The article below was first written in March 2017 as part of my weekly article series. It hit a nerve (in a good way!) among Frontline clients. I had a lot of interactions with them after they read the article.
Why was it well-received by business owners in particular?
Because many business owners get smashed with issues from every direction every day. I wrote this at a time of rapid growth in our young startup in a ‘look over my shoulder’ style. Each week, I transparently (sometimes to an embarrassing level!) shared issues I was confronted with while building the business. I then shared ways I tackled the issues to maximise our chance of business success.
What's cool is we can now, seven years later, scrutinise these articles (I have dozens in my archives) to see if the ideas were fleeting. Or, if I implemented them for the long haul and they are still effective all these years later.
I will share the article below, including its flaws. After nearly a decade of implementation, I will also add some comments for context. This should benefit both business owners and
their teams.
Let’s go!
Do you think you are productive?
I reckon I am.
Well…
I reckon I was.
Lately, my productivity has sucked.
Big time.
Since just before Christmas (2016), I have been swimming through other people’s crap on what feels like a daily basis.
And that leads to an ineffective and grumpy CEO.
Many of these articles are an insight into my own evolution as the leader of a startup.
I tell you what works for me and what doesn’t.
This week we’ll talk about productivity.
Let me tell you what I do that works well for me…
…and after that I’m going to confess where I’ve screwed up.
Read on…
I have many habits and protocols to boost productivity and cut wasted time.
I could write a book on the subject. But, for this article, I'll only cover a few key points that may help you.
1. I don’t answer the phone.
If you ring the office, you will never get past my gatekeepers.
If you call my mobile phone, I won’t answer it…
…I won’t notice that it’s ringing since my phone remains on silent at all times. It doesn’t even vibrate.
And guess what – these days I hardly ever get any calls.
People learned I would never answer it, so none of my friends or clients ever call me.
<2024: Protocol still in place and effective! Calls with clients, staff and friends are organised ahead of time on Zoom or Signal. Not a random ‘call anytime’ situation.>
2. I don’t do SMS.
If you text me, I’ll usually ignore it. I hate sitting there typing back and forth on a phone. What a waste of time.
I will only make an exception when travelling to the UK. There, I need to organise meetings and SMS might be the best way in the moment. Otherwise, I ignore SMS messages.
Again, hardly anyone bothers to SMS me anyway these days.
<2024: Protocol still in place and effective!>
3. I have an Inbox Zero policy.
Most nights I go to bed and my inbox is empty. All the crap is handled for the day…
If you use Gmail and empty your inbox there is a message that says ‘You’ve finished! Enjoy your day’.
How about I enjoy my day whether my inbox is empty or not?
I’ll explain my contrarian plan in a couple of minutes to take this concept to a completely bad-ass level.
<2024: Protocol still in place and effective! And it still irritates me that an email company tells me when to enjoy my day. My day should not revolve around email. It's a path to ineffectiveness.>
4. My team is amazing at leaving me the hell alone and not emailing me unless they feel they need to.
Despite the A-Grade team performance, I’m taking this to a whole new level in the coming days.
They won’t be able to email me even if they want to.
You’ll see why in a minute…
<2024: A-Grade team still in place. Our management team has remained almost unchanged for nearly 10 years. Topic for another day. But, I am most proud of this team. I will explain how we built it in an upcoming article.>
5. I don’t spread myself too thin.
I am good at focusing on a project and seeing it through to completion.
This is a critical skill if you want to be more productive than 99% of people who float through their day.
I say ‘No’ a lot.
Often, I have other business owners wanting to do JVs, or run ideas past me on how we can work together.
I say ‘No’ to all of them.
My focus is on helping accounting firms hire and raise teams in the Philippines.
That’s it.
And there is nobody better than my team at doing this.
<2024: Protocol still in place and effective!>
6. I don’t get notifications on my phone.
I don’t care what Facebook is doing; I don’t care about the latest updates and other annoying things.
The last thing I want is a stupid gadget trying to control me.
<2024: Protocol still in place and effective!>
7. I don’t have Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts.
Unfortunately, I haven't yet kicked the Facebook drug. It has been a useful tool to keep in touch with people while I run from one country to another.
At least that’s my justification.
And I like dog videos.
And videos of people hurting themselves doing stupid things…
Anyway…
<2024: Facebook was permanently deleted from my life in 2018. Deleting all social media is a topic for another day. You will be more productive and likely happier if you ditch social media. It belongs in the dustbin. As Frontline's profile has grown, people looking for me often comment, "I couldn't find Mark anywhere online." Exactly. It's by design.>
Now let me tell you where I’ve gone wrong lately… (and how I’ll attempt to fix it)
My articles are always written from a 'look over my shoulder’ perspective.
I don’t have all the answers.
I screw up regularly.
And I tell you guys about it so we can learn together. (And writing about it is a sort of therapy too, I guess?)
