough. Because I feel like I could not keep my system up to date only investing 30 minutes daily.

But I am curious, do you process 1.5-2 hours daily in one session?

Because I process 30 minutes right in the morning. It is one of the first things I do after waking up. But I feel like if I do way more than 30 minutes in the morning, which is the time I am most productive, I feel like I could have used that time better for some creative work...

 

[mcogilvie]

Wow! This helped me a lot as I was trying to figure out if processing 30 minutes daily is not enough. Because I feel like I could not keep my system up to date only investing 30 minutes daily.

But I am curious, do you process 1.5-2 hours daily in one session?

Because I process 30 minutes right in the morning. It is one of the first things I do after waking up. But I feel like if I do way more than 30 minutes in the morning, which is the time I am most productive, I feel like I could have used that time better for some creative work...

I wake up each morningto a load of new email which I try to take from collect through organize. I can usually get through that in under a half-hour. I deal with the email that comes in over the course of the day catch as catch can, and do a final pass through all new email almost every evening. At that point, I may leave it in my next action inbox for processing in a he morning if it’s late.

 

[Oogiem]

But I am curious, do you process 1.5-2 hours daily in one session?

no. I do check my action lists, process my paper notes I made in the night and also check weather and forums that I consider inboxes in the morning. mid day I tackle paper inboxes and other e-mail. Afternoon more on handling incoming paper mail and try to knock off the rest of my e-mail inand other electronic inboxes.

All this depends on what sheep work is required for the day which can change based on weather, hence why weather is one of the first things I look at in the morning.