Brad Marley

It's baaaaaaaaaack.

For those of you not aware of its existence, "The Weekly Grab Bag" — formerly called "The Weekly Grab Bag of Links," "The Week in Links" and "The Leek in Winks" — is a repository for the interesting stuff I read during the week.

While the topics will vary, you'll notice most of the content revolves around all forms of media (digital, print, social), productivity, public relations, technology and writing.  (But I'm not afraid to throw in something from The Onion to keep you guys honest.)

I'm not exactly sure what the reception was like in its previous incarnations, but I want to share with you what I'm reading, and this is the place to do it.

Enjoy!

• What is a 21st Century Career? (WorkAwesome) - I agree with everything here, but it alludes to the idea that we must now work outside of work. Scary.

• The Best Writing Advice. Ever. (ProBlogger) – Tips #4 and #5 are my favorite. As Guy Fieri might say: "These are money."

• High Tech, High Risk, and High Life In Silicon Valley (Modern Mechanix) – This article is from the October, 1982 issue of National Geographic. The author prophetically refers to the work done in Silicon Valley as "the oil business of the eighties."

• Rules for Writing Fiction – Part 1 & 2 (The Guardian) – I don't write fiction. But if I did, I imagine these rules would inspire me to keep going.

• Improved Productivity: A 12-Step Program (Web Worker Daily) – I've been on a productivity tips kick lately, so this post is right up my alley. It should be up yours, too.

• How to Kill Innovation: Keep Asking Questions (Harvard Business Review) - Many a good idea has gotten bogged down in the details, never to emerge from the primordial goo, so to speak. The culprit? Questions.

That's all I've got. I hope you enjoy these links.

As always, you can find most all of my links on my Delicious page.

If you're like me, your stress level is in direct proportion to the number of e-mail that floods your inbox.

The higher that number gets, the more my heart palpitates and hands sweat, and the more I start to feel like I am being crushed beneath a pile of digital correspondence.  

So when my client told me on a call last week that he received 2,000 in the span of one weekend to an already jam-packed inbox (he has 52,000), I nearly had a heart attack.

(Now, before I proceed, I want the reader to know that there are a number of avenues I could go down with this information, not the least of which would be an indictment on the way we, as an industry, operate, turning number of e-mail into some sort of PR badge of honor. But you know what? I'm not going to go there.)

Think about that: if even five percent of those e-mail were action worthy, and assuming he isn't working on the weekend, he comes into the office on Monday already a day behind because he has to catch up. Soon, he's spending his weekends also getting caught up, which leads to a seven day work week, which leads to a build up of stress levels, which then leads to early death.

Obviously, the moral of this story is that e-mail can kill you.

That leads to this question, which you are already asking yourself: how can we change this practice?

Short answer: we can't. At least not industry-wide.

The problem is that e-mail is too easy. Anybody and everybody can easily fire out 300 e-mail in a day, if they so choose, with no regard for the receiver's well-being. And, the higher the number, the more work they think they've done.  But, really, they are just adding to the clutter.

Unfortunately, there are no rules and regulations in place to hinder somebody's e-mail usage, short of charging for virtual postage, which will never happen. We are slowly being programmed to become e-mail sending machines intent on burying one another beneath this pile of eRubbish that, after time, becomes impossible to dig out from under; our correspondence becomes matters of quantity, not quality.

But we can, however, change our personal habits, which just might lead to somebody else changing their habits, which leads to another person, and so on. We're not changing the world, but we might help somebody get home in time to build a snowman with their kid, and that's got to count for something. Okay, now I'm rambling. Let's move on.

In the spirit of better productivity, I want to share six tips loosely based on the "Take Back Your Life!" strategythat I implement regularly to create a healthy inbox.

Step One: Commit

If you're going to clean out your inbox — and I mean give it an honest-to-goodness cleaning — you have to commit the time. Probably on a weekend. I KNOW. That flies in the face of every productivity rule in the book, but trust me when I say this is a necessary evil. 

