How to Remind Others Without Remembering to Do It
One of my bosses has a habit of telling me to remind him about something in a few days. Rather than ranting about why I have to be his psychic RAM or worrying about it, I've developed a way that let's me follow-up with him without having to remember to do it. It works like a champ.
Draft an email containing the information you need to remind someone about. Unless they specifically ask for a phone call, correspond via email.
Save the aforementioned email as a draft. Do not send it.
Run to Backpack. Create a reminder to "Send draft email to [person]."
Forget that you were supposed to remind that person of whatever you were supposed to.
When you get the reminder from Backpack, hit send on the email.
The end result? You look like you're on top of things without having to actively be on top of things.
Why this works:
You write the email while it's fresh, so it contains the information it needs to. Since it's done, you can stop thinking about it.
The reminder, if you use it correctly, gets rid of the psychic tag of remembering to do it. You can completely space it and still get it done.
The keyword here is: Focus. Since you're not mentally juggling something, you can devote more of yourself to other things that do require your attention.
More focus, all things considered, makes you more productive.
Don't have Backpack? Check out my review of Backpack if you want more information, or just jump here and try it for free if you've heard enough.
It's been a nice, productive week at my new job. I'm working on a lot of projects that I'm looking forward to talking about, but I've got drill this weekend and am going on a trip at the end of next week. I'll not make any promises...but I did want to give a quick tip that I've been using a lot here recently. I'm sure there may be other techniques, but this one's FREE! and really easy.
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