I’ve done a terrible job of managing myself over the last few months.
I've been working in the office. I'm getting sucked into every problem that has popped up during the day.
I can go in there at 7:00 a.m. and not come up for air until 7:00 p.m.
Sometimes I don’t remember to eat unless my amazing EA (No – you can’t have her; she’s mine) reminds me.
I get drawn into all manner of crap I don’t need to know about and certainly don’t need to deal with.
I can’t seem to help myself. If I see something wrong, I want it fixed immediately.
I’m a bit obsessive about quality.
I achieve nothing productive or enjoyable. I go home depressed, hating the world and everything in it.
Building a fortress to protect my time.
My solution to this problem is an idea.
It’s a move designed to make my day more productive and enjoyable, and in turn, have a more meaningful impact on the business.
It might not work.
But I’ll give it a go and see what happens.
I am about to shut down the 24/7 accessibility that people have had to me.
Cold turkey.
I’m going from Inbox Zero, to Zero Inbox.
That’s right.
You read it correctly.
I will no longer be reachable on email, with a few very narrow exceptions.
‘What?!’ I hear you gasp!
‘You can’t run a business like that!’
Watch me.
Email is such a freaking waste of time.
I hate opening the stupid thing each morning, wondering what crap awaits me.
My EA will filter my email and notify me of any must-sees.
Those should be only new client queries and follow-ups during the proposal phase.
Any other emails will be forwarded to people based on the criteria below.
I won’t even see them.
Are you jealous yet?
You should be.
I’m excited thinking about it!
Here are the new rules…
1. Any HR emails coming from clients will be forwarded to Cherry and her team to handle.
I don’t even want to know about it anymore – it ends up being a distraction and ALWAYS ends up derailing and ruining my day.
Cherry has served an apprenticeship in the school of Cottle over the last few years and can handle every situation thrown at her now.
Our support team is A-Grade. We've spent a year training them, issue by issue, and holding their hands through every detail.
They often tell me Frontline is like no other business they have worked at in the Philippines…in a good way.
Damn right.
And now I am ready to throw my team out of the nest so they can fly.
I don't need to keep getting involved. Clients don't expect me to either.
Refer to the Obsessive point above.
<2024: Cherry has helped me build managers across the business, so the level of talent in our team runs wider and deeper.>
2. From now on, Jon will handle any client issues instead of me.
He’s better than me at troubleshooting systems/processes/training issues for firms.
Jon is working on a bunch of training webinars for firms to help them get more from their offshore teams.
Stay tuned for that…
3. My focus will be on marketing and sales.
I’m good at it, and I enjoy it.
I will basically shut myself off from the day-to-day office drama, and deep dive into the marketing for our business.
4. My diary will only be open for four hours in one block of time each week for sales calls.
What we do is not urgent enough to be available every day.
Until now, I’ve opened it up more generously and find myself on calls each day which can be a pain.
These calls would be better off batched together, one after the other.
<2024: I haven’t done sales calls since about 2018. Again – team.>
5. Staff and clients can still talk to me. (It’s a fortress, but there will still be a door with secret access codes.)
Rather than responding to random emailed brain farts from people, they will have to book a time via my EA so we can talk rather than email back and forth.
6. I will still read and respond to all the responses to my articles.
That’s an important touchpoint in my life with the people who are important to me. Every week my article helps someone, and those responses help motivate me to turn up and do it again the following week.
Conclusion
This topic could really be a book.
I ran a seminar for the staff last year on how to be more effective.
But it’s like going to the gym or eating clean.
You must continue to do it on a regular basis.
Otherwise, you get fat again.
And it sneaks up on you…
…just like the last few months where I thought I was losing my mind.
It’s never as bad as it seems.
A few adjustments to my working routine should fix it.
Wish me luck as I say goodbye to my inbox!
2024 Updated Conclusion and Thoughts
All the above protocols are still in place, except the ‘Zero Inbox’ idea. What happened after I sent this article to everyone was my inbox went from 150+ emails per day, to a small handful. It was essentially an overnight reduction of noise. I still have an Inbox Zero policy, which means I end most days with no emails. I could not imagine doing it any other way after so many years.
I learned this is not a set-it-and-forget-it series of protocols. They are like health; without focus and discipline, the bad stuff sneaks up on you. I often have to fight the urge to jump into every small issue I see.
I find that every few months I must get offline and work through my habits and routines. I would argue that we all should do this – whether you are a business owner or an employee of the business.
You need a fortress around yourself to protect your mental energy, and your time. Without that fortress, you just end up pushed around by other peoples’ agendas and priorities instead of your own.
The approach I shared has now stood the test of time. If it didn't work I would have binned it years ago.
Scrutinise your life. Build yourself a fortress so you can spend your time and energy on the highest value activities you can.
Good luck, and I hope you too can look back in ten years from now and be glad you also built yourself a fortress. Please share with me how you did it!
with Frontline Accounting today.
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