Of course, I still have to maintain the security infrastructure. Before I went on leave, I worked a lot of hours trying to get ahead on my project schedule. It’s amazing what you can do when you lock yourself up in a lab, ignore e-mail and mute the cell phone. (emphasis mine)

In fact, by the time I left, I had managed to get two months ahead of schedule. With no time for chit-chat, I condensed my responses to questions and requests, even from my boss. I checked voice mail and e-mail when I woke up each morning, in the middle of the day and when I got home. If a message wasn’t urgent, I ignored it or passed it along to someone on my staff.

Wow! Two months ahead of schedule. That’s an amazing result with three basic steps.

1. Lock yourself up (Teleworking?)
2. Ignore email (Only check at scheduled times?)
3. Mute the cell phone (Uninterrupted time for work?)

What can you do to improve your focus and accomplish more?

Last fall, I received a letter in which I was in the CC: list. Skimming the letter and then filing it, I assumed that I didn’t have any action to take. I was CC’d! I came to find out almost six months later that the sender did need me to do something!

It is important that if you require action of some kind that you include the person in the TO: field. It is equally important that you specify what you want them to do and when.

It is also ineffective to ask for something to be done and then send this to several people. Who is supposed to do it?

For more information read To, Cc and Bcc.