If you have 1,000 e-mail to go through, I'd block off 1-2 hours. 2,000 e-mail? 2-3. You get the picture. If you have more than 10,000? Cancel your plans.

Step Two: Plan

Once you have committed yourself to this Herculean task, you need to come up with a system for filing your e-mail. Personally, I create folders for each of my main clients, then create subfolders named after projects. Above all else, these folders must be established before you dive in.

Step Three: Delete

Now comes the fun part: deleting the obvious junk. The quickest way to remove useless e-mail is to group by sender. You will be amazed at how many newsletters you subscribe to, but never read. I'm not kidding when I say you wouldn't miss 90 percent of your e-mail if it disappeared overnight. Grouping is a quick way to identify what needs to go. Believe me, you'll know.

Step Four: Critique

The one point I want to stress during this step is do not be afraid. Really give the e-mail a critical eye. Chances are high that if it's older than two weeks and you haven't referred to it in a span of two weeks, you can delete it. Go ahead. Click the 'delete' button. There. Don't you feel better? Under no circumstances do I want you to keep it because you "might need it someday." That is why inboxes are overflowing and IT departments are pulling out their hair. Of course, if it's a fit for one of those folders you created, move it! At least it's out of your inbox. If there is an implied action, leave it. We'll cover those in step five.

Step Five: Act

Now that the e-mail that must be deleted is gone (you're amazed at just how much junk you had in your inbox, aren't you?) you're left with the mail that contains an action, whether that be a response to your client, or an article that needs writing. What you do with these is up to you, but I like to keep a list of what I need to do, and I try not to get ahead of myself by peeking to see what e-mail has come through while I'm acting on another. That's a surefire way to get behind. (Try to ignore those red exclamation marks.  At this point, they're starting to resemble the boy who cried "Wolf!".) Again. I try not to do anything else until that mini-project is done, and that includes checking my e-mail.

Step Six: Repeat

The kicker, here, is that this isn't a one-time deal. In order to keep your inbox spotless, you have to set aside time on a regular basis — daily, weekly, monthly — to go through the incoming e-mail and either act on it, file it, or delete it. I try to do it daily, but that rarely works. I admit that I need to get better about my e-mail hygiene. Find a schedule that works well for you, and stick to it.

***

I am a firm believer that e-mail should function less as a way to correspond at lightning speed, and more as a way to deliver value to the people on the other end.  They are much happier when you send them a completed project than they are with a myriad of questions. When we fall into rapid-fire e-mail habits, everybody loses.

Therefore, imagine every e-mail you write is a handwritten letter. The care in which you draft the copy should spur others into a desired action without them feeling the need to follow up with more questions. That's a prescription for more e-mail.

Finally, pretend that every e-mail in your inbox is an actual letter cluttering your desk.

What kind of state of mind would you be in if you came to work every day to find your workspace overflowing with letters?

You're probably so used to a hectic inbox that you have no idea what it feels like to have an organized central point of command that allows you to actually get work done.

I suggest you try it.

There may not be a book premise more ridiculous than one involving super smart vines with the ability to perfectly mimic a chirping cell phone, for instance, in order to lure unsuspecting adventure hunters to their gory deaths. But try reading this book two weeks after a newborn arrives on little to no sleep, and then tell me how ridiculous it sounds.

Terrifyingly ridiculous, that's how.

Scott Smith's The Ruins tells the story of a group of young adults on vacation in Mexico who follow a German man they've recently become acquainted with into the jungle to help find his brother who was supposed to meet a woman on an architectural dig, but failed to return.

Armed with only limited food, some hard liquor, and their wits, they soon find themselves terribly unprepared to face the most terrifying literary situation I've ever read (and I've read Gerald's Game.) And, as any group of well-fed, privileged human beings would do when faced with scorching heat and maniacal foliage, this one deteriorates quickly, but not in a way you would readily imagine, or else you would be writing horror novels.

I won't go into great detail in case you want to scare yourself silly, but a large chunk of the survival situation involves one character's hands-on quest to find the sickness that has invaded his body.

