Wrap-up: Seven and a half essential tips for optimizing collaborative work

According to Paul Graham’s classic essay from 2009, focused (“maker”) work is one of two major categories of modern work. 

The other category is collaborative (“manager”) work. Today, that most notably includes email, group chat and meetings.

These activities have become much more widespread than we might assume. The time we spend on collaborative work has risen more than 50% over the last decade. In 2021, it consumed more than 85% of our workday. 

Yet, research shows that we can reclaim 18 to 24% of that time – or one day (!) each week – by optimizing collaborative work. Below are my seven and a half tips to help you do just that.

Like in my earlier wrap-up posts on mental energy and mental focus, these tips are limited to the essential. Thus, I've provided links to my respective posts for those who want to delve deeper into the specifics.

1) Limit disruptions from email
The average knowledge worker sends and receives 126 emails per day, which amounts to one every four minutes. To reduce context switches and the costs to your mental energy, have your email program turned off by default. Set aside specific times during the day for checking and processing email (e.g. at 10 am and 3pm), and do so in batches.

2) Cultivate healthy norms around email usage
Your inbox is a to-do list put together for you by others, so don’t use it for managing your day. Instead of making your inbox your to-do list, move to-do’s from emails into an external list. Also, only touch each email twice, and maintain a “waiting for” list after sending important emails so that your mind can fully let go of the issue.

3) Write better (and fewer) emails by structuring them like pyramids
Structure your emails hierarchically: Core message first, supporting arguments after that. Use the subject line to convey essential information. Start your mail with the core message, which builds the top of your logical pyramid. Support that core message with convincing arguments, and leave out everything that’s non-essential.

4) Avoid turning group chat into all-day meetings with random participants and no agendaAs with email, be deliberate about when you use group chat (e.g. Slack or Microsoft Teams). Have it turned off by default, and only turn it on by schedule. Also, batch it – ideally, together with email – into bouts of asynchronous collaboration.

5) Have meetings for the right task at hand
Meetings are for consensus building. Instead of throwing them at challenging problems, first come up with a potential solution yourself. Only then have a meeting to present that solution to your colleagues, and build consensus to put you on the right path forward. 

6) Set meetings up with the appropriate degree of organization and processWhen setting up meetings, limit ambiguity by including an agenda with the objective and the issues you want to discuss. Reduce time by cutting down on the number of participants and duration as much as possible. Finally, avoid “bookending the week” by not scheduling meetings late on Fridays or early on Mondays. Also, include buffers between meetings of at least 5 minutes.

7) Avoid multitasking during meetings
Commit to single-tasking during meetings, and inspire (or require) others to do the same. Before the meeting, put your most potent “weapon of mass distraction” ( your smartphone) out of reach. Shut down your email and group chat client. And during video conferences, turn the camera on – this reliably prevents multitasking due to our desire not to appear rude.

Finally, don’t forget one of the best ways to collaborate within a busy organization: Use one-on-ones – most notably calls – for things that are complicated, emotional or urgent.

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Until next week,
Christian