Processing step 1: What is it

[ellobogrande]

That is the ideal to shoot for. In practice I find that doing the entire processing of a single item can take as long as half an hour, and if I only had 20 minutes to work on processing I may have to stop before that one item is finished. If so I put a note on it w/ where I was and put it back into the inbox.

I instituted a rule that if I can't make the first two decisions in less then two minutes then by default the next action on that item is "read and review". I define actions and outcomes as I read and review those items. If I still can't make heads or tails of it then I contact the person who gave it to me (if that's possible) to clarify why I got this item.

 

[njones4213]

If you look at the workflow map. The first question, "What is it?" doesn't have multiple outcomes. You aren't making a decision at that point, all you are doing is bringing your focus to that item and away from whatever else you were doing or processing before.

An example would be you have just been making phone calls for the last hour. Now you start processing and go to your inbox. The first thing in there is your invoice, but until you focus on it and ask yourself "what is this?" you don't know it's an invoice. It's only stuff that you haven't processed yet.

You aren't making decisions, you are just bringing your focus onto that chunk of stuff. After you've answered that question and once you know it's an invoice you start asking if it's actionable right now. Does this require you to do something (i.e. you need to pay it or you need to contact someone else to make them pay it) or is it just a receipt telling you someone bought something and you can file it away.

 

[Suelin23]

Suelin, it means there's always YES answer to all the projects getting into my inbox. What is it? It's X and move to the next step on the flowchart. What is it? It's Y and next. Next, next, next. Everything processed, a lot of stuff put into the system, complete overload.

If you asked 'What's the outcome?' the next step is doing and there's no way out. At what point of processing should I ask the following questions (and it is not a full list):

- What goal this outcome supports?
- If no goal supported, should we create a new goal?
- Do we need that outcome at all?
- What would we get if we get that outcome?

Not everything is actionable, you'll also get a lot of reference and project support stuff.
The whole point is that everything goes into the system rather than hanging around in your head, so when its time to work you pull out one action, focus on only that, then pull out the next one etc. Having things in the system means more productivity.

Those other questions are moving up the horizons of focus. I suggest you get clear on that now, it really helps with the detailed processing. Although even when clear you will always get some things come up that you need to take higher up - eg somethings that aren't being covered by anyone in the team, but someone needs to take on. Then the next action might be to have discussions or thinking about who takes it on.