If I have not yet completely scared you away from reading this book, here are a couple things that will enhance your experience:

1. Only read in the daytime.

2. Make sure you have had ample sleep (i.e. wait until your kids have gotten past the newborn stage.)

3. Remember it's just a book.

But I suppose if you're into reading horror novels, the horror is the best part, and this book certainly delivers. 

In honor of the newly-minted "Help a PR Pro Out" Day, today's guest on the "Five and One" is Christa Shalhoub, a talented PR professional from the suburbs of Detroit, and creator of "Christa Shalhoub's Recession Tips."  

We go way back to our days answering phones in Ford Motor Company's Media Information Center. She's a relentless pursuer of the story, with the fiery attitude that is often needed in this crazy business of ours. And I mean that in a good way.

You can find her on Twitter at @ChristaS.

Let's get to it.

Brad: You were, unfortunately, a victim of the recession. What was that like?

Christa: Everyone is really a victim of the current recession. Even before I was laid off last year, my spending habits definitely changed, and instead of buying something, I would think to myself, "don't get it – we're in a recession." At first it was a joke and something I said all the time, but then I lost my job due to layoffs and really began to think of the current economy and how to control my spending. I am extremely fortunate. I have amazing parents, siblings and extended family that I can lean on when things get tough. Since no one was waiting on my paycheck to buy groceries, I took the time off to sleep, catch up on reality TV and spend time with my niece and nephew.

Brad: But "Christa Shalhoub's Recession Tips" was kind of born out of your unexpected free time, right? You know, when you weren't watching "Keeping Up With the Kardashians"?

Christa: Not just from my free time, but really from always thinking about how I could really stop spending like I used to, before money was tight.

Brad: How did you come up with the idea?

Christa: I realized that avoiding spending wasn't that hard and I needed to make people around me aware of my need to change. This way, when I was taking all the leftovers from my parent's house, letting my big brother pick up the bill for dinner and unplugging all the appliances in my apartment, it made sense to everyone. Also, some of my tactics were a little weird and since I am clearly hilarious [Editor's note: Clearly.], it just made sense to share my crazy with everyone. These tips allowed people into the life of someone who wasn't working, staying up late and trying to just get by. People could relate to everything I was saying and, luckily, I was able to communicate it all through humor. Of course, not all of them are as funny as I want them to be, but I am not perfect.

Brad: What has been the reception?

Christa: The reception has been great! I know this because originally I was providing the tips on my own personal page and then one day I wrote a normal status update and people got annoyed that it wasn't a recession tip. That is what really made me realize people liked them and that my genius and humor needed their own domain. I also judge how funny each tip is based on the "likes" and comments. If nobody interacted with a post, I know it wasn't that funny.

Brad: You recently surpassed the 500 fans mark. Any plans to take it out of Facebook, so to speak?

Christa: Ideally, I would love to write a book which would include new tips that haven't been showcased on Facebook yet. Until then, I am happy growing my fan base on Facebook and challenging myself with new and creative ways to avoid finding my pocket book.  

Brad: Finally, I ask everyone a random question that has nothing to do with the communications field. Here's yours: If there's one movie out there that describes your life, what is it? And, why?

Christa: The original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." We all feel a little like Charlie Bucket sometimes. We are always a day late and a step behind, until we get the Golden Ticket and our dreams come true. Then we spend the day with a bunch of annoying kids, drink the fizzy lifting juice and get screwed out of the chocolate. I am just waiting for a crazy man to give me his factory.

Brad: Bonus question! Ideally, what type of work are you looking for?

Christa: In a perfect world, I would love to continue my career in PR and marketing, while staying in the Detroit area. My PR skills are pretty awesome and I have provided media relations support for major corporations like Microsoft. I would love to work for a company that is passionate about communications and is looking toward different digital and social platforms to share their message.

###

One year ago today I started writing this blog without a firm idea of where it was headed. 

And you know what?

I still don't.

The only thing I can say, with certainty, is that I'm not famous.

But I can say some other things with certainty. 

This blog: