This week, I got the chance to Skype in with Robby Slaughter (@robbyslaughter) of Slaughter Development and the author of “Failure: the Secret to Success”. I met Robby several years ago when we presented at one of the RE BarCamps in Indianapolis.

Fail This

Mr. Robby Slaughter

I have always enjoyed talking to Robby, and I do not for the life of me know why it took me so long to get him on the #DaveCast. Well, I finally got him on the show, and with his busy schedule this is no easy feat.

Robby is an expert at productivity, and I have been having some issues with my email. Every day, I seem to be caught up in a virtual landslide of email. I know really what I need to do, but I always used my email wrong. I chose to keep it open like a giant library. However, I am willing to bet we all deal with email overload and it keeps up from being truly productive.

Here are some of the tips that Robby shared with me on Email Productivity.

First, we really need to break down elements of email -

1. Clients (gmail, outlook and so on)

2. Server and systems (where the emails are stored)

3. Spam filtering

Second, don’t bow to expectations –

We train the people that email us as to what to expect.  When someone emails us and we grab our phone or jump on the computer and bang out an immediate response.  Then their expectations are that – we jump like we are Pavlov’s dog. We need to break that habit, and we do that by not allowing ourselves to be tied to rapid email response,

Third, go offline –

We can stem the flow of email by using setting that are in about every major email client. It will stem the flow, the wave of email that fills our boxes every day.  I don’t think you can do this one with first doing number two. So, keep that in mind.

You will need to listen to the #DaveCast to lean what 5-word email that cost U.S. taxpayers $10 million dollars. Yes, one 5- word email cost $10 million dollars in bandwidth, time and computer downtime.

We, also, took on the idea of “Medium Change”. Where you will email someone and they will text you back or call you.  I am seeing this more and more in the age of Facebook. I am not a fan of Facebook email!

Personal Productivity:

I wish I was more productive. I suffer from junk overload. I have a messy desk, a messy office and I need to learn to toss things away or recycle them. Robby, again, shared with me some tip to make us all more productive.

1. Chunking – do less and do it longer

When I write my blogs, I will hand write my blogs out by hand to avoid the electronic pull of the computer. When I start writing, I will generally write more than one post and the post will be longer than if I had gone in and typed them to begin with.

2. Pen & Paper – a place to write anything, just for you to read

No more relying on your memory to send someone a link or where they tell you to go eat and you will not offend anyone when you grab your phone to add some notes about your conversation.

3. Plenty of room in the future –

We are all busy today, tomorrow or next week, but we are not busy 3 or 4 months down the road. When whatever project you set forth in the future, you can either keep it, ignore it and push it out once again.

Failure: the Key to Success:

We should not fear failure. You should not go out tempt failure, but so much can be learned by failing. Do not pretend that it never happened, do not hide it. Think of all of the famous people that failed, and their failures are what made them to the extraordinary things that made us come to know them.

Fail This

Abraham Lincoln –

• lost almost every election he was in
• filed bankruptcy
• became the 16^th president and known as one of the greatest American Presidents

Michael Jordan –

• was cut from his high school basketball team as a sophomore
• missed more game winning shots than he made
• won 6 NBA championships & is part-owner of an NBA team

I still find it very funny and incredibly sad that we seemingly have a generation of kids that never knew loss. They all got participation medals or trophies. We simply ignored the reality of failure.

Personally, I have learned more in failure than I ever did in success.

Do not be afraid to fail, take that step out on the ledge, if you fail in business. In America, we all love an underdog.

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Burning Boats,

Dave

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