By Terry Whalin (@terrywhalin)
Because I’m involved in publishing, publishers and authors will send me books to review. As a literary agent or editor, writers will send email pitches or book proposals or manuscripts in the mail for consideration. If I am not consciously organizing this material, it does not take long for the paper and books to overwhelm my workspace and bottleneck any level of productivity.
Maybe you’ve had this experience where the piles around you grow to such a level that you can’t accomplish anything because you spend half of your time looking for a particular item. I’ve walked into the offices of some editors, and they have paperwork piled everywhere. Some can barely reach their computer and desk because of the work piled around them. These editors have learned to work in the middle of such chaos, but it doesn’t work for me.
Another editor friend is so organized that she has each of the books on her shelf alphabetized by the author’s last name. I’m definitely not that organized! The key to productivity for your publishing dreams is to create a system to tame the paper tigers in your life, the time wasters such as physical mail and email.
Let’s return to the basic time wasters and find a solution for each one.
First let’s tackle your email. There is no rule that you have to read or respond to every single email. In fact, it is unrealistic to have this expectation. Also reevaluate your participation in online email groups with high volume participation. What value are you getting from this group? Can you drop out or go into a digest format and skim the responses? It is worth your examination to find a more effective way to handle these emails.
Veteran coach and management consultant David Allen has written a best-selling book I recommend called GETTING THINGS DONE. For every email or physical mail in your in-basket, Allen recommends you determine first, “Is it actionable?” If not, it goes into the trash, begins a tickler file so you can act on it later, or is filed for reference in a place you can retrieve it. If you look at the item and decide you can take action, then in less than two minutes, handle it (do it), delegate it (to someone else) or defer it (take action at a later date and set a specific time). These three steps move the items out of the holding pattern and into action or productive steps.
Combined with these steps, Allen recommends you process the top item first, then the other items one at a time, and you never put anything back into the “in” basket. Use these steps as you handle your regular mail as well as your email.
It’s important for each of us as writers to experiment and adopt whichever habits will work for your writing life and increase your productivity. I’ll have more insights next month with a second part about this topic of productivity. Each of us is on a journey to discover and use what will work for our writing life.
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W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in California. Get Terry’s newsletter and a 87-page FREE ebook packed with writing insights. Just follow this link to subscribe. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s recent book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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